International cooperation and experience exchange are the key components of the modern education and science development. The successful participation of representatives of National University “Yuri Kondratyuk Poltava Polytechnic” in Erasmus+ academic mobility programmes is a clear confirmation of that.
From 28 April to 02 May 2025, within the framework of the Erasmus+ KA 171 academic mobility programme, Candidate of Architecture, Associate Professor of the Department of Architecture of Building and Design of the Educational and Research Institute of Architecture, Civil Engineering and Land Management Liudmyla Shevchenko successfully completed an internship at Estonian University of Life Sciences (Tartu, Estonia). There she had the opportunity not only to get acquainted with the best European practices, but also to present the achievements of Poltava Architecture School.
The internship programme participant shares her impressions of the trip to Tartu:
“The cool Baltic weather was fully compensated by the warm welcome of Estonian colleagues and fruitful cooperation during the internship. I constantly felt the help and support of Anastassia Safonova (Office of Academic Affairs), the Erasmus+ programme coordinator mana Taheri Talesh and Dr Simon Bell (Chair Professor of Landscape architecture) remotely.
On the very first day, we met with the colleagues of the Department of Landscape Architecture – mana Taheri Talesh (Junior researcher, Programme Coordinator and Erasmus Coordinator), Joanna Tamar Storie (PhD, Senior Lecturer, Research Coordinator), Friedrich Kuhlmann (Dipl.-Ing. Ing., Chief Specialist), Peeter Vassiljev (MSc, Lecturer), Jekaterina Balisca (MSc, Chief Specialist) and Ghieth Alkhateeb (MSc, Junior Researcher Fellow). I was pleasantly surprised by the international team of scientists from Estonia, Germany, Syria, Armenia and even Ukraine who work at the department! So my colleagues communicate in English not only within the educational process with students, but also with each other,” – says Liudmyla Shevchenko.
The scientist was invited to an online lecture on “Rural Community Resilience” delivered by Alistair Adam-Hernández, Partner and Consultant at ÖAR GmbH (Germany), a specialist in regional transformation towards sustainable development. The lecture format included not only the lecturer’s presentation of the material, but also constant contact with the audience – first-year students of the second (master’s) level of higher education as well as teachers in the form of a QR code poll. This allows the lecturer to monitor the audience’s information awareness on a number of issues covered, determine their opinion and important key issues that need to be addressed during the lecture. At the end of the lecture, there was a discussion with the audience and an exchange of experience from different countries on the topic of the lecture. The students present were an English-speaking group from China, Iran, France, Germany, the USA and Croatia. Thus, together with teachers from Estonia, Syria and Ukraine, an important exchange of international experience in sustainable community development, their capabilities and immediate prospects took place.
During her internship, Liudmyla Shevchenko conducted lectures to a foreign group of students on the peculiarities of the landscape and spatial organisation of Ukrainian cities, and in particular, she focused on Poltava. The students found the experience of Ukrainian cities interesting. Of particular interest were the coastal strips of the Vorskla River and related issues such as flooding, bank protection, etc. They were also interested in the Soviet legacy in our cities. The teachers were especially interested in the prospects for the development of Poltava, in particular, the introduction of the international model of urban greening “3-30-300” (by Dutch specialist Cecil Konijnendijk) to improve the environmental situation and the citizens’ lives in general.
Another meeting with colleagues was focused on professional issues – the process of teaching architecture students. The associate professor familiarised her colleagues from the Estonian University of Life Sciences with the educational and professional programmes for training future architects in the speciality G17 Architecture and Town Planning at the bachelor’s and master’s levels of higher education with special attention given to the projects that students complete during their studies. For her Estonian colleagues, who are training future landscape specialists, Liudmyla Shevchenko demonstrated with comments about 15 bachelor’s and 16 master’s degree qualification papers of her graduate students, dedicated to solving various landscape issues, and a number of term projects in the “Landscape Design” discipline. The Estonian colleagues were openly surprised by the scale of the design solutions and the level of detail. They wondered if these were really the works of 18-19-20-year-old bachelors. Or is it a team qualification work of master’s students? Do students have support and assistance in completing such qualification works? How long do graduate students work on their qualification works? In her answers, the scientist noted the peculiarities of the Poltava Architecture School, including the comprehensive development of future architects, complexity in solving problems, and mastery of computer architectural programs. At the request of our Estonian colleagues, those presentations were left for viewing by those colleagues who could not attend the lectures.
It was nice to note the common methods of educational and scientific work of the masters of the two schools:
- active use of sketches, hand graphics, sketching at the pre-project stage of work (using full-scale sketches, tracing paper, real skeleton drawings);
- the use of working and final mock-ups in the design process;
- active involvement of students in solving real problems in cities;
- use of various forms of presentation by the teacher – sketches and textual information on the board, visual material using the screen.
A tour of the university campus and the city of Tartu was a nice bonus from the Estonian colleagues.
“As an architect by profession, I was interested in everything – from the landscape and spatial solution of the university campus itself and the interior design of the university buildings, as well as the functional and planning structure of the city and its “highlights”. The university occupies a picturesque area with green hills, courtyards, water sources, among which there are academic buildings with a library, dormitories, and a modern sports building. According to the author of the project, the administrative building of the university should resemble a white ship into the world of knowledge, research, and creative travel. And the author has succeeded – see for yourself, there is even a ladder over the pond to get on deck!” – comments Liudmyla Shevchenko.
The main academic building is a multi-storey building with the Department of Landscape Architecture on the 4th floor. The traditional corridor system has a comfortable open area, which is actively used by both teachers and students for relaxation, discussions, consultations, etc. A distinctive feature of the classrooms is the glass part of the wall with shelves on which students’ landscape solutions are presented and large comfortable tables for drawing and modelling. Rooms for academic staff are designed for one or 2 colleagues. There are rooms for colleagues from other cities/countries. Such a room was offered to Liudmyla Shevchenko.
The bright corridor exhibits student projects, sketches, samples of qualification works, interesting boards for monitoring student impressions of certain parts of the city, as well as up-to-date information about upcoming events, academic staff, their publications, etc.
“The city of Tartu is an equally interesting and informative part of academic mobility, embodying Estonian traditions and modernity, culture and sports, picturesque landscape corners and modern urban planning spatial solutions. It is a traditional intellectual centre of Estonia, a city of youth and students. In Tartu, modern buildings of the city centre coexist perfectly with authentic residential houses, in most cases wooden. Supilinn, one of the city’s first residential districts, features a number of such 1-2-storey houses, neat and well-maintained. The neighbourhood is also distinguished by the fact that they are all lined up along “edible” streets – Meloni (Melon), Seleri (Celery), Herne (Peas), Kapsa (Cabbage), Oa (Beans), Marja (Berry), Kartuli (Potatoes), Korvitsa (Pumpkin).
The spatial structure of the city also has its own “highlights”. It seems that the urbanised areas have taken up free space in the natural environment – among the landscape areas, the Emajogi River, a number of ponds and hills. All of this is harmoniously complemented by active forms of relief, stairs, retaining stone walls, grottoes, bridges, viewpoints, winding paths that suddenly appear in different places.
It seems that a number of architectural “old-timers” here have their own unwritten urban planning laws. Among the buildings that line the streets, there are some that, contrary to the rules, have remained in their original positions and thus create unexpected visual effects.
Ambitious project solutions have also been implemented, such as the renovation of a former Soviet military airbase. This impressive area is now home to the Eesti Rahva Muuseum (Estonian National Museum, designed by Dorell Ghotmeh Tane, Paris, France), an impressive elongated building that continues into the landscape, over a pond, symbolising a runway to the future. The museum tells the story of the history and culture of not only the Estonian people, but also the Baltic Finno-Ugric group,” – says the mobility programme participant.
According to Liudmyla Shevchenko, she was impressed not only by the idea of the museum’s imaginative solution, its integration into the natural environment, but also by the design of its interiors, expositions, the inclusion of interactive cognitive elements, music and light. The “evidence” presented below is only a partial visual demonstration of this. The atmosphere of museum exhibitions can only be experienced in person.
Other parts of the former military airbase are being built up with modern residential groups of 4-storey buildings with comfortable, cosy courtyards and planted with vegetation, creating landscape oases. An interesting discovery of the Tartu citizens is the establishment of “Community Gardens”, small private gardens on the common territory. They are somewhat similar to former summer cottages, but without buildings. Only small architectural forms such as gazebos, garden furniture, and lanterns are allowed.
Another interesting facility that Liudmyla Shevchenko saw was the Tartu Environmental Education Centre, which encourages citizens to appreciate nature and behave in an environmentally friendly way. It is a centre for environmental education with temporary exhibitions about nature, a winter garden, a room with animals, a park with educational trails, flower beds and a playground. It is no coincidence that it is called the “Transparent nature house”, both for the imaginative design of the centre’s building and for its content and openness to everyone. You can see for yourself:
The territory of the Centre smoothly transitions into a large park with an area of 10,000 m², where more than 80 species of trees and shrubs and more than 200 species of herbaceous plants grow.
The academic mobility of Erasmus+ KA171 at Estonian University of Life Sciences of Associate Professor of Poltava Polytechnic Liudmyla Shevchenko ended with sunny weather, endless impressions of the city, as well as a feeling of belonging to the European educational and cultural space. The short-term experience of working with an international team of professionals in the field of landscape architecture gave the teacher an incentive and inspiration for new solutions in creative architectural and landscape design, methodological and scientific fields, and prospects for further cooperation. The impressions, emotions, and significant visual support received will become a meaningful addition to the educational components taught by Liudmyla Shevchenko – “Landscape Architecture”, “Landscape Design”, and “Artistic Design of Cultural Landscape” for students of both the first (bachelor’s) and second (master’s) degree programmes in “Architecture and Town Planning” as well as “Architectural Environment Design”.
Liudmyla Shevchenko expressed her deep gratitude to her colleagues from the Estonian University of Life Sciences – Anastassia Safonova, Chief International Relations Officer, Mana Taheri Talesh, Erasmus+ coordinator, and all the colleagues of the Department of Landscape Architecture for the opportunity to take advantage of this mobility and for their comprehensive care during it. The teacher invited her colleagues to visit Ukraine and National University “Yuri Kondratyuk Poltava Polytechnic” in peacetime. The Associate Professor expresses her sincere gratitude to the management of Poltava Polytechnic, Rector and First Vice-Rector, for their constant support, thanks to which the academic staff and students of the university have the opportunity to join numerous academic mobility programmes and represent the university at the international level, as well as to the university’s Coordinator of International Cooperation Anna Pavelieva for organising this mobility programme.
“Liudmyla Shevchenko’s internship at the Estonian University of Life Sciences is another confirmation of the international cooperation and mutually beneficial partnership between our higher education institutions. I am confident that our teacher’s active participation in the programme, knowledge exchange and positive feedback on her stay in Tartu not only contributed to her professional development, but also strengthened academic ties between our universities. We are proud to be able to provide such valuable opportunities for the development of our academic community and express our sincere gratitude to the Estonian University of Life Sciences for the fruitful cooperation within the framework of the Erasmus+ KA 171 programme. Special thanks to our colleagues from the Department of Landscape Architecture, Anastassia Safonova, Chief International Relations Officer of the Estonian University of Life Sciences, and Mana Taheri Talesh, Erasmus+ Programme Coordinator, for their invaluable support and comprehensive assistance during the internship of our Associate Professor Liudmyla Shevchenko,” – says Anna Pavelieva.
It should be recalled that last year, Alina Zyhun, Candidate of Technical Sciences, Associate Professor of the Department of Civil and Environmental Engineering, completed an internship under the Erasmus+ academic mobility programme at the Estonian University of Life Sciences, and two students majoring in Architecture and Town Planning, Dmytro Kriuchko and Anna Kvasnevska studied under the Erasmus+ credit academic mobility programme.
It should be noted that Poltava Polytechnic teachers can participate in academic mobility programmes and internships, and students of Poltava Polytechnic have the opportunity to study abroad under the grant programmes of credit academic mobility for a semester or a whole academic year at the leading universities of Austria, Greenland, Denmark, Estonia, Lithuania, Latvia, Norway, the Netherlands, Germany, Poland, Romania, Slovakia, Finland, and the Czech Republic.
For more information on current internship, teaching and academic mobility programmes abroad, please contact the International Relations Department (room 213-C, interoffice@nupp.edu.ua) or the Coordinator of International Cooperation of National University “Yuri Kondratyuk Poltava Polytechnic” – Candidate of Philological Sciences, Associate Professor of the Department of Germanic Philology and Translation Anna Kostiantynivna Pavelieva (email: kunsite.zi@gmail.com, phone: +3-8-(095)-91-08-192).
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