UZHNU ESTABLISHES ACADEMIC BUSINESS RELATIONS WITH UNIVERSITIES OF GREAT BRITAIN AND IRELAND

The delegation of state higher educational establishment «UzhNU», consisting of Vice-rector Myroslava Lendel and staff members of the International Relations Department, paid a working visit to the University of Central Lancashire (Preston, Great Britain) in order to discuss further areas of the partnership which started as part of the program «The UK-Ukraine Twinning Initiative».

A number of official meetings were held during the visit, including those with Professor Graham Baldwin, Vice-Chancellor of the University of Central Lancashire and Professor Ruth Connor, Deputy Chief Executive Officer at the University of Central Lancashire.

The delegation from Uzhhorod National University was hosted by the Department of International Partnerships, which is headed by Mr. Paul Rowe. Both universities’ representatives dealing with international cooperation activities, in particular, those who are responsible for students’ academic mobility, internships, teaching, discussed plans for further cooperation, searches for grant opportunities, etcetera. Working meetings with representatives of the Faculty of Engineering, the Faculty of Medicine, the Faculty of Humanities and Global Studies, and the Faculty of Natural Sciences were quite productive too in terms of determining the prospects for developing cooperation in specific areas.

The delegation members of UzhNU took part in the round table on the topic «The War in Ukraine: Implications for Democracy, Education and Security» organized by the Faculty of Humanities and Global Studies. Some male and female students, the teaching staff of the partner university took part in this event as well. The first person to take the floor was Dr. Alexandros Koutsoukis who outlined an understanding of some historical and sociological background. Then Assistant Professor Antonina Bulyna focused on the issue of internationalization of higher education in view of humanitarianism and its implementation at UzhNU. Another participant, Olha Borysenko, who had to leave Ukraine because of the war, shared her experience of living in the United Kingdom and studying at the University of Central Lancashire. It was interesting to listen to graduate student Grace Evans, who arrived in Kyiv as a volunteer as soon as the war began, she spoke about the peculiarities of international support for Ukraine in the current wartime. During the round table there were also discussed the effects of war on democracies which defend sovereignty against ambitious authoritarian neighbors. Vice-rector for Academic Affairs and Research Myroslava Lendel recapitulated the round table discussions and provided the concluding remarks. In addition to content-rich working meetings, the delegation was given an opportunity to go sightseeing. 

It brought joy to visit the architectural monuments, museums and, in particular, to feel the support given to Ukrainian people through the song «With a Little Help from My Friends» (The Beatles), which was performed by representatives of several choirs and visitors from all over the world at the Liverpool Museum. The interior of the dance hall in Blackpool, where you can dance to live music all day long, was inspiring indeed. It is needless to say but the visit did enrich the representatives of UzhNU in terms of professional and personal development.

The visit of the UzhNU delegation to the University of Limerick in Ireland, which organized a Staff Week for partners within the Erasmus+ program, was also fruitful.

A series of workshops and seminars, which were conducted by colleagues from UL Global and the staff members of various faculties of the University, contributed to the deepening of knowledge on issues of intercultural communication, cooperation and student engagement. Partners from Georgia, Germany, Sweden, the Netherlands, Romania, the Czech Republic, Poland, Hungary, Great Britain, France, Palestine, Ghana, etc. took part in the event.During the week, the participants familiarized themselves with successful projects within the framework of the Erasmus+ program, which were implemented by the University of Limerick. The present partners also enjoyed the opportunity to participate in the celebration of the 35th anniversary of the program. Thanks to active communication, all participants of the event managed to exchange their work experience and share best practices.

Vice-rector Myroslava Lendel emphasizes: «The visit to the University of Central Lancashire is one of the stages in the development of the partnership that we started as part of the program «The UK-Ukraine Twinning Initiative». Over the past year, we were communicating online. Due to the cooperation, we managed to arrange an internship for our students in Cyprus connected to improving their English language skills. With the support of our partner, the online English course is being held for students and teachers of UzhNU and a number of research events also took place. It has to be admitted that our partners purchased and shipped the computer hardware for our students. The purpose of our visit was not just to establish relations of support, but also partnership relations. And, of course, nothing can replace “live” communication, so we were glad to meet our partners. Our similarities also contribute to establishing relations.

The city of Preston is not big, its population is slightly smaller than in Uzhhorod. The number of students is the same as at UzhNU. Interestingly, the University of Central Lancashire is important for the city in the same way as UzhNU is important for Uzhhorod. Personally, I am interested in the fact that this university has developed the “Preston model” of interaction between the university, local self-government bodies and business, which isunique for Britain. Admittedly, we want to jointly develop a project that will help us implement this experience in Uzhhorod. The friendly relations that we managed to build with the representatives of the University of Central Lancashire will help us to work on joint research projects in the future.

Regarding the visit to Ireland, it was primarily due to the fact that the University of Limerick and UzhNU submitted a joint project within the framework of the Erasmus+ program. This visit turned out to be inspiring, because we met a large number of colleagues from Europe and beyond. The University of Limerick pays great attention to issues of ecology and environmental protection, has a huge campus and an excellent sports complex. It also has a rewarding experience of cooperation with the city self-government. Ireland and the UK are countries with a lot of greenery where sustainability, social inclusion and diversity are a priority. It was interesting to learn that in these countries there are many support programs for students, their mental health, employment opportunities in the city, and this experience can be transferred and implemented in our country.”

Oksana Sviezhentseva, the Head of the International Relations Department, also shares her impressions: “We have been cooperating with the University of Central Lancashire for only a year, but within this short period we managed to do a lot of good things together. Every two weeks we have online work calls during which we are discussing future steps of cooperation. Thus, when we finally met after a year of active cooperation, we knew what topics we intended to discuss.Those included: the possibility of double degree programs, academic mobility of students and teachers, the opportunity to continue with the English language courses, joint lectures, trips as well as internships associated with improving the level of the English language proficiency. We had many local meetings where a representative of our university spoke with a representative of the University of Central Lancashire about a specific area of activities. The University of Central Lancashire demonstrates its readiness to support UzhNU and thus, it is always open to our requests. Initially, the main emphasis was shifted to humanitarian aid, but now we are transforming our relations into the partnering ones, where our academicians will work together. In particular, a round table was recently held for experts in international relations and political sciences who discussed the current problems of culture and war. We also expect an opportunity to write joint projects. Our researchers from the Faculty of Medicine and the Faculty of Physics also established cooperation. Meetings were held between the representatives of the administrations of the universities. We cannot but admit our admiration about the opportunity to see interesting places in Britain and even to visit Liverpool on the day of Eurovision and we extend our gratitude to the UClan for this. 

We felt the tremendous support of Ukraine, and it is undoubtedly sincere. It was a good coincidence that around that period we received an invitation from our other partners in Ireland to attend the events at the University of Limerick within the framework of the Erasmus+ program, where all the partners of the university were present – more than 50 participants. Owing to this, we received a splendid opportunity to meet and discuss future cooperation possibilities not only with the representatives of the University of Limerick, but also with many other European colleagues. The attendees were united by Erasmus+, so everyone was able to discuss what was already done within the framework of the program, and the plans ahead. Therefore, our main goal was to strengthen the existing partnerships and find new like-minded people.”

 

• International Activities