Personality, university, society: interaction in conditions of change. With the EU support Final conference of the REDU Project was held

On April 12, 2024 the partners of EU Project “Reinventing displaced universities: enhancing competitiveness, serving communities” (REDU) held its final conference to present and discuss the key outcomes achieved.

The conference gathered about 100 representatives including the EU Delegation to Ukraine, British Council in Ukraine, Ministry of Education and Science of Ukraine, National Erasmus+ Office in Ukraine, Institute of Higher Education of the National Academy of Educational Sciences of Ukraine, Mariupol State University, Volodymyr Dahl East Ukrainian National University, and other displaced universities.

Vira Rybak, Education and Science Sector Manager of the EU Delegation to Ukraine, stated that education is a priority area for the EU support. “I believe that the capacities built as a result of the action, will help the displaced partner Universities to address challenges of the ongoing reforms in higher education and reinforce participation in the EU-funded Erasmus+ and Horizon Europe Programmes”, she said.

Svitlana Kalashnikova, Coordinator of the REDU Project, outlined the key steps taken during the project implementation, highlighting the challenges faced by the consortium and the factors contributing to the project’s success and progress. “Changes, partnership, interaction, and impact are the pillars of our project; they have driven us forward over these four years and made our achievements possible,” she emphasized.

Mykola Trofymenko, Rector of Mariupol State University, and Olga Porkuian, Rector of Volodymyr Dahl East Ukrainian National University, presented the key facts that proved the Project impact on the Universities’ development. “This Project helped us to survive, helped to stabilize in those uncertain conditions, when it was very difficult and when we were trying to get up. The Project will help us determine where we are going and who we are, what we are building, for whom we are building,” Mr. Trofymenko emphasized.

Lyudmila Tatsenko, Head of Education of the British Council of Ukraine, focused the main attention on the role and contribution of British experts in the Project: “We responded flexibly to changes in the Project, took into account the needs of our partners. Involvement of a wide range of specialists and the use of various communication formats made it possible to fulfill the defined tasks and achieve the Project objectives.”

Participants of the conference had a possibility to discuss the key achievements, learned lessons, value experience and tasks for further development during the working sessions that were organized for the following topics: 1 – Digital University; 2 – Teaching Excellence; 3 – English language capacity development of academic staff; 4 – Student government; 5 – Strategizing and development of the university; 6 – University and community; 7 – Financial management of international projects and development of the university. The results of the working groups’ discussion were presented by the moderators on the final plenary session. All groups underlined the systematic and practical impact of the Project on improving the quality of the educational process and international activities, improving governance efficiency, building communication channels, cohesion and developing the leadership potential of University teams.

Oleg Sharov, General Director of the Higher Education Directorate of the Ministry of Education and Science of Ukraine summarized the Project achievements in the light of the state policy and evaluated the Project impact on development of other universities and the system as a whole.

Background information:

REDU Project (2020 – 2024)

Overall objective: to raise attractiveness and competitiveness of displaced universities by enhancing their institutional capability, good governance, teaching and learning excellence and internationalization.

Specific objectives:

• To enhance DUs’ infrastructure for delivery of quality education and dynamic community engagement.
• To build capacity of DUs enabling their leadership, staff and students to better respond to challenges faced by DUs, local communities, Donetsk and Luhansk regions.
• To boost social responsibility of DUs by involving academic community into solving social, economic, environmental, cultural or other issues.

The consortium of the partners:

the lead applicant – Institute of Higher Education of the National Academy of Educational Sciences of Ukraine;

and the co-applicants:

Mariupol State University (that incorporates Donetsk State University of Management);

Volodymyr Dahl East Ukrainian National University (that incorporates Luhansk National Agrarian University);

the British Council in Ukraine.

For more information, please contact Svitlana Kalashnikova s.kalashnikova@ihed.org.ua or + 38 050 330 37 54.