Ukrainian Engineering Education discussed at Shevchenko Society (04/23/06)

Ukrainian Engineering Education discussed at Shevchenko Society

by Orest Popovych

NEW YORK - The Mathematics-Physics-Technology Section of the Shevchenko Scientific Society (NTSh) on February 25 hosted a program featuring a lecture by Dr. Oleh Tretiak on the topic "Ukrainian Engineering Education at a Crossroads," followed by a presentation by Dr. Roman Kuc on the new ABET Engineering Criteria 2000, which have been adopted for engineering education in the U.S.

The program was organized and introduced by Dr. Roman Andrushkiw, the first vice-president of NTSh, and the director of the MPT Section. It was chaired by Prof. Vasyl Makhno.

Dr. Tretiak, professor of electrical and computer engineering at Drexel University in Philadelphia, based the lecture on his experiences as a Fulbright visiting professor at the Kyiv and Lviv Polytechnic institutes, which enabled him to examine higher technical education in Ukraine and to compare it with American education in the same areas. Another objective of his was to establish contacts with professors and administrators of Ukrainian institutions of higher learning with the possibility for collaborative undertakings with their American counterparts.

The rationale underlying a comparison of the educational systems is related to the ongoing reorganization of the universities in Ukraine, with the objective of achieving recognition of the equivalency of degrees offered by Ukrainian and European universities.

Dr. Tretiak compared how Ukrainian and American institutions of higher learning differed in their teaching and research missions, their degree requirements, as well as administrative approaches. Following is a summary of what he related.

In a typical American school of engineering, students progress by passing individual subjects, which they can repeat, should they first fail. After four years, they attain their bachelor's degrees in one of five engineering majors. Jobs for graduates are relatively easy to get. Schools of engineering include large and small institutions, funded both from private and public funds; they focus heavily on research. The faculty at U.S. universities is composed of tenured and non-tenured members. Among the successful tenured members, progress toward the rank of full professor is generally rapid, on the average attaining it at about age 40.

In a typical Ukrainian school of engineering, students' progress is annual, based on passing a whole year's worth of required subjects; thus, advancement to the next year may require multiple attempts. Their degrees are earned after five years (six years for a master's) in one of about 100 engineering majors. For the graduates, the chances of getting a job in their specialty at this time are poor. The institutions of higher learning are generally large (the Kyiv Polytechnic Institute has about 35,000 students) and their curricula are centrally controlled by the Ministry of Education.

Research in Ukraine has always been primarily the province of the institutes of the National Academy of Sciences of Ukraine, and not of the universities. Since independence, there has been a further decline in the amount of research carried out by the universities. Academic professionals in Ukraine are paid relatively low salaries (about $200 a month), but enjoy high employment security, i. e., in American parlance, they all have "tenure." However, progress to the rank of full professor is very slow.

According to Dr. Tretiak, there is at this time no evidence of any serious commitment to structural reforms in the academic institutions of Ukraine. He said that Ukrainian education could benefit from contacts with the rest of the world, to which end the knowledge of English among the faculty and students needs to be improved.

A small step toward establishing such contacts was taken when three students from the Kyiv Polytechnic Institute visited Drexel University at Dr. Tretiak's invitation for two weeks in August 2005. Other inter-institutional exchanges are being planned by Dr. Tretiak.

"Changes in Engineering Education in the U.S. and the World" was the topic tackled next by Dr. Kuc, professor of electrical engineering and associate dean of engineering educational programs at Yale University. Dr. Kuc discussed the new Engineering Criteria (EC) 2000, which were introduced in the year 2000 by the Accreditation Board of Engineering and Technology (ABET). The goal of the ABET has always been to make sure that all engineering programs in the U.S. meet the same high standards.

The reason new educational criteria became necessary stems mainly from the general problem that the U.S. industry is becoming less competitive in the global marketplace, according to Dr. Kuc. One solution, continued the lecturer, is to produce engineers who can work effectively in the local economy immediately upon graduation, without years of on-the-job training.

Thus, rather than mandating the same criteria for engineering programs throughout the country, the EC2000 approach provides individual engineering programs with the flexibility to establish their own curricula, adjusting the criteria to conform to local needs, while constantly taking into account the feedback received from the students, professors, industry and parents involved, said Dr. Kuc. He felt that the adoption of EC2000 for education in Ukraine would allow Ukrainian programs to compete in the international arena.

After the presentations there was a lengthy and substantive discussion focusing on the level of higher education in Ukraine and the challenges it is presently facing.

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