“Vernadskyi Spring School-2023”: Polytechnic scientists develop professionally under EU programs in the field of sustainable, inclusive and smart community development

During March 1-15, 2023, the first “Vernadskyi Spring School-2023” “Sustainable, Inclusive and Smart Development within Decentralization Process: the EU experience” started on the basis of Lesya Ukrainka Volyn National University, which is implemented within the framework of the international grant The Jean Monnet Chair project “Sustainable, Inclusive and Smart Development within Decentralization Process: the EU experience” Erasmus + (SISDDP). The school is named after Academician Volodymyr Vernadskyi, whose life and activities are linked to Ukraine, whose scientific heritage remained unknown to the world academic community for many decades. The works of Volodymyr Vernadskyi were more than a century ahead of their time and have not lost their relevance.

226 scientific and pedagogical workers from 66 higher education institutions of Ukraine, who worked remotely via Zoom platform, became active participants in the large-scale scientific event. According to the organizers, despite all the troubles and restrictions caused by the full-scale invasion of the neighbouring aggressor state, the geography of the participants is extremely wide, as academic education should be multiplied by the gains of such cooperation. The above facts clearly demonstrate that large-scale associations of scientific and pedagogical workers of higher education institutions do not know boundaries and conventions, having common goals and a desire to share their own knowledge, learn new things, build a new picture of the world for its improvement.

Scientists of the Educational and Research Institute of Finance, Economics, Management and Law and the Faculty of Philology, Psychology and Pedagogy of the National University “Yuri Kondratyuk Poltava Polytechnic” participated in this project – Candidate of Economic Sciences, Associate Professor of the Department of Management and Logistics Alina Chaikina; Candidate of Economic Sciences, Associate Professor of the Department of Management and Logistics Olena Khrystenko; Candidate of Economic Sciences, Associate Professor of the Department of Public Management, Administration and Law Alla Hliebova; Candidate of Economic Sciences, Associate Professor of the Department of International Economic Relations and Tourism Aliona Buriak; Doctor of Philosophy, Associate Professor of the Department of International Economic Relations and Tourism Iryna Levchenko; Candidate of Economic Sciences, Associate Professor of the Department of Economics, Business and Marketing Inna Miniailenko; Candidate of Technical Sciences, Associate Professor of the Department of Economics, Business and Marketing Kseniia Chychulina; Candidate of Philological Sciences, Associate Professor of the Department of the Ukrainian Studies, Culture and Documentation Liudmyla Cherednyk and Candidate of Philological Sciences, Senior Lecturer of the Department of General Linguistics and Foreign Languages Nataliia Bondar. After successful completion of training and professional development under the unique certified program “Sustainable, Inclusive and Smart Development within Decentralization Process: the EU experience” within the framework of the Jean Monnet Chair SISDDP Erasmus+ project, each of the students of the School received a certificate in the amount of 3 ECTS credits/90 hours.

During two intense weeks, the participants studied modern paradigms of sustainable, inclusive, smart development, considered in detail the history of development, the scientific legacy of Academician V. Vernadskyi, discussed global goals of sustainable development, European integration, the EU strategy in matters of sustainable, inclusive and smart development, European practices of decentralization, decentralization in the context of European reforms, sustainable development and community self-sufficiency. Speakers shared useful cases of strategic management and planning, municipal management, personnel management, projects and changes, prevention of corruption, gender equality, state language, communication and interaction, requests for European integration and achieving the Sustainable Development Goals in the economic field of communities, inclusiveness, spirituality, methods teaching the principles of sustainable, inclusive, smart development in higher education.

During the discussions, the coordinator of the project, professor of the Jean Monnet Department, Nataliia Pavlikha quoted excerpts from the diaries of Academician Volodymyr Vernadskyi: “There is an unreasonable waste of the people’s most precious possession – their talents. Meanwhile, these talents are never continuously renewed. And even if it turns out that the process of their creation in our nation is still underway, some individuals cannot mechanically be replaced by others. We must use at this moment what life has given us now – a great gift of past generations”.

“By participating in various educational and scientific projects, we change our perception of the world. Therefore, our team tried to work with the worldview of the School’s students through design thinking,” – emphasized the speaker.

By mastering new practical and theoretical knowledge, listeners learned how to independently develop a strategy and projects of sustainable, inclusive, smart development at the level of the country, region, community, business, university, analyse indicators and indices of sustainable, inclusive, smart development, identify the level of sustainable, inclusive, smart development of the university, business, community, region, country; carry out strategic management and planning, encourage students and colleagues to implement the Global Sustainable Development Goals, manage changes and personnel on the basis of sustainable, inclusive and smart development, develop the university and the community as well as promote decentralization reform. They also mastered the technologies of project management and municipal management, discussed how to communicate and to improve intra-university as well as government-public interaction on the basis of sustainability and tolerance.

“During my studies at the “Vernadskyi Spring School-2023”, I gained enormous practical experience in the field of sustainable, inclusive, smart development at the level of the community, regions, and country. Deeply satisfied with the quality of the presented material, the fruitful cooperation with colleagues from leading Ukrainian universities, during which the pages of Volodymyr Vernadsky’s scientific papers were discussed, the progressiveness of his views were analysed, which were significantly ahead of the current state of affairs for the outstanding scientist. In the future, I plan to continue my professional development in this area, as I am firmly convinced that any knowledge becomes effective when it is used. And our realities dictate difficult challenges for which we, as scientists, must be fully prepared,” – commented the School participant, Candidate of Philological Sciences, Associate Professor of the Department of the Ukrainian Studies, Culture and Documentation of the Faculty of Philology, Psychology and Pedagogy of the National University “Yuri Kondratyuk Poltava Polytechnic” Liudmyla Cherednyk.

Thus, “Vernadskyi Spring School-2023” is an event of a much wider scale than scientific research and an educational initiative. This is a real association of scientists who not only study the problems of the economy of sustainable development, but really try to live by this paradigm.

It should be recalled that recently the Polytechnic scientists improved their skills in working with grant applications for European Union programs.

Earlier, female documentation students dedicated a creative project to an outstanding Sixtier-poetess, female Polytechnic students are studying under the Erasmus+ long-term academic exchange programme at a Romanian partner university, future professionals got acquainted with the activities of the Main Directorate of the State Tax Service of Ukraine in the Poltava region, Polytechnic students underwent training in providing first aid, which was conducted by court guards and patrol police officers, and the Polytechnic student learned business management skills through the international exchange program at the Pomeranian Academy.

Media Center of
National University “Yuri Kondratyuk Poltava Polytechnic”