On June 9, 2023, Lviv Polytechnic hosted the international conference "Internationalization as a Key to Recovery: The First Year of Twinning" was organized by the British consulting company Cormack Consultancy Group.
Igor Sikorsky Kyiv Polytechnic Institute was represented by the Head of the Department of Foreign Economic Activity Andriy Shysholin, who is the coordinator of this cooperation project.
The event was aimed at summarizing the results of the first year of British universities' assistance to Ukrainian universities in their ability to continue their activities despite the challenges of war.
The University of Sheffield, one of the top 100 universities in the world, is KPI's partner in the twinning.
Over the year of cooperation, we have achieved the following significant results. Namely:
-A charitable donation of £20,000 was received for the reconstruction of Igor Sikorsky Kyiv Polytechnic Institute's bomb shelters;
-organization of the free transfer of equipment for the Center for Supercomputing at Igor Sikorsky Kyiv Polytechnic Institute;
-the project with the English Language Teaching Center at the University of Sheffield has started, during which 113 teachers of Igor Sikorsky Kyiv Polytechnic Institute are taking intensive courses on the methodology of teaching subjects using English as an intermediary (at the expense of the British side);
-The joint project Building back better is ongoing to create a startup environment for the post-war reconstruction of Ukraine;
-a project was submitted for a grant from the British Space Agency;
- cooperation between libraries is actively developing, and much more.
During the conference, Cormack Consultancy Group CEO Charles Cormack gave a summary of the results. In particular:
- British universities provided assistance and services worth about 50 million pounds;
- more than 12,000 Ukrainian students and teachers received free access to the Reallyenglish English learning platform;
- 25 Ukrainian universities received free access to the FutureLearn educational course platform;
- 33 pairs of British and Ukrainian universities received grants for joint research projects;
- 6 pairs of universities received grants to develop and create double degree programs.
The event included a brainstorming session to clarify the needs of Ukrainian universities in the context of maintaining the sustainability of their educational services and research.
Joint efforts identified the following needs.
1. Ensuring physical security on campuses: support for the restoration of bomb shelters and shelters.
2. Ensuring the development of educational and research infrastructure: equipment for distance education and equipment for laboratories.
3. Joint research projects and staff mobility to expand partnerships.
4. Access to digital tools - cloud storage and licenses - for specialized software.
In addition, the main plans for the next year have been declared.
- Involve 50 universities in research cooperation.
- Develop 5-7 double degree programs.
- Launch a capacity building project.
- Develop joint educational programs between twin universities, as well as microcredit programs (short-term educational programs).
- Develop opportunities for learning English.
- Support the development of retraining programs for veterans.
- Support the development of programs aimed at the physical and mental health of Ukrainian students and academic/management staff.