A new innovative Ukrainian-British course will be implemented at IFNUL
MARCH 1, 2016 – On February 7-15, 2016, representatives from Ivan Franko National University of Lviv, Donetsk National University, Taras Shevchenko National University of Kyiv and V. N. Karazin Kharkiv National University visited Northumbria University (Newcastle, UK) within activities of the IMPRESS Project (530534-TEMPUS-1-2012-1-UK-TEMPUS-SMGR IMPROVING THE EFFICIENCY OF STUDENT SERVICES, IFNUL Coordinator – Vice-Rector for International Relations, Prof. Mariya Zubrytska).
Our University was represented by Assistant Professor from Faculty of Philosophy Oksana Senyk, Associate Professor from the Department of International Relations and Diplomacy Roman Kalytchak, Head of the NGO “Young Diplomacy”, a student of Faculty of International Relations Tetyana Blaha.
During the visit to Northumbria University, IFNUL scientists took part in the seminar on completion of the training and accreditation of the new curriculum for students aimed at the development and improvement of their soft skills for professional development and increasing their competitiveness in the labor market. The need to develop key skills to build a successful career: self-organization and time management; critical thinking; reflective thinking and written communication; presentation skills; conduct discussions; teamwork were discussed herein as well. Such features will be implemented by its flexible new course format: mini-lectures, workshops, discussions, presentations, interactive exercises.
It should be noted that English language course “Soft skills for professional development” will be officially accredited Northumbria University, and our students after its successful passage will receive 3 ECTS credits and joint certificate from British and Ukrainian universities. It is assumed that during the training course the students will be officially affiliated with Northumbria University.
During the visit to UK, representatives of student organizations from four Ukrainian universities were also acquainted with the functioning of student self-learning system, the rights and obligations of British students. Therefore, after discussion of key issues related to the development of student governments of both countries, the participants jointly developed a program of further cooperation. A first pilot course on Soft Skills was already taught at IFNUL in the second semester of 2015.
The IMPRESS project aims to improve the student experience and student services in the Ukrainian Higher Education to reach comparability with Europe. This is acheived by creating a new management structure called a Student Support Service Centre (SSSC) at four of the leading classical Ukrainian universities. The focus of these centres is to provide a better student experience at Ukrainian universities during the student journey from recruitment and induction, through their studies to graduation and beyond. The experiences from this have been used to create a road map and set of accompanying resources to support the roll out of this project across the Ukraine Higher Education system.