Meeting of the labor collective of the Faculty for Humanities and Pedagogics: dedication and hard work as a guarantee of successful future

       On December 26, 2019, a meeting of the labor collective of the Faculty for Humanities and Pedagogics took place. The main issue on the agenda was the report of the Dean Professor Vasyl Shynkaruk on the work of the Faculty in 2019 in accordance with the Program of NULES of Ukraine for 2015-2020.

       Reporting on the results of the activity for 2019, Vasyl Shynkaruk focused on the following main issues.

        In the reporting year, the faculty staff continued to work on the development of specialties licensed in previous years ‒ seven at the bachelor's degree and six at the master's degree. In 2019, three new educational and professional masters training programs were launched ‒ Personnel Management, Information and Communication Technologies in Education and Social and Psychological Rehabilitation. The first enrollment for these programs was held this year and it was successful. This year, educational English language programs in the specialties of Philology-Translation, Psychology, International Relations have been initiated and foreign students were successfully enrolled.

       An integral part of the quality of education is the quality of the scientific and pedagogical staff. Today, 233 lecturers work at the faculty. Eighty five per cent of them have scientific and academic degrees. An important element of the activity of the staff of the faculty, as noted by Vasyl Dmytrovych, is the conduct of career guidance. In order to coordinate this type of activity, a Center of vocational guidance was created at the Faculty, headed by Associate Professor Oksana Ponomarenko.

     In the reporting year at the initiative of the Center a scientific student English language circle was created at the Irpin Academic Lyceum, with more than 50 students. The work of the School of Young Journalists was organized for the specialty "Journalism" by the People's Artist of Ukraine, Professor of the Department of Journalism Tetiana Tsymbal and Assistant Professor of the Department, certified media trainer Anton Liahusha.

       The Department of Pedagogy continued the practice of holding student-pupil conferences as a type of vocational guidance at the University. This activity is organized by the head of the department of pedagogy Professor Ruslan Sopivnyk, and the staff of the department supports and implements it. For the second year in a row, instructors of the Department of Philosophy, headed by the Chair of the Department Inna Savytska, have been attracting student youth to the Skovorodynski Readings. Traditionally, our students and postgraduate students significantly enhance the career guidance. It is nice to note that every year the number of the faculty students increases. The ten most popular specialties of the university last year included three from our faculty ‒ philology, international relations, psychology, and in 2019 ‒ journalism and international relations.

       The year 2019 will go down in history, as we have received a certificate of approval to conduct exams at the university level B2. In May this year, at our faculty the testing of students and teaching staff in English for the level B2, C1 was held for the first time. The exam was made possible by an agreement between the University and the Oxford Class Examination Center, which is the official representative of the University of Cambridge in Kyiv. In particular, students of our Faculty Zakatey Yulia, Malysh Victoria, Dmitrieva Maria received the B2 certificate.
       The Department of English for Technical and Agrobiological Specialties (Head of the Chair Hrabovska Inna Viktorivna), together with an official representative of the British Council in Ukraine, as well as the Folio Bux Company, conducts scientific and methodological seminars for students and staff of the University. For the first time, 9 graduates of the specialty "Social Work" and 4 graduates of the specialty "Philology", who studied under the double diploma program at the Pomeranian Academy in Slupsk, received their double diplomas. International work focuses on enhancing the mobility of students and faculty of the University.
     In the reporting year, the personnel of the Faculty actively pursued their scientific activity. At the university level, the Faculty occupies the first position in terms of the number of projects prepared. Scientific and pedagogical staff are doing serious work on publishing the articles in the WoS, Scopus science-based databases.
       In the reporting year, the departments of the Faculty intensified their work on preparation for the All-Ukrainian Student Olympiads - we have six prize places.
    The practice of conducting scientific and methodological seminars for university professors was continued, in particular the scientific and methodological seminar on psychological and pedagogical skills was organized and conducted; to increase the pedagogical competence of scientific and pedagogical staff, the "Young Teacher's School" and a seminar for tutors of academic groups was held. In 2019, the Departments of Psychology and Management and Educational Technology have launched two new scientific and methodological seminars ‒ "Psychological and pedagogical aspects of the professional success of HEE instructors" and "Modern approaches to teaching methods", which were positively accepted by the university instructors.
     The system of educational work is organized on scientific basis. The tradition of thematic weeks continued: philosophy, English, German, and French. Journalism Week started this year. Our faculty carried out educational work in the reporting year, focusing on the National-Patriotic Education Program “Student, Citizen, Patriot”.

     The head of the faculty noted that this year there were many victories in both art and sports competitions. In particular, the faculty team won the Grand Prix at the Holosiivska Spring and the academic group of international relations students ‒ the Grand Prix at the Song Battles. In sports, for example, girls' student teams took first place in basketball, and in track and field athletes won third place. Our student Ilyukhina Oleksandra (rifle practical shooting) is a two-time European champion, and Dmytro Shkitov (tennis) is a master of sports of Ukraine. There is someone to be proud of.
        As a result, Professor Vasyl Shynkaruk noted that the work done in 2019 is a merit of the entire staff of both students and professors, and stressed that we should not stop there. Time demands full dedication and work from us in the name of a better future for our university.

        The meeting was attended by the rector of the university, Academician Stanislav Nikolaenko, who in his speech focused on the fact that the Faculty for Humanities and Pedagogics is developing, much has been done, but the faculty has reserves. It is emphasized that the psychological and pedagogical aspect in the education of students, the preparation of graduate students is very important. Stanislav Mykolaiovych emphasized that amendments to the law "On Higher Education" are challenges for the faculty as well, because to enter the magistracy it is necessary to make a single entrance exam; one of the indicators for financing the university will be the employment rate of graduates, the volume of filling the special fund for scientific activities and indicators of the QS rating. One of the tasks is a new role of the department, a new role of a tutor, because the recruitment of students in the world I related to a particular instructor; new quality of career guidance, creation and development of specialized centers in different fields that would work remotely and train future internationals, journalists, psychologists, etc.; needs new approaches and work with international students. The Rector stressed that there was a need for change and an attitude towards new technologies, the so-called digitalization. At the level of the Faculty of Humanities and Pedagogics, it is primarily the creation and development of the YouTube channel, the work on the bases of practice. The Rector assured that during the discussion of the Dean's report, the remarks, wishes to the Rectorate have been correct, and they would work on them. Stanislav Mykolaiovych emphasized that today humanitarian training of young people is one of the important tasks of education.

       Professor Vitaliy Shmarhun, Head of the Department of Psychology, Head of the Department of Cultural Studies Professor Iryna Maidanyuk, and Head of the student union organization Yulia Zakatey, Associate Professor of the Roman-German Languages and Translation department Viktoria D'omina, master of the 1 year study Valentin Savchenko, Associate Professor of the department of  journalism and language communication Olena Balalaeva took part in the discussion. In their speeches they noted the productive work of the Dean of the Faculty for Humanities and Pedagogics. After the discussion, the Dean's report was unanimously approved and the task for the new year supported.

Halyna Fomina,
Associate Professor of the Department of Journalism and Language Communication