Why faculty autonomy is critically important for higher education institutions in Ukraine, explained on the live broadcast of the YouTube channel LVIV.MEDIA, Vice-Rector of the Ivan Franko National University of Lviv (LNU), Vitaliy Kukharskyy.
Points of attention
- The democratization of the educational process is one of the key factors supported by the Vice-Rector of LNU Vitaliy Kukharsky in the context of the importance of faculty autonomy.
- The economic aspect also plays an important role: it is necessary for faculties to receive tools for financial decisions, as is practiced in European universities.
- It is important to create a financial and personnel accounting system that will allow faculties and departments to manage their resources effectively and objectively.
Faculty autonomy is critically important for Ukrainian universities
In a conversation about the vision of the future of LNU, Vitaliy Kukharskyy emphasized that there are two main factors why faculty autonomy is needed now. The first factor, he called the need for democratization of the educational process, and the second - economic.
It is very important that the leaders who lead the teams are the same leaders who support this team.
Vitaly Kukharskyy
Vice-Rector of LNU
The vice-rector noted that the current procedure for selecting deans of the LNU complies with the legislation and leaves the choice to the rector to sign or not sign the order for appointment based on the results of the vote, while there are no cases of distortion of the will of the collective at the university and in most higher education institutions of Ukraine.
Therefore, in order for this process to become fully democratic, the elections should be held by secret ballot. This will solve a lot of problems regarding the deterrent factors that open voting has, and the rector will get an objective picture of who the collective supports, - emphasized the vice-rector of LNU.
Faculties should receive tools for financial decisions
Vitaliy Kukharskyy called the second, no less important aspect of the autonomy of the faculties of LNU economic.
"The current situation is that from a financial point of view, faculties and departments do not manage anything at the university," explained Vitaliy Kukharskyy.
The vice-rector recalled that a few months ago he reported to the Academic Council on the implementation of a financial and personnel accounting system at LNU, which will allow creating sub-accounts for each division of the university.
In European universities, there is a practice where even professors have their own sub-accounts in their own faculties, which allow them to organize their expenses for materials or conferences. I am not sure that we will move to sub-accounts for professors in our universities very soon, but we should already create sub-accounts for faculties, departments and educational programs.
Vitaly Kukharskyy
Vice-Rector of LNU
Vitaliy Kukharskyy also added that this should be done first of all by anyone holding the position of rector of the Ivan Franko National University of Lviv, whoever they become.
We would like to remind you that Vitaliy Kukharskyy, Candidate of Physical and Mathematical Sciences, Associate Professor of the Department of Applied Mathematics, Vice-Rector of Lviv National University, is one of the candidates for the position of Rector of the Ivan Franko National University of Lviv. He is an expert in the field of digital transformation of higher education, innovative educational technologies, international cooperation, and building and strengthening institutional capacity.
