Dear colleagues and guests from Republic of Poland, Let me congratulate you on 119th anniversary of Kyiv Polytechnic Institute establishment and 26th anniversary of Ukrainian independence.

The country has been withstanding its independence and territorial integrity for 4 years by dint of our citizens’ lives and enormous economic losses. Unfortunately, it is now 10 our people who fell in this battle and whose names are in the list of the Heavenly Hundred Heroes. Another evidence of bravery is the KPI flag that with our colleagues experienced real hell of war in eastern Ukraine. The flag was given to the university by ATO veteran Bohdan Kushnir, former student of the faculty of sociology and law, and placed near the photo gallery of the deceased at the main university building. We are very grateful to them and thousands of others who defended peace and our pro-European choice at the expense of their own life.

Our determination of European standards is confirmed by the leadership in national transparency ranking, in QS and Webometrix rankings among Ukrainian universities.The strong evidences of global impact are launching of two nanosatellites (“PolyITAN-1”, “PolyITAN-2”), world leadership of ethical hackers, winnings and great achievements at world mathematical university competitions etc.

Last year we kept on implementations of law acts “On higher education”, “On scientific and scientific engineering efforts” and some other legislations. Furthermore, new edition of the Ihor Sikorskyi KPI Statute “Educational process policy” was compiled. Methodology and documentation for bachelor’s, master’s, PhD degrees were prepared. New curriculum was developed where there are up to 25% optional subjects and UNESCO programme “Education for sustainable development-2030” were taken into consideration.

University work is focused on preparation of competitive expert by further integration of scientific research and innovations into educational process. This was reached through the development of ecosystem at the scientific park “Kyiv Polytechnics”, extending of cooperation with foreign and national companies, establishment of new scientific training centres on affiliation with engineering world leaders.

These changes must be oriented at directives of World Economic Forums (Davos) 2015-2016. According to them world economy (and Ukraine in particular) pending transformations, like automation, digitalisation, robots and AI, will take place within 10 years. Considering the results of International Labour Organisation research, this so-called “digital” business is recognised by the following:

  1. in 1984 the number of internet appliances amounted to 1 000, in 2017 it is 15 bn (approximately 2,5 items per capita);
  2. in 1900 the amount of human knowledge doubled every 100 years, considering global digitalisation currently it doubles every 2 years;
  3. therefore, those who study engineering gain newest material during their 1st year, but outdated during the 3rd year (not to mention technical knowledge lectured with faded syllabus);
  4. changes mentioned above are not linear, but exponential, thus, our world is called exponential as well (according to UN).

         By the projection of International Labour Organisation an average school student will change their place of work 10-15 times before he/she will be 38 y.o.; every fifth worker will lose their job in less than a year; every second worker will not have a steady job more than 5 years.

         What does it mean for Ukraine and for the KPI in particular?  Obviously no matter how late digital economics may reach Ukraine (it definitely will), it means the removal of great number of traditional positions and considerable decrease in human labour. Every year the student places at these faculties will have been cut more and more, till the whole academic units will be closed.

We experienced this ourselves when this year no one entered the university to study “Mining”, since job market of our region has no offer in this field. It is high time to analyse “Ecology” matters -  as these important experts are not requested by the industry and governmental sector, we can lose this major either. We faced new challenge and we can only cope with it by analysis of every industry sector and extending of cooperation with high technology job market.

Therefore, the main reason for a student to choose a certain establishment is the prospective in-demand job. This year the record amount of bachelor students entered the KPI (4982, including 216 studying extramurally), by 1108 more than last year. We had new 3134 master students, by 1720 more that last year. 249 of them hold bachelor’s degree of other universities. The number of students who pay for the university increased by 1314 and reached the number of 2036 students.

The important factor of the KPI activities is the correlation between the number of master, post-graduate, PhD students and bachelor students. This indicates the level of academic schools and scientific research. According to Shanghai Ranking, the best scientific university (with correlation “2”)is Massachusetts University where the number of students doing higher academic degrees is 8000, while the number of students taking bachelor’s degree is 4000. The KPI correlation is gradually growing. 0.34 in 2013, 0.66 in 2017.

For the first time we offer 174 licenced PhD places at 34 majors this year. The final enrollment will take place on 1, October. Further degree students are learning at the departments where there are profound scientific schools, labs, base of scientific research, cooperation with job market and problem analysis.

We have been using rector’s assignment for new students for 3 years. It showed that their initial knowledge of maths is about 57%, knowledge physics is 50%, according to the KPI criteria. That is why we have to develop career guidance, pre-university courses, cooperation with Minor Academy of Sciences of Ukraine, academic competitions etc.

Another indicator is the recruitment of our graduates, that is why we promote cooperation with employers. According to the Head Hunter (e-recruitment company), the KPI is one of the most established universities in Ukraine, whose students are in demand of national and foreign firms.

The university widens cooperation with high technology job market when together with “Boeing”, “Progresstech”, “Huawei”, “Lifecell” we create mutual centres. The number of partners is constantly growing, now it is 30 of them that we have. This year master students will study “the dual programme” in English at 2 mutual centres of the KPI and training centres of “Progresstech” and “Boeing”.

In order to provide the high quality of education, even if the number of licensed places are cut, smaller groups are formed and we are forced to break up for holidays, we implement mixed education, when in-class and distance methods are combined.

An important question remains foreign language knowledge. The level of business English among students and lecturers is “middling” or “low”. Since the globalisation of education is obvious, we started to implement programmes for foreign students held in English. More than 200 lecturers took British Council courses online.

The staff policy of the KPI, as usual, involves both young and experienced lecturers. Moreover, the best students must always join the academic staff, last year 52 masters and 37 post-graduates were employed. Unfortunately post-geatuate and PhD students are absent at 12% of departments. Thus, tricyclic education (bachelor, master, PhD) is impossible here.

The annual lectures’ assessment positively influenced their work efficiency. This year the system was improved, taking into consideration views of departments and staff committee.

The lack of material supply remains a hot issue. Auditoruims are in acceptable conditions, while scientific and training equipment is unsatisfying. This closely connects to cooperation with job market and flagship companies. A good example of cooperation with foreign organisations demonstrated the IME that arranged 7 education training centres equipped with state-of -the-art technologies.

Dear colleagues!

Educational process is aimed at appropriate conditions of high-quality studying, providing students with academic rights, social security, mental, physical and cultural development. In this difficult situation the KPI students demonstrate patriotism, responsibility and social engagement.

Last year the continuous assessment of academic performance was crucially changed - currently the results are only on the “e-campus”. It did not only automated the process, but also improved students’ feedback. It is the first time we included rector’s assessment to the academic performance to motivate students more.

The result analysis of spring semester exams showed that 95% coped with the assessment, 69% passed exams at first attempt, 60% received different grades, 27% got “good” or “excellent”, 6.4% had only A-marks, 7% completed with D-marks. 650 students (about 4.3%) were expelled. They are predominantly students of first and seconds years.

Nowadays 383 bachelor students and 45 post-graduate students from different countries study at the KPI. The majority copes succesfully with the curriculum and gains high-quality education.

Last year we faced with complex issue of scholarship cuts. Previously 70% of students had scholarships, now it is 45%. Therefore, the university attempts to establish scholarships of our industry and business partners. The number of such scholarships is currently 200, including the President scholarship, the Supreme Council scholarship, the Government scholarship and some of big enterprises. We have to multiply these figures in the near future.

Financial policy negatively affected their social security. Besides, scholarship fund is no more sufficient for financial assistance and recuperation. By 28% less students could afford tickets to the KPI recreation areas this year. The university and student organisations must develop special offers to the government to improve the situation.

Academic mobility has considerably grown. 196 students who studied and had internships at European universities via 15 international programmes have to be employed in Ukraine after graduation.

Academic competitions demonstrated high scores of our students. Kateryna Matviiv, 4-year student of ESC“IASA”, won 2nd place at World maths universities competition (Blagoevgrad, Bulgaria), 235 students took part in 67 National academic competitions, 45 of them took 1st, 2nd and 3rd places. It is the best result among engineering universities. International students programming competition “KPI-OPEN” was held in July, where 160 teams  from 50 universities (Ukraine, Latvia, Lithuania, Poland, Russia, Romania, Slovakia, hungary and Estonia) took part in. This annual event became the biggest programming students competition in Eastern Europe. “Boeing”, “Progresstech” and the KPI are developing national engineering competition that must be held this October.

During the destabilisation student social services do their best and organise events, like phycological consulting, blood donor actions, HIV and hepatitis tests, assistance to in-need people. The legal clinic of the sociology and law faculty consult students and workers on regular basis.

The KPI CUlture and Art Centre plays crucial role in youth up-bringing that held 150 scheduled events. 16 musical ensembles are engaged, 6 of them have the title of Peoples Ensemle. Next events should be distinguished Freshman Day, Humor Show, Faculties Fight, Mr. KPI, KPI Qeen, Shevchenko literary event, art exhibition “KPI Talents” and others.

Traditionally this spring career market took place where students could got familiar with job offers from about 40 companies (IT, finances, communications, projection etc.).

The university respects sport traditions too. Maksym Zakurdaiev, PPI student, won 3rd place at Eurobasket and was titled as World-class sport master. He and Ihor Boiarkin, also PPI student, played in National team at 29th Summer Universiade (Taiwan). Viktor Ivakhnenko, 4-year student of , became world champion at weightlifting among students. The university basketball, volleyball and orienteering teams won local and national competitions.

We also pay attention to information space - this year our newspaper “Kyiv Politechnician”, one of whose originators was famous Ukrainian writer Ivan Le, celebrated its 90th anniversary. It remains the best university newspaper in Ukraine. Meanwhile e-media are  quickly developing too. Since 2016 KPI TV has been broadcasting 24/7 at YOUtube channel. KPI Radio is also improving. The KPI established at Facebook, Telegram, Instagam etc.

The university security service, cooperating with national police, was reorganised In order to provide security. CCTV-department demonstrated its efficiecy as well. Currently on campus there are up to 70 cameras which are connected to central console of Kyiv police. This considerably enhanced security on the university territory.

 Student initiatives has been functioning successfully due to students’ ideas and actions. Student projects, such as Vezha (Tower), Lampa (Lamp), Belka (Squirrel), Kolizei (Coliseum), KPI Climbing, KPI Student Formula etc. became popular not only within the country, but also abroad/ This September the competition “Local budget 2017” takes place, where our student will participate too.

Dear colleagues!

On the new stage of becoming scientific university scientific and innovation work is of the utmost importance. One of the key points is strengthening of defense potential of the country. At the moment technologies developed by the KPI work for the sovereignty and territorial integrity of Ukraine.

Last year 254 scientific projects were completed worthinng in total 61.8 ml. 123 projects were financed by the state (21.3 ml), scientific park “Kyiv Politechnics” financed the rest.

The KPI scientists published 177 monographs, 241 book, 4687 articles (1516 published in international journals), wrote 9 doctor dissertations and 133 post-graduate dissertations.

In 2016 some ammendments to “PhD and ScD Procedure” were approved. Now post-graduate programme lasts for 4 years and PhD programme lasts for 2 years. A post-graduate will have to write a dissertation and pass exams (30-60 credits). Last year the admission committee considered new rules. Currently there are 528 post-graduate students and 42 PhD students.

During last 3 years 1346 bachelors, 687 specialists (former degree between B and M), 1144 masters graduated from the KPI, more than 3600 in total.

As the university is going to integrate international science, the KPI scientific periodicals are being changed according to general rules of online-database of user-contributed information. The Hryhorii Denysenko Scientific and Technical Library of the KPI became the centre of students initiatives, playing an important role for proactive youth.

For 5 years we have been holding innovation festival “Sikorskyi Challenge”, where attention is paid to scientists, investors and hightech companies. Among university projects we can distinguish 2 nanosatellites, unmanned aerial vehicle, cybersecurity tools, various biomedical systems and so. Startup school “Sikorskyi Challenge” greatly influenced that. More than 500 innovators graduated from the school, whose projects are very successful even abroad.

We continued the work on intellectual property, submitted 222 applications for industry property (12 inventions), received 195 patents (186 models, 9 inventions), signed 7 contracts on the intellectual property of the KPI.

The State Polytechnic Museum had 25 000 visitors, including 90 delegations from 36 countries. Different conferences and meetings were held there, and 639 exponents were added.

Achivements of our scientists were recognised by the state. Prof. Oleksandr Borysov got the title of “Honoured Education Worker”, prof. Oleksandr Kolosov got the title of “Hounured Scientist”, Leonid Uryvskyi is now “Honoured Scientist and Engineer”.

The Science and Engineering State Awards were given to prof. Olena Homonai, Serhii Peresada, Pavlo Kasianov, prof. Petro Bidiuk, prof. Olena Bezvesilna, Petro Loboda and Viacheslav Titov, while Larysa Hloba won the Education State Award.

The annual President Awards were obtained by young scientists post-graduates Heorhii Vasyliev, Viktoria Vorobiova, Svitlana Frolenkova and Yurii Veremiichuk.

Oleksandr Haletskyi, Pavlo Kasianov, Yevhen Solodkyi and Inna Trus won the President Grants.

Vice-rector Serhii Sydorenko was prasied with the NASU medal “For Scientific Achievements”.

Dear colleagues!

International activity is focus area of the university. Considering this criteria, the KPI is on the top of university ranking “Top-200 Ukraine” for 10 years.

Last year some international events, that should be mentioned, took place. The Forum of rectors of Ukrainian and Polish engineering universities, the 5th Economic forum “Ukraine-Korea”, where it was announced about establishing of UA-KR Centre for Education, Science and Innovations at the KPI.

We keep on following world leading universities by restructuring international management system. 4 Erasmus+ projects and 6 TEMPUS projects led to positive results. There are 165 EU, Eurasia, NATO, British Council, Polish Science Academy projects, having increased by 25%. 13 faculties made 30 applications for “Horison-2020”, 13% of applications were successful. It is not big figures for the KPI, but it is twice higher than average ones in Ukraine.

The general profit of external economy increased by 11% last year and it amounted to 97 ml. It is almost 10% of the KPI budget.

Having analysed best European engineering universities, our following tasks are: to increase the number of foreign students to 10% (3% now), increase the number of international projects (2-3 per department), increase the profit to cover 20-25% of the budget. The main reasons why we are still laging behind are language and mental barrier and we cross them not as fast as we wish.

Dear session participants!

In order to accomplish the KPI Strategy 2012-2020 prospective development committee has been working on important projects and social security of university students and workers.

The communication system has grown at the university. Our computer park consists of 20 000 integrated units, 30 system servers of KPI-Telecom, 130 department servers. On campus more than 12 000 student computers were integrated. Above 260 university sites function at the informational space.

Moreover, the KPI portal was included in Top-500 most visited websites - the only university site, and the most quoted university site according to Google Scholar. International webportal UniRank assessed our site the most popular among Ukrainian universities’ during last 2 years.

In order to share the KPI infrastructure online tour was created with above 120 panorames.

We managed to speed up the invested projects, particularly building of the hall of residence on Vyborzka street.

Despite difficult situation in the country and price increase 2650 students and workers visited 4 university recreation areas. 

One of the keys to successful functioning of the KPI is welfare of our workers. This year the salary increased by 20%, and income of those who have honoured title or academic degree increased by 25%.

Apart from salaries and salary rises we paid 10 ml of bonuses, 1.3 ml of financial assistance, 703 000 UAH for winners of  competitions “Lecturer-Scientist” and “Young Lecturer-Scientist”, 25.1 ml of workers’ recreation.

Dear friends!

The main task of administrative committee is maintaining technical equipment and creating appropriate conditions of students and workers.

In spite of insufficient budgeting (for several years the government does not finance the infrastructure) the university is still working on its welfare. 9 university buildings and 6 halls of residence were refurbished, autonomous heating unit at the hall of residence No.15 was reconstructed, lifts at halls of residence No.16, 18, 19 were fixed, CCTVs were installed at six halls of residence, kitchen equipment at the counteenes of buildings No.7, 22, 27 were restored. Partially kitchen equipment at recreation areas was restored.

We keep on reconstructing of education and training complex of the Institute of Special Communication and Information Protection. Besides, official entrance, Walk of Fame, mural at the building No.7 were created, Paton monument was restored, the square between the buildings No.7 and 17 is being renovated and so on.

Before the beginning of the semester auditoriums were refurbished, new windows were installed and desks were fixed.

Last year it was very difficult to pay bills, since heating and electricity prices increased, while financing decreased. In 2016 total price rised by 37.3%. The university could not pay 98.6 ml UAH. We were forced to turn off the heating at some working areas. I would like to appreciate the understanding of workers. We are doing everything to avoid similar situations in the future.

Dear friends!

At the beginning of this academic year we must recognise our main tasks of further development of the KPI. We must conduct more analytics of university, institutes and faculties to predict possible challenges of the near and not too distant future. Having started implementation of the laws “On higher education”, “On scientific and scientific engineering efforts”, we must follow this path with research and innovations. So that students have system knowledge and skills requested by job market, we must increase mobility and cooperation with employers to reform training laboratory, curriculum and education in general. And we should start with European credentials of engineering programmes. We also must avoid plagiarism, frauds and any of conflicts. We must use the opportunity given by the Ministry of Education and Science and prepare post-graduates and doctors much better. The university scientific periodicals must be necessarily changed in accordance with Scopus and Web of Science.  The participation in the EU, NATO projects and Horison-2020 is also very important.

Students have to develop morality, civil responsibility, decency and patriotism. And we must support their ideas, encourage to participate in programmes and mobility.

In spite of financial issue we must carry on improving of university laboratories. We pay attention to energy efficiency much more. Nevretheless, the social security of workers should be higher. The team spirit was always a key to our success. So we must respect, cooperate, help each other, defence decency and academic rights.

Dear colleagues! These are arduous tasks, but we will perform them together. Therefore, I wish you success, health and achivements this year!

 

Thank you for attention!

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