Table of Contents

International Cooperation Projects for Ukrainian Universities: Problems of Preparation and Management

Svetlana A. Shmelova, Vice-rector and Chairperson
of the International Department,
Dnipropetrovsk State Financial Economic Institute, Ukraine

Igor A. Seyts, Manager, Regional Economic Development Agency,
Foreign Affairs Department, Dnipropetrovsk, Ukraine

Amy L. Wilson, Coordinator, Arkansas Environmental Federation,
Little Rock, Arkansas, USA

In the process of contemporary social transformation in Ukraine, universities can and must play a key role. There are minimum individual, social and political conditions for effective democracy: the right of self-perfection and the right to participate in social processes. It is hard to overstress the role of higher education establishments in that process. At the same time in the current economic situation, it is difficult to expect Ukrainian universities to succeed by themselves in that process. Therefore the necessity of active international partnerships is evident.

For the last ten years, essential changes have occurred in Ukrainian higher education that have begun to create a fundamentally new system more concerned with meeting international norms and standards. New courses have been developed and introduced; new teachers have been trained; new textbooks have been prepared; and new programs and specialties have been created and approved. Now we can speak of creating a fundamentally new "educational space" in Ukraine and discuss its active integration into international educational processes. Such changes should make domestic education more attractive for young Ukrainians and lessen temptation for emigration and subsequent"brain-drain."

While Ukrainian state ministries and departments have taken substantial steps in this direction, at present such activities exist mainly due to international academic projects and programs. For example, 37 projects under the TEMPUS/TACIS1 scheme are being implemented in Ukraine. About 20 out of these 37 projects are being conducted in Eastern Ukraine. Each project has average financing of $500,000. Since this program came to Ukraine, it has financed 92 TEMPUS/TACIS projects. Additionally, the USAID2 project "Consortium for Enhancement of Ukrainian Management Education" has been working in Ukraine for three years with $5 million of initial financing. And there are plenty of similar examples. Those mentioned above are only the most significant projects from the aggregate list of international educational projects in Ukraine. Indeed, a simple enumeration of the different international foundations and programs supporting higher education reforms in Ukraine would take up a considerable amount of space.

Moreover, the field of activities associated with the processes of preparation, organization and conduct of international educational projects cannot be the subject of only one article. Here, therefore, we shall discuss some aspects concerning the problems of project preparation and some possible solutions.

As early as the preparation stage, principal aspects of international project activities must be conceived, formalized and taken into consideration. This is critical for a successful implementation of the project.

To be actively involved in the process of international cooperation, Ukrainian universities must determine their mission and policy very clearly and solve the following problems in their strategic plans, projects and programs constantly and consistently:

  • Raising university entrepreneurial abilities

    Only by becoming less bureaucratic and more enterprising will universities be able to survive under conditions of competition while transforming the legislative basis of higher education.

  • Both existing and new course programs should be oriented at real labor market conditions

    Universities must have a serious attitude about their role in preparing students to contribute productively in the labor market. In this process obviously they should not abandon theoretical training, since application of results is impossible without preliminary research. But universities should develop courses meeting the expectations of students, employers and society. Furthermore, they should give particular attention to the fields of Management and Law, which are vitally important for economic reforms but which were not developed enough in years past.

  • Necessity of institutional development and the search for non-academic partners

    Universities should set up relations with national and local governments, business circles and non-governmental organizations. Such relations gain significantly in importance particularly when universities support necessary social changes in administrative thinking and practice. International cooperation should enable a goal of supporting the development of contemporary political and market-oriented structures.

  • Organization for the new market

    Modernization will call for the creation of new "horizontal" subdivisions that will have contacts directly with consumers and also represent the interests of faculties. Simultaneously, when applying new educational technologies, it will be necessary to establish contacts with new target groups: not only with business circles and, government officials at different levels, but also with formerly ignored groups of potential students (with physical and mental disabilities, living in the countryside, etc). Using methods oriented at market forces and making students a cynosure will enable universities to take a leading stand. That could be a way of attracting students from very wide circles, and possibly from other countries.

  • Looking for accreditation

    Competitive strength assumes not only attainment of high quality but also a possibility to make sure of its high level. There are no doubts that in the global labor market there will appear a need for quality assessments of new courses and educational materials on the basis of generally accepted criteria. Therefore, for countries just starting their integration into the processes of international education and cooperation (e.g. Ukraine), there must be clear and trusted quality standards accepted in international practice. If the way of domestic accreditation is chosen, then this mechanism will be more sure-footed if the responsibility is borne by a collegiate organ. If external accreditation is needed, then a conclusion by international, professional, non-governmental organizations (academic associations, federations, etc) will have a higher rating than that of national ministries.

  • Organizations and the management of change

    In universities, like in any big organizations, there must be the political will to secure change. Information management and the training of new employees are essential for an environment favoring transformations. For foreign partners, international cooperation stimulates changes not only in Ukraine but in a partner country and this too is especially attractive.

    New courses, new textbooks, the introduction of new teaching and learning methods and approaches into the educational process, and the acquisition of new knowledge entail changes in relations among university administrators, teaching staff and students. Active development of this process requires certain personal characteristics such a broad scientific vision, enthusiasm, creativity, openness and readiness for change. Experience indicates that qualitative changes in personnel become the most important factor ensuring consistency and continuity of the transformative process.

    Any attempt to address the aforementioned problems should involve training in business ethics, fundamentals of business communication and leadership. Analysis of existing experience demonstrates that failures or certain difficulties in the process of project preparation and implementation occur on account of differences in mentality between the project participants from different countries. This problem requires special consideration, and it should be taken into account at the stage of project preparation and effective measures for its elimination must be considered.

    We have prepared a Special Leadership course as a means of solving this problem. This course was approbated within the framework of the CEUME Summer institute – 2001. On the basis of this course special workshops for teachers and managers from Ukrainian universities have been developed.

    In order to assure the effectiveness of projects from the position of national educational reform, the following indispensable conditions should be met at the preparation stage:

  • project goals and tasks should correspond with the strategic plans of a university’s development and be based on a systems analysis of the partner’s preceding experience;

  • partners should have a realistic and mutual comprehension of past and present social, political and economic changes in their countries;

  • processes for project implementation and disseminatiuon of results should be accompanied by careful analysis;

  • inclusion of several organizations of the same type into a project addressing one country;

  • disseminating results should be system-defined and each new course should bring changes in teaching materials, teaching methods, thinking methods, research and strategic planning of actions both during and after project implementation;

  • disseminated results should be thoroughly thought-out and multifaceted (mass-media involving, publications, organization of conferences and exhibitions, and undertaking new research are all necessary);

  • composition of project partners must be as stable as possible during the overall period of project implementation. It is important both for project implementation and its further sustainable development.

    For successful project implementation, vertical and horizontal structures of project activities should be created at the stage of project planning and preparation.

    Creating vertical structures of project activities presumes:

  • establishing contacts with corresponding ministries, enterprises and other consumers of the project product and discussing with them a course of project development that clarifies the needs of local governments and enterprises;

  • participation by representatives of different groups (ministry and department officials, university administrators, target groups) in joint discussions, seminars and conferences.

    Creating horizontal structures of project activities should be based upon the idea that a project and its results are not the only prerogative of its participants. Therefore:

    • it is necessary to involve other higher education establishments of the same profile in different project events;

    • project participants should create their own network structures of disseminating information and results, while cooperating with each other on their own initiative.

    Such network structures can be many-sided:

    • project networks: projects financed by different organizations and funds of a country should pursue a course common for them, so that subsequent projects become logical successors;

    • investment networks: each higher education establishment or person engaged in a project ought to endow with their time, work, resources and to discharge their obligations;

    • result networks: specific project results (such as textbooks and courses) have value only within their destination, therefor it is possible to create networks for educational goals; courses can serve as a means towards these goals, textbook – as a means of the development of these courses and personnel – teachers and students – as users of these textbooks, etc; and

    • participant networks: it is necessary to involve both representatives of different target groups and beneficiaries at different levels (ministries, local governments, university administrations, enterprises) in the process of disseminating project results, this aspect of functioning permits those involved to apply effectively the "cascade principle" for training instructors, who at the next stage will become a link for other beneficiaries.

    Success in the dissemination of project results depends upon the experience of project designers (at the preparation stage). In the future, this responsibility will be transferred to project directors and coordinators. Participants too will play a role in the process of ensuring concerted actions, especially of developing effective mechanisms to encourage changes and decisive problem-solving.

    Even a short survey of problems of project preparation for university international cooperation calls attention to the financing of university activities. Educational reforms in Ukraine should not only be aimed at de-monopolization, creation of competition in the educational services market, introduction of multi-level education, and democratization of higher education management. It also should involve the development of a new system of financing education that makes use of the financial resources of international funds and organizations, as well as domestic commercial structures and individual donors.

    General economic crisis, instability of development, and a need for reforms in the legislative structures create conditions of uncertainty and factors influencing development of educational institutions. It is possible to identify the following factors of negative external influence on organizational and financial activities of higher education establishments in Ukraine:

    • a cumbersome system of opening new academic specializations;

    • a labor market that fails to provide signals for the modification of specialized training;

    • economic crisis, and as a consequence high unemployment that frustrates efforts at job placement;

    • national educational standards that put obstacles in the way of introducing new educational programs;

    • financial instability of higher education establishments as a consequence of the general economic crisis.

    The problem of financing the development of educational institutions is an extremely urgent one for Ukrainian universities. Most crucial is looking for possible sources of financing, a ratio between state and non-state financing in the overall capacity, and the development of a legislative basis for cooperation with potential sponsors.

    We conducted a survey and initial analysis of the financing systems in some European and American universities3 . The analysis is not complete, but it does demonstrate essential differences between the Ukrainian and non-Ukrainian universities.

    Main sources of financing for European and American universities include:

    1. State sources:

    • at the national level

    • at local levels

    2. Public sources

    3. Private sources

    • foundations

    • other organizations

    • individual donors

    If we talk about main types of university funding abroad, then apart from state financing, the universities have the following types of financial inflows:

    • tuition fees;

    • return on investments in long-term deposit funds;

    • fees for additional services (consulting, training, research, developing and conducting projects, etc);

    • grants;

    • contracts;

    • voluntary contributions.

    The analysis shows that such revenue items as return on investments in long-term deposit funds and fees for additional services are typical for both state and private higher education establishments in the world. These two sources of funding constitute up to 50% of the total of the foreign university’s budget.

    1. Sources of financing at Sunderland University, Great Britain.

    Universities in Great Britain have an average annual budget of about £40 million.

    The volume of government financing in this case is defined by the quantity of students from EU countries and is directly proportional to it. Thus the state has a possibility to influence the quantity and structure of prepared specialists with higher education in the country and to pursue the necessary state policy. Industrial companies, along with the governments of the EU and Great Britain, mainly give grants. The volume of government financing for research is defined by SERC (Science, Educational Research Council) on the basis of requirements for societal development and proposals of universities that are prepared by universities every five years and take into account their main achievements (quantity and quality of prepared students, research and publications, quantity and quality of professorial and teacher staff and research groups, etc.). Publication of the results of scientific research and participation in different conferences, including international ones, are exercised by scientists at the expense of special grants or their own funds.

    2. Distribution of financial inflows for scientific research of the Nottingham University, Great Britain

    3. Distribution of financial inflows for educational activities of State Land-Grant University (Virginia, USA)

    4. Financing of research activities of State Land-Grant University (Virginia, USA)

    5. Financing activities of international cooperation department of State Land-Grant University (Virginia, USA)

    6. Distribution of financial inflows for theoretical research of the State University of Ohio, USA

    7. Distribution of financial inflows for applied research of the Ohio State University, USA

    8. Ratio of parts of different sources of financing in salaries of teachers combining teaching, consulting and doing research in the Ohio State University, USA

    9. Financing activities of international cooperation department of University of Arkansas at Little Rock, USA

    In this case, governmental agencies as well as private funds and companies give grants.

    Now financial inflows in the form of grants exist in the budgets of both foreign and Ukrainian higher education establishments. The difference is in the volume and sources of grant financing. Abroad, the main share of grants is given not only by different governmental and private agencies and funds, but also by commercial firms and private persons. In Ukraine, grants are given mainly by international funds and organizations and the process of obtaining private grants by universities is in the beginning of development.

    We can observe different reasons for this phenomenon:

    • imperfection of the tax system in Ukraine;

    • absence of a "culture of financial support" in Ukraine for higher education establishments by financial companies. The general level of social culture does not create a positive image for private sponsors. In other words, such activities are not considered prestigious and do not provide a "tax break" for participating financial sponsors. In the U.S., however, companies avoid paying taxes when they provide donations to education institutions and it’s called a "win-win" situation. The company benefits by donating money to the university so they will not be taxed for that money and the university also benefits. And so does the society because more money is being used to develop the nation’s educational "brain trust."

    • insufficient understanding by educational institutions about the necessity of developing additional sources of revenues (scientific research, consulting);

    • absence of developed culture of university’s fundraising in Ukraine. American Universities actively approach companies for donations to develop certain educational resources. For example, an information-based technology company might donate money to build, staff and finance a new technology resource center in order to promote the education of the kinds of professionals in a field that will provide that same company with the workers they need in order to succeed. (Usually the society is not providing that workforce adequately.) Therefore, it’s another "win-win" situation.

    Let us dwell in detail upon this one last problem.

    Our analysis of information obtained in European and American universities demonstrates that they do not get principal shares of funding for research and educational activities from the governments. Foreign researchers and/or teachers prepare annually not less than 8-10 proposals for financing by different funds and companies.

    As a rule, the more useful educational programs and research are for society and the marketplace, the easier and faster universities get financial support and recognition. The more timely an academic course is, the easier is the process of its introduction into curricula and search of funding for this goal.

    Almost all leading universities in the world offer a course on writing grant proposals and fund raising for the students at graduate and postgraduate levels, as well as for young researchers and teachers. Libraries of foreign universities possess a great quantity of special literature on fundraising affording students the opportunity to study in depth on one’s own. Besides a number of web sites, traditional and distant consulting companies can always help those who wish to make progress in this field.

    An analysis of the situation in Ukraine was conducted within the Consortium for Enhancement of Ukrainian Management Education (CEUME). In 2000, the Consortium conducted several special sessions within the Summer Institute program and weekend workshops on Grant Proposal Writing for teachers and administrators of Ukrainian higher education establishments.

    The analysis of participants’ questionnaires showed the following:

    • only 32% of respondents (teachers and administrators of Ukrainian higher education establishments) had had an experience of working with grant proposals,

    • only 29% of respondents had ever received grants or other kinds of non-state financial support of their activities;

    • 99% of respondents recorded a lack of special literature;

    • 87% of respondents had not had any kind of special literature for working in this field;

    • 98% of universities had not had any kind of special literature in this field in their libraries;

    • 100% of respondents had had a necessity to follow a special course;

    • 99% of respondents considered important creating a special web page on this topic.

    Based on these numbers, it is obvious the situation needs to change in Ukraine for the enlargement and development of international activity of Ukrainian higher education establishments, and to achieve this goal the following are needed:

    • further development of the theory and practice of international university cooperation;

    • generalization and analysis of the total experience, and wide dissemination of the results of this analysis;

    • development of special courses and programs for organization of international cooperation, as well as training teachers and researchers;

    • preparation of special textbooks detailing the methods related to successful grant writing;

    • web site creation and involvement of consulting companies to encourage the support and development of international activity among Ukrainian establishments of higher education;

    • the attaction of international foundations, programs and projects to this activity;

    • conferences, seminars, and other meetings where professionals can share experiences and discuss problems related to project preparation and implementation.

    1 Program for support of higher education development funded by European Commission
    2 United States Agency for International Development
    3 Special thanks to our colleagues:

    • Alan Cudworth, Professor, Nottingham Trend University, Great Britain.
    • Patrick E. Lipps, Professor, Department of Plant Pathology, Ohio State University, USA.
    • Keith M. Moore, Program Director for Education, Training and Technology Transfer, Office of International Research and Development, Virginia Polytechnic Institute and State University, USA.
    • Martha Morton, Programs Director, Arkansas International Center/ DISLS, University of Arkansas, USA
    • Alfredo Moscardini, Professor, Sunderland University, Great Britain.

    References:

    1. "Development of Business Education in Ukraine." Material of the First Annual National Conference of the Consortium for Enhancement of Ukrainian Management Education (CEUME), 1999.
    2. Materials of the Second Annual National conference of the Consortium for Enhancement of Ukrainian Management Education (CEUME), 2000.
    3. "Perspectives for EU-Supported Cooperation in Higher Education 2000-2006." Conference report. 1999.
    4. "Tacis in Ukraine." Summary of activity. 2000.
    5. S.A. Shmelova, I.A. Seyts, "Analysis of Financing System of Higher Educational Institutions in Ukraine, Europe and America." Materials of 5-th International Scientific Conference "Finance of Ukraine." Dnipropetrovsk, 2001.
    6. S.A. Shmelova, "Preparation of the Projects of the International Cooperation of Higher Educational Institutions of Ukraine, USA and Europe: Analysis of Experience, Problem and Way of the Decision." Materials of the International Conference "Integration of the Higher Education of Ukraine in European System." Dnipropetrovsk, 2001.
    7. Svitlana Shmelova, "Pest and Pesticide Management Project /USAID and correct pesticide applying as a way of preservation and improvement of environment. The role of Ukrainian NGOs in this process." In the book: Public Participation in the Process Environment for the Europe: on the way to Kiev – 2003. Experience of Ukrainian Environmental Public Organizations Activity and their Participation in Decisions Making Process. / Regional Ecological Center REC-Kiev – Kiev.: 2001.
    8. Svetlana, A. Shmelova, Natalia E. Boytsoun, Igor Seyts, Amy L. Wilson, "Problems of Preparation of the International Cooperation Projects for Universities in Ukraine." Materials of the Third Annual National conference of the Consortium for Enhancement of Ukrainian Management Education (CEUME), Kiev, 2001.
    9. Svetlana Shmelova, Natalia Boytsoun, Igor Seyts, Amy Wilson, "International Cooperation Projects for Ukraine Universities on the Way from Transitional Economy to Sustainable Development." Materials of the Advanced NATO Research Workshop "From Transitional Economy To Sustainable Development" Dnipropetrovsk/Ukraine, 2001
    10. Svetlana Shmelova, "International Cooperation Projects of Ukrainian Universities for Sustainable Development." Materials of the International scientific - practical conference "Youth Labor Market in the Transition Economy Countries on the Way to Sustainable Development". Dnipropetrovsk/Ukraine, 2001

    Table of Contents



    • Copyright ©2002-2004