The development of the educational environment is the basis of comprehensive youth growth. From the report of the vice-rector for educational work Nataliia Seminska
The work of the department was carried out taking into account the peculiarities of the present, the development strategy of Igor Sikorsky Kyiv Polytechnic Institute and close cooperation with students. We tried to flexibly respond to the needs and expectations of our stakeholders and created conditions for the preparation of a competitive graduate by promoting the development of his professional competencies, competencies for life, as well as improving the system of motivations. 2020 and its challenges led to update and improvement in the regulatory framework of the university in the directions of the department work, significantly expanded our presence in the information field of the university and intensified feedback and informing participants about the current issues of the university.
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The strategy of the department provides for interaction with schoolchildren and student youth on the way to their choice of the future profession.
To ensure the synergy of "motivated schoolchild-entrant-student” a single career guidance platform KPIAbitInfo was created. It has become a kind of navigator into the world of versatility of Igor Sikorsky Kyiv Polytechnic Institute. Here are just some of its components.
"KPIAbitFest" is an updated format of the Open Day. Its holding is of great interest to guests. The concept of holding KPIAbitFest-online events was introduced during the quarantine restrictions together with the Media Laboratory and the Admissions Committee, as well as the creation and promotion of films about the university in the media space, made in the format of open communication with students and graduates.
The TechnoArtKPI Online Engineering Festival, which for the first time this year became a platform uniting schoolchildren, students, teachers, club members and the Sikorsky Challenge Festival, allowed to present the opportunities and activities of students in extracurricular time.
In search of talented young people, we have expanded cooperation with the Junior Academy of Sciences(JAS), schools and lyceums. Especially productive - with the technical section of KJAS and the Polytechnic Lyceum, whose youth are active participants and winners of "TechnoArtKPI", "Sikorsky Challenge", as well as the competition "Eco-Techno Ukraine". Such cooperation has its positive consequences: thanks to the university teachers who actively cooperate with KJAS and the Polytechnic Lyceum, almost 70 talented students have joined the university, which contributes to the growth of the image of Igor Sikorsky Kyiv Polytechnic Institute in the international space.
In response to a request from entrants and their parents to receive high-quality and accessible information support for the admission campaign, the department, in close cooperation with the Admissions Committee and students, intensified work in the on-line media space. A marathon of interviews of faculties was conducted, a catalogue of entrants and an assistant-navigator, which became simple and clear guide for entrants and students, were developed.
All these events allowed to create a comfortable microclimate and to provide counselling and psychological support to entrants and their parents during the admission campaign and the submission of original documents.
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In the conditions of transition to distance education during the year, the most complete and up-to-date information on the course of the educational process, the epidemiological situation in the Igor Sikorsky Kyiv Polytechnic Institute and the incidence of COVID-19 was provided. Medical reform was also at the beginning of the pandemic. The department provided organizational support for medical support of students. A memorandum of cooperation was signed with the Student Polyclinic and the “Miy Likar” Clinic. This allowed students to receive medical advice during quarantine, even without declarations. The administration of the campus created places for self-isolation of students, organized control of their well-being, together with the faculties and active students carried out duty, provision of food and medicine.
In order to meet the educational needs of applicants for higher education and entrants in compliance with sanitary and epidemiological requirements, a set of measures for safe settlement and living in campus dormitories has been introduced.
Together with the substantive departments and representatives of student organizations, regulatory documents were updated and implemented and modules in the "Electronic Campus” were formed . These activities enabled effective work during the academic year.
In order to make a balanced and thorough decision on the conditions of education in the autumn semester, a survey of students and university staff was conducted. Its detailed analysis formed the basis for making administrative decisions, for the implementation of which step-by-step algorithms were developed starting from the organization of the introductory campaign and ending with the organization of the educational process at the level of faculties / institutes / departments.
Particular attention was paid to work with the 1st year students. A clear trajectory of interaction between freshmen, all levels of administration, curators, student curators and teachers was created.
The Day of the freshman, within the limits of acquaintance of students with university at each faculty / institute, was held online. For the adaptation of freshmen, together with DOEP, 8 face-to-face training weeks were organized and conducted, during which freshmen were constantly accompanied by groups in charge of faculties / institutes, curators and student curators. The adaptation of freshmen was also facilitated by a series of events as part of this year's KPI First Year introductory marathon, which allowed students to immerse themselves in the community and realize the opportunities that the university offers them.
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Distance education and learning outcomes. Analysing the contingent by qualitative criteria, it should be noted that more than 93% of applicants study full-time, and more than 84% - at the first (bachelor's) level of higher education.
The percentage of students who passed the semester control without debts remained within normal limits at a number of faculties. And only some showed some growth.
The qualitative distribution of grades has changed - the percentage of students who passed the semester control with grades "excellent", "good" and "very good" has increased, and the percentage of those who have passed the control measures with grades "sufficient" and "satisfactory" has decreased.
The average number of students expelled in the 2019/2020 academic year remained at the level of previous years - about 5.41%.
Most students, regardless of the mode of study, as in previous years, are expelled from the first year. However, there is a tendency of low learning outcomes of some master's students, deductions from the first year of which are most numerous.
Nevertheless, the overall success of semester controls by students has increased slightly, which has led to a decrease in the percentage of expelled students at the university as a whole.
The possibility of re-studying disciplines last year also contributed to the reduction of the percentage of expelled students. Summing up the results of semester controls, it should be noted that the experience gained in conducting the educational process in quarantine proved the need to minimize and unify procedures for documentary support of the students, including deductions, renewals and more.
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The introduction of the Department of Student Human Resources and the Department of Document Support of Higher Education Students allowed us to start active work on creating a "Single Window" system and improving student service.
Under the quarantine restrictions, first-year student tickets were ordered and issued in a timely manner. Active work was carried out together with faculties / institutes on ordering and issuing new student tickets for students of final years. Execution and issuance of documents on higher education was also carried out in a timely manner.
Academic and nominal scholarships are one of the effective tools to stimulate students to study. They are provided based on the results of successful education and active participation in scientific and social activities. Therefore, for their fair distribution, a transparent and unified system of additional points to the performance rating has been developed. It allows using single indicators for accrual of academic scholarships and competitive selections for other projects in the field of financial support for higher education.
This also simplified the possibility of obtaining additional scholarships and stimulated the growth of the number of recipients of nominal scholarships, both at the state level and those provided by partner organizations. We work closely with companies to attract new commercial scholarships. An example of such cooperation was the scholarship from Monobank for the best students in the IT industry, along with the already traditional scholarships from Melexis and Energoatom for students of technical specialities.
We continue to provide accounting and regulatory support for privileged categories of students, the number of which is growing every year. To support the most vulnerable categories of students, together with the Department of Economics and Finance, it was decided to double the amount of their material and financial support.
In pursuance of the resolution of the Cabinet of Ministers, together with the relevant departments, the Regulations and procedures for granting state preferential loans for education were developed and implemented. The total amount of loans granted during 2020 is 62 thousand hryvnias.
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Given the increased psychological vulnerability of students under quarantine restrictions, our efforts were also aimed at providing psychological support. In total, more than 2,000 consultations were conducted by social service and campus psychologists during the year. For the convenience of booking an on-line or off-line consultation on the updated website of the Social Service, the appropriate service is installed on the website. Webinars and lectures on relevant topics were also held.
One of the priority areas of the department's work is to promote the development of an inclusive educational environment at the university. The implementation of the Regulations on Inclusion, the activities of the working group on the development of an inclusive educational environment, support for relevant projects of partner companies, ensuring the representation of Igor Sikorsky Kyiv Polytechnic Institute in the Council for Inclusion of the Ministry of Digital Transformation, has begun.
In order to develop communication skills, the ability to work in a team, students were involved in the implementation of the concept of public service in the university space. SSS (Student Social Service) representatives organized traditional events: Donor's Day, webinars, etc. The volunteer movement also became more active.
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Participation in academic mobility programs allows students to expand their cultural and professional worldview. Pandemics and lockdowns in different countries affected mobility, but did not stop this process completely, so cooperation with partners from twenty-three countries was maintained during the year.
55 agreements were active under the Erasmus + KA1 program. The total amount of individual grants received by the participants exceeded 20 million hryvnias at the current exchange rate.
186 applicants for higher education and 17 scientific and pedagogical stuff members (SPSM) took part in the mobility programs. Incoming mobility, given the quarantine restrictions, has slightly lower rates - Igor Sikorsky Kyiv Polytechnic Institute was visited by 17 applicants and 2 SPSMs.
There was also activity in initiative mobility programs, in which 40 applicants took part.
It should be noted that the number of program participants is distributed among the faculties / institutes somewhat unevenly.
The regulatory framework has been updated to provide additional academic opportunities. Particular attention is paid to the organizational and documentary support of double degree programs with foreign institutions.
Currently, under double degree programs, cooperation takes place under 16 agreements, in which 29 graduates took part.
To expand initiative mobility, new opportunities are presented through the involvement of the university in 48 scholarship programs.
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The Career Development Centre promoted students' acquisition of professional competencies and exchange of experience with leading specialists by actively involving employers in cooperation and partnership. Together with the substantive departments, a Model Agreement on Cooperation has been developed and a university-wide base has been created, which already has more than 350 agreements - they are publicly available.
The Career Development Centre has signed 35 contracts for the implementation of the " Window" concept in six months. It should be noted that the interest of partners is not limited to one faculty or speciality. This made it possible to conclude comprehensive agreements in close cooperation between faculties / institutes and partners. All agreements are posted on the information resources of the Centre - on its updated website, telegram channel and on the Facebook page, which also contains information about open vacancies, internship programs and current news. For the first time, a "Job Fair" was held on-line on a specially developed platform to organize direct interaction between students and employers. It was attended by 30 companies and almost 1,000 students and teachers.
In total, 46 partner companies conducted 120 on-line webinars for students and teachers during the quarantine period.
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To implement the concept of patriotic education through the personal growth of KPI-student through the formation of the value of the Motherland, the state, the alma mater, the native language, conversion to the ideas of virtue, charity and devotion, more than 20 events were held: lectures, publications, flash mobs, competitions, exhibitions.
In order to develop professional competencies in extracurricular time, students were involved in participating in clubs, competitions, contests, hackathons, etc. During the year, the workshops were reformatted,and are now evaluated according to certain criteria. To facilitate the search for the individual trajectory of personal growth of students, convenient catalogues of workshops by directions have been developed. An on-line service "Hobby Workshop" has also been created. In total, 116 student workshops were registered and re-registered last year under the new requirements, and more than 1,000 students are involved in their work. Their activities are implemented in close cooperation with the Department of Science and Innovation, coordinated with the work of research groups of the university, which implements the concept of "learning through research".
We pay considerable attention to the development and promotion of the Olympic movement. Catalogues of Olympiads by areas have been developed. Currently, 53 first and 8 second stages of the All-Ukrainian Olympiads are held annually on the basis of Igor Sikorsky Kyiv Polytechnic Institute. According to the decision of the Ministry of Education and Science of Ukraine, the second stages of the 2020 Olympiads were cancelled. This made adjustments to the annual International Student Olympiad "KPI-OPEN", of which 70 teams took part in the first stage. As an alternative, the interfaculty student Olympiad "KPI on-line" was held and it was joined by 27 teams from 7 faculties and institutes. And so that during the pandemic active students do not lose the desire to participate in the Olympiad, the department actively involves them in projects initiated by partner companies - and almost 900 people have already participated in them.
Our students won 17 victories and awards in extracurricular activities.
Special mention should be made of the workshops created at the Department of Student Consolidation - the International Student Organization "BEST KYIV", which this year with the support of the university held national and regional engineering competitions European BEST Engineering Сompetition with involvement of more than 100 Igor Sikorsky Kyiv Polytechnic Institute students, vocal studio "Inspiration" and ESTIEM. Thus, the Centre has created a creative team of students with different interests, abilities and talents.
An important step in popularizing scientific and engineering culture among young people was Educational and Research Centre "Engineering School Noosphere KPI” created at the Department. This is a platform for engineering activities. The teams had Igor Sikorsky Kyiv Polytechnic Institute students and schoolchildren.
The Centre of Culture and Art continues to develop creative abilities of students and, in the conditions of quarantine, did not stop its activity and conducted it online.
We still have many plans and ideas. We very much hope that our cooperation with all university departments, based on mutual respect, mutual understanding and support, will be strengthened for the benefit of Igor Sikorsky Kyiv Polytechnic Institute development.