National University of Kyiv Mohyla Academy launches professorships to promote research (10/29/06)

National University of Kyiv Mohyla Academy launches professorships to promote research

by Oksana Zakydalsky

TORONTO - "In the eyes of professionals and society, the National University of Kyiv Mohyla Academy (UKMA) is a place of innovation and the freedom to explore," said Dr. Mychailo Wynnyckyj, a professor of sociology at the Business School of the UKMA.

In 2005 NUKMA celebrated 390 years of its founding. It was the first university in Eastern Europe and remained the only such institution in the Russian Empire until the second half of the 18th century. It was closed by the Russian government in 1817.

Since its rebirth in 1991, NUKMA has gained a reputation for openness, incorruptibility and the creation of an environment that promotes good teaching and good scholarship. According to Dr. Wynnyckyj, NUKMA has embarked on many reforms of higher education on its own without expecting financial aid or support from the government and often motivating the Ministry of Education to act in new directions.

One of its current goals is to get on the list of the 500 best universities in the world by 2015.

In a world characterized by competition, the comparison of the relative merits of universities has led to ranking lists. Objective and weighted criteria have been developed to measure the quality of university education.

Most people are familiar with the popular Newsweek (in the U.S.) and Macleans' (in Canada) lists of best universities in the respective countries. In the United Kingdom, The Times Higher Education Supplement publishes a list of the 200 best universities in the world, while an annual list of the 500 best in the world, developed by Shanghai Jiao Tong University, is highly regarded and widely circulated in Europe and Asia. The list of the top 500 uses criteria emphasizing research performance.

After the fall of the USSR, Ukraine went through a shock of realization that its scholarly research was not comparable to the synergetic and dynamic university scholarship in the West. Nevertheless, according to Dr. Wynnyckyj, who is Canadian, Ukraine did not change a stagnant old system into a more flexible and adaptable one.

In Ukraine, research work done by academics is evaluated by the Higher Certification Commission (Vyshcha Atestatsiina Komisia), which grants higher academic degrees and reports to the Cabinet of Ministers. Cultivating scholarship for domestic circulation only marginalizes Ukrainian higher education in relation to the international scholarly community, Dr. Wynnyckyj pointed out.

As the best universities stand on the reputation of its professors in scholarly research, NUKMA has embarked on a program of faculty development and established a series of funded professorships for its active teaching and research staff. The professorships are awarded on the basis of the following criteria: the number of staff who have achieved the highest awards in their fields and actively continue to teach students at the university; the number of highly cited researchers in 21 broad subject categories; the number of articles in journals Science and Nature; number of articles referenced in Science Citation Index-expanded, Social Science Citation Index, and Arts and Humanities Citation Index.

The professorships are sponsored funds and, so far, six have been set up:

the Julian Wynnyckyj professorship ($10,000 Can.) - department of biology, Faculty of Natural Sciences;
the Club Cosbild professorship ($20,000 Can.) - department of law (in constitutional law);
the Rev. Marian and Dr. Roman Curkowskyj professorship ($27,000 Can.) - department of law (in commercial law);
the Marta Turchyn professorship ($10,000 U.S.) - department of sociology and social sciences;
the Maria and Roman Wynnyckyj professorship ($15,000 Can.) - department of politics; and
the Mykhailo Lebid professorship ($15,000 Can.) - department of History.

The first awards were made for 2006-2007. The competitions were announced in January-March, committees were formed (separate for each professorship), interviews were conducted and the names of the recipients were announced at the 14th Academic Conference in April. The grants began in September.

The winner of each professorship has committed to prepare a scholarly monograph and submit it to a peer-reviewed publisher or an article to a peer reviewed publication, during the year of the professorship (which can be extended for a maximum of three years, but must be re-applied for every year). The amount paid out to each recipient can be up to three times the base salary which is 1,100 hrv per month for a lecturer and will enable the recipient to devote time to the research instead of looking for ways to augment the modest basic pay.

The first recipients of NUKMA professorships are: Maksym Antoniuk, lecturer, department of biology; Oleksander Vynogradov, lecturer, department of sociology; Myroslava Antonovych, lecturer (constitutional law), department of law; Roksolana Hanyk-Pospolitak, lecturer (commercial law), department of law; Margarita Chabanna, senior lecturer, department of politics; and Dr. Natalia Yakovenko, professor, department of history.

Volodymyr Morenets, first vice-president of NUKMA, said: "The establishment of the research professorships by our Canadian colleagues is a very important and serious undertaking. Although the Ministry of Education understands the value of research, it uses yesterday's standards to evaluate it. Whether that research has any influence or resonance does not concern the ministry. The professorships obligate the recipients to make public their research from a world platform where it can be evaluated by their peers anywhere in the world. The project is aimed at the development and nurture of scholars of a new generation."

Dr. Wynnyckyj hopes that the first six professorships will provide an example and that other such funds will be set up by sponsors in Canada and the United States. The minimum amount for a fund is $10,000, and tax receipts can be issued, both in Canada and in the U.S. It is also possible to add to existing funds. More information on the professorships is available on the NUKMA site: www.ukma.kiev.ua.

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