A panel discussion “Education reform: the Bologna process and autonomy of higher educational institutions” took place in Kyiv
A panel discussion “Education reform: the Bologna process and autonomy of higher educational institutions” took place in Kyiv. The event was organized by the European Program and the East East: Partnership Beyond Borders Program of the International Renaissance Foundation jointly with Arseniy Yatseniuk Foundation “Open Ukraine” within the framework of the joint project “Sharing Transformation Experience”.
Representatives of public authorities, expert and academic communities, higher educational institutions and student organizations, nationwide and regional mass media participated in the event.
Yevhen Bystrytsky, Executive Director of the International Renaissance Foundation, noted that absence of a dialog between the public and the Ministry of Education, Science, Youth and Sports of Ukraine is of concern for the Foundation. He emphasized that the organization is ready to support programs in such directions as “Law and education”, “Tolerance in education”, “Development of autonomy of higher educational institutions” and “Inclusive education”.
Serhiy Kvit, President of the National University of Kyiv-Mohyla Academy, pointed out that the last two Ministers of Education have focused on enhancing centralization of education. According to him, at the same time one cannot implement reforms, setting one’s hopes only on the Minister. In his view, reforms are possible when the President of the country, its parliament and the relevant Ministry demonstrate commonality of approaches.
According to Taras Finikov, President of the International Charitable Foundation for Education Policy Research, several elements are necessary for transformation of higher education: provision of the citizens’ rights to education, equal access to free education, modernization of the education system, improvement of the quality of education and provision of effective management in the field.
Pavlo Viknyansky, Head of All-Ukrainian Youth NGO “Student Republic”, thinks that the education system lacks several things:
– The authorities do not have a common vision of the future of the education system;
– There is no clear system of financing;
– Support to innovations, contest programs and studies are not provided;
– There are no mechanisms for development of student self-government.
Ghia Nodia, Director of the International School for Caucasus Studies at the Ilia State University and former Minister of Education and Science of Georgia, shared the experience of implementation of education reforms in his country. He pointed out that Georgia had many problems in its education field before reforms were undertaken. Among the problems there were corruption, decrease in education standards, low salaries of the faculty and isolation from the international system. According to him, priorities were set and university education was the area that became the main focus of changes. The government of Georgia took the following steps: the system for accreditation of universities was created to specify capabilities of a particular educational institution (this change decreased the number of higher educational institutions from 220 to less than 50); a new system of financing was introduced (students pay a fixed fee for tuition and the most successful among them can receive a grant).
Also, according to the expert, corruption was eradicated in national entry examinations and a system for granting different education degrees in compliance with international standards was introduced. “Salaries of professors and other specialists increased by several times”, said Mr. Nodia. According to him, in general leading higher educational institutions became more open to innovations and many young talented people, who had gone to work in NGOs before, decided to work in Georgia’s colleges and universities and actually some of those education professionals, who already worked abroad, returned to their homeland. Also, higher educational institutions started to compete between each other for the best students.
Nadir Ibadov, Pro-rector on Scholar and Technical Issues of Ganja State University (Azerbaijan), focused on the problems that his country encountered in the area of education reforms. “There is no mechanism for attestation and accreditation of higher education. Conditions are not created for state universities to pass international accreditation”, he noted. According to the expert, the pressing problems also include absence of clear methodology for assessment of the quality of education.
Giedre Purvanekiene, Professor of Vilnius University (Lithuania), told the audience about the problems that her country still has in the education area. According to her, the main problem is that a great number of people with higher education leave Lithuania. At the same time she advised to raise key questions yet before conducting education reforms: “How many students do we need? How do we plan the reforms? What professions does the state need?”
Lilia Hrynevych, the moderator of the event, pointed out that currently universities in Ukraine are viewed as factories for production of diplomas. She urged to raise an issue regarding what mission and role the universities play in the Ukrainian society.
The reports of the foreign experts are here.
Contact information:
European Programme, Iryna Solonenko, (044) 461 95 00, solonenko@irf.kiev.ua
“Open Ukraine”, Ruslan Kyrylenko, (044) 235 52 98, rk@openukraine.org
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The goal of the European Programme is to promote Ukraine’s European integration by providing financial and expert support to relevant civil society initiatives.
The East East: Partnership Beyond Borders Program supports exchange of information, experience, expertise and knowledge, through multi-national initiatives and networks of informed, empowered people, in the realization of practices of open society in Central and Eastern Europe and Central Asia.
