A meeting was held between the university administration, deans, and department heads and Maryna Pekerman, a member of the Supervisory Board of the Volodymyr Dahl East Ukrainian National University and co-owner of Transpele LLC, where the participants discussed the challenges faced by Ukrainian higher education institutions due to the forced emigration of scientists and students.
Rector Olha Porkuian gave more details about the issues discussed at the recent strategic session of heads of higher education institutions. One of the strategic directions in the field of education should be to address the issue of raising the level of training of future applicants. The reasons for this state of affairs were discussed: the level of training of future teachers-students of non-prestigious specialties, which are entered by applicants with a low level of training. The Academy of Pedagogical Sciences is responsible for solving this problem.
As for the prospects for higher education, Olha Porkuian believes it was useful to listen to representatives of the Ministry of Education and Science responsible for various areas of the ministry’s work. For example, funding for universities has decreased by more than 20% for obvious reasons, meaning that the state’s resources are limited, but it is possible to apply to international funds and seek orders from Ukrainian entrepreneurs. The national funds for science funding continue to work this year, so all departments need to gain this experience in applying. There are still a lot of tools, platforms, and free courses in the field of international activity that used to be paid for, the application process for Erasmus+ grants has not yet ended, and only 45% of students and teachers use this window of opportunity.
Optimizing the network of universities remains a pressing issue. According to Vasyl Kremen, President of the National Academy of Pedagogical Sciences of Ukraine, after the consolidation, French universities improved their positions in the rankings by 10 points, as it is known that these processes solve many problems of institutions.
Taking into account these challenges, Olha Porkuian noted that the university staff needs to show better results in all areas of activity, and the members of the Supervisory Board are of great help in this. Maryna Pekerman also offered her assistance.
Maryna Pekerman, confirming the information provided by Olha Porkuian, reminded that the university will face a foreign field and offered to share useful information with the heads of departments that will help the institution become a profitable organization. One of the steps is to create a unique technology park on the basis of the university by using the experience and scientific potential.
Maryna Pekerman suggested that the heads of the departments consider several areas of research, which will help the university become the main platform for creating new methodologies for processes relevant to the state.
University scientists took an active part in discussing possible research areas.
To achieve these ambitious goals, the staff needs to develop an appropriate marketing strategy. And all of this, Ms. Maryna noted, needs to be done urgently, given the growing demands on universities and the growing competition between institutions not only in Ukraine but also in the world.