Presidium of the Academy of Higher Education discussed the amendments to the legislation of science

     On December 11, our renowned university hosted within its walls a presidium of the Higher Education Academy of Sciences of Ukraine, where it held its expanded meeting. Welcoming the participants of the meeting, Rector Stanislav Nikolaenko briefly acquainted them with the activities of university. He started with the 118-year history of the University, referring to its sources, the founders and prominent figures, who at the time created, developed our alma-mater and were involved in its formation. This was the first Head of the Department and, incidentally, the first publicly elected Rector of KPI – Mykola Chyrvynskyy, by textbooks of whom one third of Europe of that time studied by, Petro Vasylenko, Evhen Votchal, academician – Maksym Gulyy and others. The Walk of Fame was founded to commemorate them. In some time it will have installed busts of the founders of the University. Currently, an idea of creating agricultural museum ripened, which would later have acquired national importance.

     NULES today, – Stanislav Nikolayenko continued, – it is more than 26,000 students, a broad geography of separate units: institutes, colleges and technical schools. The structure of the university itself has undergone major changes, and they are positive ones. Thus, the means of reforms it was reduced by half. If a year ago we did not act beforehand, – as Rector said, the government would have done it through reduced financing of university.

      Currently, renewal of university continues. Every half-year we hold a joint meeting with the heads of the Departments, and they are 127 of them, – says Stanislav Nikolayenko. Each seminar is dedicated to a particular topic, such as improving the quality of education, combining education with research activities etc. A major step was the establishment of the University employers' boards and a similar ones at each faculty or ESI. We also improve laboratories, – Rector noted. And we have much to be proud of. Worth of laboratories at the Department of Automation and Robotic Systems named after acad. Martynenko I.I., Department of Beekeeping, scientific achievements of Mykola Starodub speak for themselves! And we have a lot of similar examples in our university.

     However, the situation with material and technical resources is not easy, – Rector admitted. And it is aggravated by the need to recover third campus building after a fire. But much has been done in order to improve the situation. This includes repair works in buildings and dormitories, lecture halls, which will be equipped with multimedia by the end of the year. Of particular attention deserves recently opened modern practical training base in Dzvinkovyy.

     The talk was about research-and-development sector of university, the sore point of which, until recently, was a land tax for the functioning. And only thanks to enormous efforts of “Ahroosvita” Association, which is headed by Stanislav Nikolayenko, with the support of the Ministry of Education and Science of Ukraine, the situation could be overcomed.
     And what was the strategy the university chose? It is fully described in the development program of “Holosiivska Initiative-2020”, which was preceded by deep analysis of pressing problems.
     Stanislav Nikolayenko also dwelled upon international relations of the university, which are always in the spotlight. Speaking about the research activities, including the training of highly qualified personnel, he noted that universities should be given the right to introduce specialties within the specialized academic councils.

     President of the Academy Oleksandr Nakonechnyy thanked the Rector Stanislav Nikolayenko for the opportunity to convey a meeting here and invited the Deputy Minister of Education and Science of Ukraine, Vice-President of the Academy Maksym Strikha for a speech. Maksym Vitalyovych raised the problems of national science and education. He noted that the past three weeks seemed extremely tense, as a new Law of Ukraine “On science and technology activity” is on the finish line. The law has already been voted, and its main ideology: from the scientist through scientific institution – to the scientific system. According to the Deputy Minister, this important legislative document will improve the coordination of research activities. So we wait until it enters into force and hope that next year we will go along with a new law.

     Subject Ministry, – Maksym Strikha noted, will work side by side with the scientific community, and expressed his hopes that the Academy of Science of Higher Education will continue to supply qualified specialists for expert and scientific councils.

     Pro-Rector for academic and educational work Serhiy Kvasha presented the report to the Academy Presidium – “The main trends in development of the agricultural sector of Ukraine: problems of sustainable rural development”.

     A nice aspect of the meeting was the presentation of academician diploma to our colleague – Head of the Chair of Agrobiotehnology – Mykola Lisovyy.

Olha Nakonechna