Head of NUBIP of Ukraine Academician D.O. Melnychuk Participated in Meeting of Steering Committee of Global Consortium of Higher Education and Research for Agriculture (GCHERA)
Head of NUBIP of Ukraine Academician D.O. Melnychuk Participated in Meeting of Steering Committee of Global Consortium of Higher Education and Research for Agriculture (GCHERA)
June 25, 2012
Recently, the Head of National University of Life and Environmental Sciences of Ukraine, Academician D. O. Melnychuk returned from Rome (Italy), where he participated in the meeting of the Steering Committee of the Global Consortium of Institutions of Higher Education and Research (GCHERA) as a member of the committee and as Honorary President of the GCHERA.
Head of the University took part in the preparation of a number of official documents on transformation of the Global Consortium of Institutions of Higher Education and Research into the Global Confederation of Higher Education Associations for the Agricultural and Life Sciences (with preservation of the former abbreviation - GCHERA – as a famous brand). Moreover, draft regulations and confederation structure were introduced. Main objectives were also presented during the meeting, as well as preliminary documents on establishment of the headquarters of the GCHERA at FAO of the UN (Rome, Italy) and their cooperation for the next 5 years.
The main objectives of the International Confederation are as following: globalization of curricula at universities working in respective fields, dissemination of profound knowledge during training of high-qualified staff, student exchange, exchange of scientists’ achievements and experience, integration of universities with leading research and innovative structures, discussion of burning issues in the field of higher education, modern science and industry, and holding conferences. Among other important goals there are following: making suggestions about key issues such as constant development of agriculture and rural areas, quality and safety of food and forage, remedy of dangerous ecosystems and environment, health and nutrition of people and animals, renewable energy sources, economic stability of ecologically safe food systems (organic products).
Next meeting of the Steering Committee of the GCHERA will be held in October, 2012 in Uruguay.
For reference:
Background to establishment of the GCHERA. In 1998, the National Agrarian University held a conference "Globalization of System Higher Agricultural Education and Science: Meeting the Needs of the 21st Century" dedicated to the 100th anniversary of the university. It was attended by delegates from 40 countries. The resolution of the conference was to create the Global Consortium of Agricultural Universities. The first president to be elected was Professor Martin Zhyshke – the head of the University of Iowa, the USA. The Head of the National Agrarian University, Professor D.O. Melnychuk became the president-elect.
In 1999 the first conference of the Consortium took place in Amsterdam. It gathered representatives from over 400 universities and research institutions from 136 countries. During this conference Professor Dmytro Melnychuk was elected as the next president of the Consortium. The name of the organization was modified into the Global Consortium of Higher Education and Research for Agriculture (GCHERA). It was decided that the main activity of the Association will be conducting conferences once in two years which will deal with settlement of international problems of higher agricultural education and research, development of international standards in these fields and providing graduate students and young scientists with the possibility of training at leading universities and laboratories throughout the world.
Today 7 World Conferences of the GCHERA took place:
- 1999 - Amsterdam, Netherlands;
- 2001 - San Francisco, USA;
- 2003 - Kyiv, Ukraine;
- 2005 - Hangzhou, China;
- 2007 - San Jose, Costa Rica;
- 2009 - Nairobi, Kenya;
- 2011 - the city of Beauvais (Paris), France.
Prof. D.O. Melnychuk was the president of the Consortium during 2001-2003. During the conference in 2003 he was conferred a lifelong degree of the Honorary President with the right to control the abidance and prevent violations of the Regulations.
In 2011, during the 7th World Conference of the GCHERA, held on 25.06-01.07.2011 at the Technical Institute La Salle Beauvais, Beauvais city (France), basing upon numerous applications of universities of life and agricultural sciences with requests to be accepted as GCHERA members it was decided to transform former Global Consortium of Higher Education and Research for Agriculture into Global Confederation of Higher Education Associations for the Agricultural and Life Sciences, leaving the abbreviation GCHERA. The abovementioned union includes more that 20 world associations and more than 500 universities. Academician D. O. Melnychuk as a founder of the GCHERA remained the status of Honorary President of the Confederation and is now a member of its Steering Committee.
