Dear participants and guests of the university faculty session, let me congratulate you on the 33rd anniversary of Ukraine's independence and the 126th anniversary of the founding of Igor Sikorsky Kyiv Polytechnic Institute.
Throughout the entire period of independence of our country, the university staff has demonstrated patriotism and steadfastness, state position and professionalism. And today the university directs its efforts to achieve our common victory. The staff of Kyiv Polytechnic does not stand aside from the struggle for freedom and independence in the bloody war that has been going on for 11 years. Our eternal gratitude and respect to the polytechnicians who fought and are fighting for freedom and independence. We are also grateful to the Defence Forces of Ukraine for the opportunity to study and teach, to conduct research.
Last year was an important and crucial year for the university. On the one hand, the team celebrated the 125th anniversary of the founding of Igor Sikorsky Kyiv Polytechnic Institute, summing up its progress and defining prospects for the coming years. On the other hand, the life of the university over the past few months has been associated with the organisation and conduct of the rectorial election. It is important that the election and voting procedures were transparent and democratic. The programmes presented by the candidates reflected different visions of the future development of the university, which in some ways overlapped and sometimes complemented each other. Once again, I would like to thank the staff for their trust and support. In turn, I will do everything in my power to justify it. Following the elections, the university management team was renewed and new vice-rectors were appointed, who take responsibility for the results of their respective areas. In accordance with the current legislation, the rector's contract contains the target performance indicators of the higher education institution, which he or she must ensure is achieved within a certain timeframe. At the same time, the requirements for managers also include the introduction of a system of key performance indicators in the contracts of vice rectors, deans of faculties, directors of educational and research institutes, and heads of departments.
Recent years have been challenging, from working in the context of the coronavirus pandemic to the university's functioning in the context of war. Thanks to the coordinated actions of the entire Kyiv Polytechnic community, understanding of the situation and, sometimes, self-sacrifice, the continuity of the educational process and the stable operation of the university were preserved. However, the challenges and threats we face today require even greater concentration of efforts and new management decisions. We need to resist and move forward in an unstable, uncertain, complex and ambiguous world with an increasingly competitive global landscape. The challenges include
- The changing nature of military confrontation, which over the past 2 years has been transformed into the widespread use of unmanned, robotic, hypersonic systems and cyber operations;
- the increasing dependence of Ukraine's economy on external financial assistance due to the destruction of a significant part of its economic potential;
- threats of reducing budget funding for universities;
- migration processes, the outflow of young people abroad, and others.
That is why it is worth focusing on the tasks that will help ensure the sustainable development of the university and strengthen its leadership position. Some of them were voiced during the election campaign. These are:
- ensuring the sustainability, continuity, inclusiveness and proper quality of the educational process;
- active involvement and use of artificial intelligence technologies not only in the educational process, but also in management decision-making;
- expansion of partnerships, including international ones, through qualitative improvement of the stakeholder base and changes in the terms of cooperation;
- transformation of established approaches to the educational process, which involves the use of innovative technologies in learning and teaching;
- continuing the vector of promoting the development of the defence industry of Ukraine;
- Diversification of funding sources by expanding the list of services, transferring innovations and intensifying donor assistance;
- restoring the prestige and status of the engineering profession in the country;
- active formation of a culture of academic integrity;
- further digitalisation of educational and management interactions.
Solving these problems requires mobilising the efforts of the entire university staff and the readiness of the management team to take initiative and responsibility.
Dear colleagues! The results of the university's activities in previous periods can be partially assessed based on the results of the admission campaign.
The admission of students in 2024 was held for the third time under the legal regime of martial law. Compared to the previous year, the total number of applicants decreased slightly. Thus, the number of applications submitted by applicants for bachelor's degree across the country decreased by 9.2% on average. The decline in the number of applications mostly affected technical higher education institutions, and less so classical universities. Ultimately, this led to a decrease in the number of recommended applicants for state-funded places. This was primarily due to the socio-humanitarian specialities - law, economics, management, marketing, philology, and public administration. Some technical specialities also saw a significant reduction in undergraduate enrolment, in particular, Electronic Communications and Radio Engineering at ITS and Chemical Technology and Engineering at the Faculty of Chemical Engineering. The factors that contributed to this include: a 20-30% reduction in the number of state orders across the country, and in some specialities by 2 or even 4 times; a decrease in the number of applications from applicants and insufficient career guidance.
Despite this, it can be stated that KPI remained the leader among all higher education institutions in terms of the number of recommended applicants for the first (bachelor's) level budget - 3333. It is worth noting that the university has joined a pilot project to receive state grants to compensate students for part of their expenses when studying under a contract.
Analysing the general trends in the country, the several-year-long decline in the number of those taking the NMT in disciplines that are fundamentally important for engineering specialities is a cause for concern. For example, out of 231,000 graduates this year, only 7,877 registered to take the physics exam and 3,399 for the chemistry exam. The situation is almost critical, so our task is to change the public's depreciation of technical specialities. Post-war reconstruction will require specialists in various fields, including energy, applied mechanics, materials science, aeronautical engineering, chemical engineering, biotechnology and many others. It is clear that such knowledge-intensive specialities cannot do without knowledge of physics.
The admission campaign for the master's degree in 2024 also underwent changes that significantly affected our university. In general, the number of applications for master's degree increased in 2024 at all institutions. At the same time, a significant increase in the number of applications did not affect the number of recommended applicants for state-funded places. As a result, in 2024, 1755 applicants were recommended out of 1877 possible state-funded places (93.5%).
As a research-oriented university, it is important for us to replenish the corps of scientists with young researchers. This year's postgraduate admission was fraught with some twists and turns: first, the maximum score of the EMI foreign language test was set, then it was cancelled and the maximum score of the general academic competence test was set, at the same time, full-time contract enrolment was suspended, and later the number of state-funded places was doubled compared to last year. The overall competition for full-time postgraduate studies at the university is about 2.5 applications per 1 place. The entrance exams for postgraduate studies will be held in early September.
As this year's admission campaign has shown, and it will be even more noticeable in the future, special attention should be paid to career guidance work with schoolchildren. Throughout the last academic year, career guidance activities were actively carried out: KPIAbitFest Open Days, Applicant Day, KPISchools, as well as more than 60 faculty events. We used information tools intensively, such as Telegram channels, websites and social networks. However, we already understand that in the future we need to increase our focus on external advertising, personal communication with schoolchildren and involvement of student youth. There may be a need to create an image educational centre that will provide professional advertising and marketing support for admission campaigns in the media and social media, while faculties will be responsible only for conducting direct career guidance activities.
Dear colleagues! This year, like last year, the educational process at KPI will be carried out in a mixed mode. The proposals of the departments for the autumn semester have been processed and planned in the timetables. In the spring semester of the 2024-2025 academic year, the number of educational components that will be taught in a full-time mode should increase. This is important given that during the years of the covid pandemic and full-scale war, the threats of a decline in the quality of education have become more acute. Today, maintaining quality at the proper level requires additional efforts from teachers and motivation from students.
As we have seen after the latest attack on our energy facilities, we cannot rule out the possibility of prolonged blackouts, in which case we will have to be flexible in organising and implementing the educational process. It is extremely important that our telecommunications network ensures proper remote interaction even in the event of a blackout, which means uninterrupted power supplies, generators and the use of cloud services. We are already developing solutions to minimise any risks.
Thus, we have to take into account various scenarios for organising the educational process, taking into account external factors. It is clear that our priority scenario is a gradual transition to full-time education. However, the enemy's insidious terrorist strategies can make adjustments, and, in view of this, the Sikorsky e-learning platform remains relevant. Today we see not only quantitative but also qualitative development of the platform. The number of certified e-learning courses with high-quality content has increased significantly. Therefore, we plan to build capacity in this sector and motivate teachers to create professional video content and other learning materials. Given the successes we have already had in developing our own e-learning management system, we also understand the need for software and hardware improvements to the Sikorsky platform, which includes improving the interface and user experience, and integrating the platform with the Electronic Campus information system.
To ensure that our education meets the needs of the labour market, we need to apply innovative approaches to the organisation of the educational process. In particular, we are talking about the creation of new interdisciplinary programmes that will allow us to train specialists who can interact more effectively in a changing environment, adapt more quickly, and even change the nature of their activities. Most modern technologies, along with engineering systems, are integrative and require collaboration across a wide range of industries. It should be emphasised that we have used the practice of interdisciplinarity in training personnel for the defence industry. Nowadays, Igor Sikorsky Kyiv Polytechnic Institute already has experience in creating real interdisciplinary programmes. We are talking, in particular, about Robotics and European Studies.
In the context of helping to strengthen the country's defence capability, it is important to continue the practice of training specialists for the defence and security sector. That is why this year we opened a new study programme at the Faculty of Radio Engineering - Electronic Warfare Technologies, as well as a humanitarian demining programme at the Institute of IEE. At the same time, the university has launched a number of certificate programmes aimed at the defence industry. In the future, it is planned to launch the educational and scientific direction ‘Energy Security and Green Transition Technologies’, which will fix the leading place of Igor Sikorsky Kyiv Polytechnic Institute as the most powerful technical university in Ukraine in the system of training personnel to ensure the energy security of the state, where the priority will be renewable energy sources, decarbonisation technologies and other related areas.
The need to ensure that education is practice-oriented requires a variety of forms of interaction with employers. One of these forms is the development of dual education programmes. Igor Sikorsky Kyiv Polytechnic Institute has significant experience in this area, in particular, today the university has 66 signed agreements on the introduction of dual education, and 16 faculties and educational and research institutes have educational programmes that can be implemented in this form. Today, we cooperate in the field of dual education with the following companies: DTEK, Kyivteploenergo, Energoatom, Progresstech-Ukraine, Antonov State Enterprise; Ukrainian Defence Industry JSC, Kievguma, Ajax Systems, Huawei Ukraine, Samsung LLC and others. Dual education is represented both in the technical sector of training and in the socio-humanitarian sector. However, we must understand that the practice of implementing the dual form should become a good tradition, not an innovation, especially in the field of technical knowledge. Our goal today is to significantly expand the base of stakeholders and, accordingly, the educational programmes that will be used to organise the dual form of higher education.
One of the most urgent issues is to streamline the system of employment promotion, track graduates‘ career trajectories, and monitor employers’ satisfaction with the quality of graduates' training. I would like to remind you that the results of the monitoring of graduate employment conducted by the Ministry of Education and Science of Ukraine are included in the indicators used to calculate the amount of formula funding for universities. The results of the previous monitoring, which were used to calculate funding for this year, leave much to be desired. That is why we need to work more carefully with employers, in particular, using the capabilities of the Employment Platform information system.
The university should continue the process of accreditation of educational programmes. In the previous 2023-2024 academic year alone, 54 study programmes were accredited, including 4 bachelor's, 49 master's and 1 PhD. The practice of accreditation by international agencies should be expanded: this autumn, three bachelor's degree programmes will undergo international accreditation. Along with this, the quality and relevance of educational programmes will be constantly monitored, as well as their post-accreditation monitoring, which involves taking into account the recommendations of experts, and the dissemination of best practices during the annual update of educational programmes.
Dear colleagues! The implementation of the most ambitious plans is impossible without an appropriate team of like-minded people, which should be the entire academic and administrative staff of our university. At the same time, the team must feel that the principles of justice, legal protection and belonging to the university community are respected.
It is important to create an effective human resources management system at the university, which involves planning, motivation, and development of human resources. Of course, the university has a tradition of competitive selection of academic staff, and has established reporting and rating systems, professional development, etc. At the same time, there have been repeated comments from teachers about the cumbersome nature of reporting processes. One of the current tasks is to simplify the system of ranking of the NPP to key indicators, including those related to national and international rankings. The results of the ranking should become an element of the system of motivating the teaching staff. We have to reduce the number of different reports that duplicate each other. That is why, over the next year, we must ensure the transformation of the reporting system of the NPP to avoid repeatedly filling in the same information.
As you know, the Verkhovna Rada of Ukraine has adopted draft law No. 9600, according to which teachers in higher education institutions can hold both teaching and research and teaching positions. In fact, a teacher who holds a teaching position has a higher classroom load, but is not accountable for scientific work. In turn, research and teaching staff must devote at least 30% of their working time to research. In this regard, the task arises to create a university's own system of rationing and accounting of time allocated for research.
Dear colleagues! Research and innovation should occupy a special place in the university, as advanced science and technology have a transformative power that shapes the course of society. At the same time, the potential of the university's scientific schools is still not sufficiently actualised.
Last year, research was funded on a multi-channel basis through government orders, projects of the National Research Foundation, economic contractual topics, bilateral and international projects. The total amount of funding for the university's research in 2023 was UAH 102 million, including UAH 69 million from the special fund. According to the results of the first half of this year, the volume of revenues from the special fund has already reached UAH 64 million. A significant part of this funding (70%) is made up of funds raised under economic contracts from Ukrainian enterprises and institutions of various forms of ownership, including more than UAH 3 million received through the systematic work with the Prozorro online procurement platform established at the university. The other 30% of the special fund's revenues include funding for transitional scientific and technical developments under the state order, projects of the National Research Foundation of Ukraine and international projects.
In 2024, 12 projects of university researchers won funding at NRFU competitions, including 10 projects at the Science for Strengthening Ukraine's Defence Capability competition and 2 projects at the Advanced Science in Ukraine competition. The total amount of funding for 2024 is UAH 16.2 million. Recently, 2 projects of the HTF scientists received funding as a result of the reimbursement competition for a total amount of funding in 2024 of UAH 4.5 million.
One of the unique and promising areas of Igor Sikorsky Kyiv Polytechnic Institute's research is a comprehensive space programme involving scientists from various university departments. In June of this year, the first nanosatellite of Ukraine, PolyITAN-1, set another national record - it has been 10 years since the university small spacecraft created at Igor Sikorsky Kyiv Polytechnic Institute has been in Earth orbit and successfully fulfilling its mission. The work on the creation of the fourth satellite ‘PolyITAN-12U’, organised by academician M. Zgurovsky, will continue, and ground tests are now being completed before its launch into space.
The development of the Sikorsky Challenge innovation ecosystem continued, which has already acquired the status of the All-Ukrainian one. The next XIII International Sikorsky Challenge Festival will be held at the University from 29 October to 1 November 2024. This will be the third festival held during the war.
In the first half of 2024, a number of other startup competitions were held, including Ecology and Peace, Artificial Intelligence: Global Dialogue, and, together with the Kyiv City State Administration, the Sustainable City startup competition and acceleration programme, where more than 120 projects were presented by the university.
In 2024, the Digital Innovation Hub of Igor Sikorsky Kyiv Polytechnic Institute joined a consortium of 14 partners and received the status of a European digital hub. The hub's activities are aimed at providing digitalisation and innovation support services to small and medium-sized businesses.
Dear colleagues! One of the key tasks is to significantly improve the culture of intellectual property protection, which should become a common element of our researchers' activities. To improve the university's patent and licensing activities, the relevant regulatory framework has been updated.
It is extremely important to further intensify publication activities, primarily in publications of the 1st and 2nd quartiles. By the end of 2024, the number of publications of the University in the journals included in the international scientometric databases Scopus and Web of Science is expected to increase by 5% (compared to last year). As of the beginning of August 2024, 13,289 documents were indexed in Scopus and 9,813 in Web of Science, the authors of which indicated Igor Sikorsky Kyiv Polytechnic Institute as their place of work/study.
In order to encourage researchers to publish their scientific results in publications included in international scientometric databases, the awarding of researchers based on the quartile approach will continue.
There are positive trends in the development of scientific periodicals published by Igor Sikorsky Kyiv Polytechnic Institute. Four journals belong to the 3rd quartile, and one more to the Q4. At the same time, there are many other publications that need to speed up the fulfilment of the requirements for indexing in scientometric databases.
The H.I. Denysenko Scientific and Technical Library was active, with its priority being the creation of a safe space for continuous learning, teaching, research and development. Together with its partners, one of the library's book depositories has been transformed into a modern educational safe space - the CLUST Space smart shelter.
A modern trend in world science is to provide wide public access to the results of scientific research. In 2022, our university became the first in Ukraine to adopt an open science policy.
In the difficult conditions in which young people found themselves during the war, educational work is of great importance. The deepening processes of emotional burnout, professional disorientation, and the dominance of digital communication over real life pose threats to the normal socialisation of students. That is why there should be active consultation with students on organisational issues of the educational process, establishing constant communication to provide prompt assistance in case of problems caused by hostilities, family losses, and severe psychological distress.
Student performance is approaching pre-war levels, which indicates that a sufficient level of requirements is maintained despite the rather difficult conditions in which the educational process takes place. The experience of recent years shows that students actively use the right to repeat courses, which allows them to properly master the material, achieve the required programme learning outcomes and retain the number of students.
In 2024, the state's regulatory framework for expulsion, reinstatement, transfer of students, and granting them academic leave changed significantly, which requires changes to the university's regulatory framework.
In a difficult economic environment, scholarship support for students is of great importance. It involves the continuous improvement of the system of awarding additional points, updating the regulatory framework in accordance with the current legislation, etc. We continue to work on recommending our students for scholarships. According to the results of the summer semester control, KPI nominated new winners for nominal academic scholarships, including
- seven students became scholarship holders of the academic scholarship of the President of Ukraine,
- two students received academic scholarships named after Igor Kurchatov,
- five students received scholarships from the Verkhovna Rada of Ukraine for the academic year 2024/25,
- one student was awarded a scholarship of the Heavenly Hundred Heroes.
The participation of student organisations in the life of our university and its management is particularly important. In the spring, for the first time in the last few years, the Chairman of the Student Council was elected and a team of proactive and motivated student leaders was formed.
Dear colleagues! One of the important areas of our work is the internationalisation of the university. We need to increase our efforts in the field of international activities by creating an environment that will facilitate the exchange of knowledge and intercultural enrichment of the university community. These efforts are implemented by holding important international events, expanding international partnerships, intensifying student and faculty mobility, implementing international research projects, international technical assistance projects, stabilising the situation with the enrolment of foreign students at Igor Sikorsky Kyiv Polytechnic Institute, and attracting charitable and humanitarian assistance from international sources.
Meetings were held with ambassadors of 9 countries: Japan, Belgium, Kyrgyzstan, Indonesia, Pakistan, Romania, Azerbaijan, Egypt, and Sudan. In 2024, agreements were signed with 12 foreign universities. Cooperation with the University of Sheffield (UK), Poznan, Warsaw and Silesian Universities of Technology, Lodz and Koszalin Universities (Poland), Vilnius University of Technology (Lithuania), Kanazawa University (Japan), etc. has significantly intensified.
Another important area is the continuation of cooperation with international associations and alliances. Today KPI is a full member of the ATHENA alliance, a partner in ENHANCE, EUTOPIA, EPICUR, and has applied for associate membership in ECIU and EPUC. Cooperation with 5 associations continues - CESAER, UNICA, EUA, BSUN, ECHA.
Membership in the CESAER association, which brings together 58 universities from 28 European countries, is particularly promising. In general, working with alliances and associations of European universities allows KPI to expand its capabilities and gain access to EU best practices in higher education, to train university staff in innovative teaching and learning methods, to organise microcredit training, to share experiences and to develop joint project applications for submission to international competitions.
One of the key performance indicators of an HEI is the volume of academic mobility of teachers and students. The number of mobility participants among academic staff in 2024 was 340. The main focus in the search for mobility programmes should be programmes lasting more than 1 month, as well as additional attention to the implementation of incoming mobility, taking into account security conditions.
The participation of our scientists in international projects has both scientific and technical and financial effects. As of August this year, Igor Sikorsky Kyiv Polytechnic Institute scientists are involved in 145 major international projects, including 9 Horizon 2020 projects, 11 Horizon Europe and related projects, 10 NATO projects, 10 Erasmus+ projects, KA2 and others. In 2024, 25 new projects were added.
An analysis of the results of the university's international project activities shows that Igor Sikorsky Kyiv Polytechnic Institute has increased the number of international projects under the most important programmes, such as Horizon Europe, Erasmus+, and NATO, but a significant increase in the number of projects won in recent years has not yet been achieved.
The decline in the number of applicants due to the departure of Ukrainian youth abroad forces us to look for opportunities to increase the number of foreign students. As of today, 232 foreign students from 18 countries are studying at Igor Sikorsky Kyiv Polytechnic Institute. To improve the situation of recruiting foreign students, we have implemented such tools as an online payment system, a CRM system, the DreamApply system for processing applications and documents of potential applicants; a new website of the Centralised International Office.
The positioning of any university in the world rankings is not only important for its image, but for Ukrainian universities it is also a condition for obtaining good results with formula funding. Unfortunately, the situation with the position of KPI in international rankings has not had positive trends in recent years. By joint efforts, we are represented in the world's leading rankings QS and THE. Improving the university's position in the rankings requires an almost complete revision of the comprehensive programme for building an internal university system for collecting and adapting indicators in accordance with the generalised metrics of international rankings. For example, to improve our position in THE Impact Rankings, we need to integrate the principles of sustainable development into all curricula, intensify research and innovation in the field of environmentally friendly technologies, and introduce university initiatives on energy efficiency and sustainable use of resources that will clearly demonstrate KPI's practical commitment to sustainable development. We are currently developing specific proposals and solutions.
Cooperation with international partners allows us to solve the problem of updating the educational and laboratory facilities. Thus, thanks to cooperation with international partners and universities, programmes, and alliances, funds were transferred for the development of the university and the material and technical base of laboratories was updated for a total amount of over UAH 19 million. Given the lack of budgetary funding, this practice of cooperation with international partners should be expanded.
At the same time, international project and grant activities need to be restructured through the creation of a Project Office as a structure to assist scientists in preparing project proposals and provide administrative and technical support for the winning projects. Achieving significant positive results requires organisational efforts to increase the participation of teachers and researchers in the European research area.
Dear participants of the session! The implementation of educational and scientific processes in the context of war requires addressing a number of infrastructure issues. One of the most urgent infrastructure tasks is the creation of additional places in the shelters of the academic buildings and dormitories of the campus. I would like to remind you that the safety of participants in the educational process is one of our top priorities. In preparation for the new academic year, we have arranged and certified shelters in the 17th (200 seats) and 21st (40 seats) academic buildings. The shelters in the 8th (150 places), 14th (300 places), 18th (217 places), 19th (60 places) and 20th (100 places) dormitories of the campus have been equipped and the stage of their certification is nearing completion. Thus, more than 1,000 places are to be added to the university's shelters, which will allow more students to study offline compared to the previous academic year. The work to increase the number of places in the shelters is ongoing. Over the past month, we have inspected the premises where shelters can be arranged according to the requirements, and are carrying out design and estimate work to assess the scope and cost of construction and repair work. The plans for the near future are to equip additional places in the shelters of the 18th, 19th, 20th and 21st buildings.
Preparing for the winter in the face of rocket attacks on energy infrastructure is a serious challenge for both the university and the country as a whole. We are currently working to provide the Unbreakable Points in academic buildings and dormitories with generators, charging stations and uninterrupted Internet access.
One of the areas of infrastructure development is improving its energy efficiency. To date, the university has already conducted a study of the efficiency of its use of heat and energy resources. An action plan has been developed to reduce the use of energy resources, including the replacement of broken meters and the installation of automation equipment in individual heating units of buildings and dormitories. Thermal modernisation is also a strategically important decision for the university and requires urgent action now.
The draft university development strategy envisages the creation of a safe and inclusive space. The consequences of the war increase the need to introduce modern infrastructure solutions that will allow for barrier-free access to university premises for people with disabilities.
The future of Igor Sikorsky Kyiv Polytechnic Institute is to become an environmentally friendly university. ‘In addition to improving the efficiency of energy use, green technologies will reduce the university's energy dependence. Solar and wind power generation has already been deployed in some university departments. The university's task is to significantly increase the number of generation units, in particular by implementing the developments of our scientists and students in this area.
Dear colleagues! The work of the entire university team cannot be successful without stable financial support. Unfortunately, in 2023, for objective reasons, the amount of budget funding for the costs of the educational process was reduced by 6.0% compared to the previous year. These funds were only enough to pay salaries, scholarships and a third of the utilities consumed. All other expenditures were made by the university only at the expense of revenues from all types of paid services, grants and charitable contributions. Given the current situation in the country, the threat of further cuts in higher education spending remains. At the same time, in 2024, revenues to the special fund continued to grow and are expected to reach UAH 512 million by the end of the year, which is UAH 48.3 million more than last year. Given the change in the ratio of budget and contract students at some faculties, one of the main tasks is to gradually change the system of distribution of funds between centralised deductions and funds remaining in the departments.
Despite the circumstances, the University will adhere to the basic principle of its social policy towards employees and students of all levels of higher education, namely, the maximum use of financial opportunities to improve their material support and working, living and recreational conditions.
Improvement of financial and economic activities should be based on the principles of transparency and maximum efficiency. That is why we plan to conduct an independent audit of financial and business activities to identify opportunities to improve the financial situation. As of today, the Rector has issued an order to set up a working group to prepare such an audit.
Dear colleagues! The key to high-quality training of engineers is the availability of modern educational and laboratory equipment. Despite the financial difficulties of recent years, one of the key tasks is to allocate funds to the university budget for the renewal of outdated equipment. Despite the fact that the lion's share of the university's own income is taken up by utility costs and other mandatory payments, it is very difficult to talk about strengthening the university's leadership position without updating the laboratory facilities. Therefore, this area of our activity should definitely be strengthened. Moreover, I agreed with the specific amounts of funding for equipment upgrades included in the rector's contract. Currently, it is planned to purchase equipment worth a total of UAH 4.2 million using the basic funding.
As has been mentioned many times today, further digitalisation of our activities, including the informatisation of management interactions, is vital. Today, there are a number of software products used at the university: ‘Metropolis for electronic document management, Personnel of Higher Education Institutions for personnel records. To automate accounting, the MASTER Accounting software is being consistently implemented in the work of planning and financial departments.
The issue of compliance with the law when using the software remains important. Last year, an audit of the use of licensed software was conducted and relevant proposals and recommendations were developed. This applies to both the purchase of licences by the university for centralised units and the use of so-called free software.
In addition, in terms of informatisation, it is planned to streamline the existing information systems used to administer the educational process. We are talking about the Electronic Campus, My.KPI.UA, the Dean's Office, the Sikorsky Platform, the timetable system, etc. Of course, informatisation cannot take place without the development of a telecommunications network. Last year, a lot was done thanks to cooperation with partners and the allocation of funds from the university. We replaced switching nodes and laid new lines. In addition, we continue to develop IP telephony.
Summing up, I would like to note that the priority tasks of the university in the current conditions are the implementation of the educational process and research aimed at strengthening Ukraine's defence capabilities, achieving sustainable development goals, strengthening the international component, digital transformation of management, educational and scientific activities, development of innovations, social protection of the team, creation of a comfortable, safe learning and working environment.
Dear participants of the session! The tasks facing the university are ambitious, but feasible for our team. Cohesion, mutual support and professionalism will allow us to cope with them. I congratulate you on the beginning of the new academic year. I wish you good health, success in your work, peaceful skies and common victory!
