It is known that from the 1st of September NTUU ‘KPI’ will shift to the 100% teaching of foreign students in English. Moreover, substantially high level of English would be demanded from Ukrainian students who are to enter the KPI Master’s – according to the B1 criterion standards and B2 for masters entering Postgraduate. Therefore, the issue of language improvement is vital for the university.
The ways to achieve this were discussed on April, 8th at the meeting with Zhanna Sevastianova, project manager of English at British Council in Ukraine and the KPI authorities. Mykhailo Zhurovskyi, the rector of NTUU ‘KPI’, academician of the NAS in Ukraine, Yurii Yakymenko, the first vice-rector of KPI, academician of NAS in Ukraine, Sergii Sydoreko, vice-rector of international relations, correspondent-member of NAS in Ukraine, Prof. Sergii Shukaev, the head of international relations department, Prof. Borys Tsyganiuk, the director of the educational program of the Center of International Education in NTUU ‘KPI’ and others took part in the meeting. The topic of the conversation was the involvement of NTUU ‘KPI’ into British Council projects in Ukraine, ‘English for universities’.
Actually, the first meeting concerning KPI participation in the project took place in October last year. Some principal arrangements were reached on this issue. So, on April, 8th more specific questions have been discussed. First of all, Zhanna Sevastianova informed that the educational program would covered the training of the teacher of English for specific purposes (not humanities) and the lecturers from the departments who would teach the subjects connected with the specialty in English for foreigners and Ukrainian students who are doing Master’s. It means that certain English level is required. An obligatory condition of the program is that the lecturers after the training are expected to teach their colleagues from the departments. Besides, the project should cover postgraduates that will improve their language in applying it in academic studios. The educational groups will be formed in 15 lecturers of English and 15 lecturers from specialized departments. Taking into account that the project will last for 3 years, several groups would be able to go on training.
Every educational cycle will be organized in 6 stages, the first of which is the identification of the primary English level of the future course listeners, and the major stage is the 5-day intensive program on the base of one of Ukrainian universities. The stages are spread in time, so the potential listeners will be tested by the British Council in May, and will be taught intensively at the beginning of July. The formation of the first group of participating lecturer will start soon.