National Tempus / Erasmus+
Office in Ukraine

On March 1-2 2010 Kyiv hosted Tempus Regional Seminar on University Governance in Eastern European countries organized by Education, Audiovisual and Culture Executive Agency (EACEA) under the auspices of EU Delegation to Ukraine and National Tempus Office – Ukraine. This event was organized within the framework of the European Union Tempus programme which is funded by the EuropeAid Co-operation Office and the Directorate-General for Enlargement.

The seminar opened with a welcome speech by Klaus Haupt, Head of Tempus Unit, Education, Audiovisual and Culture Executive Agency (EACEA), to be followed by opening remarks by Laura Garagnani, Head of Operations, Delegation of the European Union to Ukraine. The participants were also welcomed by Taras Finikov, Deputy Minister for Education and Science, Ukraine and Vasyl Kremen, President of National Academy of Pedagogical Science of Ukraine.

Taras Finikov underlined the importance of this event and the discourse on higher education reforms in general as a concerted position on reforms may evolve through continuous dialogue and consultations; he also outlined contemporary developments with regard to higher education modernization, namely quality assurance, university governance and funding.

Vasyl Kremen indicated that higher education system is undergoing profound changes and university management paradigm transforms under the pressure of several factors, as a result – the governance structures emerge and develop. The above changes are described in the White Book “National Education of Ukraine”

Klaus Haupt presented goals and objectives of the Tempus Regional Seminar, the structure of parallel workshops sessions and the topics that to be discussed.

The results of the Tempus study “Changing rules – A review of Tempus support to university governance” were presented by one of the authors – John Reilly, University of Kent, United Kingdom.

During the first plenary three European experts addressed the audience: Sigurd Höllinger, Senior Adviser, Austrian Ministry of Science and Research; Lennart Stahle, Senior Adviser, Swedish National Agency for Higher Education; and Jean Pierre Finance, Rector, University Henri Poincaré Nancy 1. They spoke on the changes in university governance in their countries from a university and ministry perspectives.

Later the work was organized in parallel workshop sessions where participants discussed different topics within the major theme of the Tempus Regional Seminar on University Governance, namely: the shift from a regulatory state to a supervisory state; the transfer to university autonomy and responsibility; designing, implementing and evaluating national development strategy plans for Higher Education; university governance structures; engaging students, academics and external stakeholders; the role of external governance in curricula development and awarding for degrees; the role and responsibilities in recruitment, retention, rewarding, developing and evaluating academic, technical and administrative staff.

At the end, Taras Finikov, Deputy Minister for Education and Science of Ukraine addressed the Regional Seminar with closing remarks. He noted that this seminar was outstanding due to innovative character to problem definition and problem solving, as well as pioneering approaches to higher education modernization under different cultural traditions and specificities of national higher education systems. Deputy Minister also emphasized the important mission of the Tempus program as it provides possibilities for many countries to participate in international projects and allows to accumulate efforts and expertise for reforms, improving the quality of higher education and easing public access to it.

All in all, Regional Seminar brought together experts and academia from seven post-soviet states: 10 participants from Azerbaijan, 8 from Armenia, 7 from Georgia, 5 from Moldova, 5 from Belarus Republic, 13 from Russia, 21 from Ukraine.