Current information
Over the eleven years of the Centre's activity, more than 100 events have been held - lectures, trainings, educational courses, debate tournaments, quests for schoolchildren, students, teachers and academic and teaching staff, local self-government employees and civil servants. More than 30 conferences, forums, round tables and seminars at various levels have been organised and participated in. Ongoing work is carried out on the adaptation and localisation of the 17 UN Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) in Ukraine and their inclusion in the educational process.
Results of work for 2025
In 2025, the Centre for Sustainable Development of UzhNU marked 10 years since its establishment. To mark this event, in March a training course for professional development was organised for teachers and staff of UzhNU on the topic “Integration of the concept of sustainable development into the educational process at the State Higher Educational Institution ‘Uzhhorod National University’”, held from 5 February to 5 March 2025, lasting 7.5 academic hours (0.25 ECTS credits). (41 persons from among the teaching staff of UzhNU successfully completed the course). Also, on 5 March 2025, a research and practice seminar “Integration of the Sustainable Development Goals into the educational process of UzhNU” was held within the framework of the “Week of Action and Awareness-Raising on the UN Sustainable Development Goals”, which was announced by the Global Coalition of Universities in partnership with the State University of New York, with which cooperation was established in 2024. A detailed article on the tenth anniversary of the establishment of the Centre for Sustainable Development of UzhNU has been prepared on the website of the UzhNU Media Centre.
The main activity of the Centre for Sustainable Development in 2025 was aimed at fulfilling the Centre's tasks, in particular regarding work on the implementation of international and state programmes on sustainable development, as well as activating the research potential of Uzhhorod National University. In addition, cooperation with the university's stakeholders and presence in the media space of Zakarpattia Oblast and Ukraine as a whole were expanded. Among the main items:
- in January 2025, the head of the Centre, Hanna Melehanych, gave a comment for regional television on the results of the World Economic Forum 2025 in the context of sustainable development;
- on 27 January 2025, an information session on the topic of sustainable development was held for young people of the Dovzhanska hromada;
- in January-February 2025, participation was taken in the work of two international consortiums on the development of Erasmus+ projects. One of them, on the topic “Empowering educators for a sustainable future: enhancing teacher training capacity for the recovery of Ukraine”, was successful and began its work on 1 November 2025.
- on 13 March 2025, UzhNU, through the Centre for Sustainable Development, was involved as a co-organiser in holding the All-Ukrainian Youth Forum on Sustainable Development in Kyiv. Three students (from the Faculty of International Economic Relations and the Faculty of Information Technology) participated in person;
- on 13-14 March 2025, UzhNU was represented at a workshop at Maria Curie-Skłodowska University in Lublin within the framework of teacher training for sustainable development from the Baltic University Programme;
- in the 2024/2025 academic cycle, Hanna Melehanych, director of the Centre for Sustainable Development, took part in a 6-month professional development course corresponding to 5 ECTS credits (133 hours) organised by the Centre for Continuing Education, Åbo Akademi University, Finland. Its purpose is to support university teachers in integrating education for sustainable development (ESD) into their teaching and courses/programmes in order to strengthen the implementation of the United Nations Sustainable Development Goals.
- during March and November 2025, classes were held for school teachers of Zakarpattia Oblast on the topic: “Peculiarities of teaching the concept of sustainable development in general secondary education institutions” in cooperation with the Centre for Professional Development of UzhNU;
- a recommendation and support were provided to a first-year master's student of the Faculty of International Economic Relations for participation in an international training on preparing a master's research on sustainable development topics in Sweden (BUP programme);
- in April 2025, the creation of the Debate Club of Uzhhorod National University was initiated jointly with the Student Council, and three debate tournaments were held during the year. The first in May was dedicated to Europe Day, the second to the 80th anniversary of UzhNU, and the third to political reforms together with the all-Ukrainian initiative “Active Community”. The winners of the latter, Nadiia Sobol and Viktoriia Petriuk, students of the Faculty of History and International Relations, became winners of the national tournament in December 2025.
- in June 2025, the head of the centre, Hanna Melehanych, was an invited speaker at “Sustainability Talks” by the Association of Sustainable Development Experts on the topic: “Universities that have become ‘green’: European experience and first steps in Ukraine?”, where she introduced the experience of UzhNU, and also in August 2025 she spoke at an international webinar organised by the same Association on the topic “The role of education for sustainable development in achieving global and national strategic goals”, which had more than 100 participants and was broadcast on YouTube.
- on 14-15 October 2025, Hanna Melehanych represented UzhNU at the conference “Localisation of the Sustainable Development Goals: expanding equal economic opportunities for women and men, access to financing and green economic growth” in Lviv, organised by UNDP in Ukraine, and on 30 October 2025 at the 5th International Forum on Sustainable Development 2025 in Lviv, which was organised by the Association of Sustainable Development Experts in order to unite key sustainable development participants of Ukraine to exchange experience, attract investors to the recovery of Ukraine and adapt economic policy to global trends and new geopolitical realities.
- during the year, participation was taken in meetings during the expert evaluation by the National Agency for Higher Education Quality Assurance of a number of educational programmes of UzhNU at the first and second levels of higher education.
In 2025, the Centre continued cooperation with the Zakarpattia Regional Military Administration, in particular in the context of participation in the working group on the Development Strategy of Zakarpattia Oblast until 2027 and in the regional Coalition 1325: Women, Peace, Security - Zakarpattia. Ongoing cooperation also takes place with the Department of International Relations of UzhNU regarding the preparation and collection of information for participation in international rankings: QS World University Rankings: EECA, GreenMetric World University Rankings, THE Impact Rankings, Times Higher Education Impact, and with other units of UzhNU within the framework of implementing the Resilience and Sustainable Development Policy of Uzhhorod National University.