A regular meeting of the Academic Council of the University was held under the chairmanship of the Chairman of the Academic Council, Rector of the University, Professor Olha Porkuian. The agenda included the following issues:
- research work at the university: results for 2022 and tasks for 2023;
- personnel matters;
- miscellaneous.
The first issue was addressed by the Vice-Rector for Research, Professor Oleksii Tselishchev. The speaker reported on the results of the university’s scientific activities, characterized its peculiarities during martial law and outlined the tasks for organizing the university’s scientific activities in view of the current situation in the country.
It is noted that the university has improved its position in all rankings, except for the Webometrics ranking, namely:
- 81st place in the consolidated ranking of Ukrainian universities (in 2021 – 84th, in 2020 – 98th) and 1st place among the higher education institutions of Luhansk region;
- in the TOP-200 Ukraine ranking – 51st place (in 2021 – 74th, in 2020 – 85th) and 1st place among the higher education institutions of Luhansk region;
- in the SCOPUS Scientific and Metric Database (SMDB) – 45th place among the Ukrainian higher education institutions involved in the ranking (in 2021 – 48th, in 2020 – 58th) and 1st place among the higher education institutions of Luhansk region;
- in the Webometrics ranking – 69th place among Ukrainian higher education institutions (in 2021 – 65th, in 2020 – 111th) and 2nd place among higher education institutions of Luhansk region.
According to the results of 2022, the number of publications of scientific articles in the publications included in the Scopus and Web of Science increased; the h-index of university publications in the Scopus Science and Technology citation database increased by 5 units (26); the indicator of students’ inventive activity improved; the number of independent publications of scientific articles by students increased; the number of university scientific publications increased.
At the same time, certain shortcomings in the university’s research activities were noted, namely: low activity of departments in finding additional sources of research funding; reduced funding for research under economic contracts with enterprises; not all faculties of the university participate in competitions for state budget funding of research projects; low activity of departments in applying for participation in competitions for joint international research projects at all faculties; departments did not fulfill the plan for defending doctoral theses.
The discussion of the report was attended by the Rector of the University Olha Porkuian, Head of the Research Department, Associate Professor Hryhorii Boiko. The Dean of the Faculty of Economics and Management, Professor Yevhen Ivchenko, spoke on behalf of the committee preparing the draft decision of the Academic Council.
On the second issue, personnel cases were presented regarding the awarding of the academic title of Professor of the Department of Engineering and Ecology to Iryna Hlikina, Doctor of Technical Sciences, and the academic title of Associate Professor of the Department of Germanic and Romance Philology and Translation to Alona Bovt, Candidate of Pedagogical Sciences. According to the results of the secret ballot, the applicants were unanimously awarded the academic titles.
In “Miscellaneous”, the Chairman of the Academic Council Olha Porkuian provided information on the need for changes in the structure of the university to create a new Faculty of Human Health and to terminate the existence of the Faculty of International Relations. The decision on these changes is to be made by the Conference of the staff.
Vice-Rector for Academic Affairs, Economics and Development, Professor Ruslan Halhash reported on the University’s Anti-Crisis Action Plan for 2023.
Olha Porkuian suggested discussing the need to rebrand the university in terms of changing the name of the institution by dropping the name of Volodymyr Dahl. This question arose at the meeting, so it became necessary to think about how the name should meet modern requirements and realities of today. This issue was proposed for reflection, discussion and further resolution according to the appropriate procedure.
At the stage of discussion, the Academic Council decided to instruct the Department of History and Archeology to contact the Institute of National Memory regarding the personality of Volodymyr Dahl, the relevance of his activities and name to Ukrainian identity.
