Dear educators, scientists and visitors of our meeting! Allow me to congratulate you on the one hundred and eighteenth anniversary of the founding of the Kiev Polytechnic Institute and twenty-fifth anniversary of Ukraine's independence. Our main achievement in the development of our young government is 90 thousand highly qualified specialists, brought up in the spirit of patriotism, love and respect for our country. During 25 years, KPI was trying to keep the leading position in the segment of higher technical education, to quickly and adequately respond to new challenges. We understand that the development of a market economy requires a transformation of higher education in a flexible, self-developing system, and effective use of a unique experience and a long experience of training engineers in our university.
This year, there was another significant event: the Kiev Polytechnic Institute was named after the outstanding student of our 1907-1911 years - Igor Sikorsky. I believe that we should pay close attention to him in our meeting.
Igor Sikorsky was born on May 25, 1889 in the family of Kiev intellectuals. His father, Ivan, was a renowned psychiatrist, doctor of medicine, long-term head of the department of Kiev University of St. Vladimir. An outstanding artist Viktor Vasnetsov immortalized Ivan Sikorsky features by painting St. John the Baptist with Ivan’s features.
His mother, Maria Stefanovna was a highly educated woman, but she dedicated her life to the family, which, in addition to Igor, had four children. Childhood of the future aircraftman was illuminated by the light of culture, art and in-depth knowledge about the world, which his family gave him and what would later determine his whole future destiny.
What impressed young Igor the most where the stories that his mother told him about the genius of the fifteenth century Leonardo da Vinci and his fantastic project "iron bird", which was lifted in the air by powerful screws without any acceleration, or the flying boat, the view from the windows of the boat broadened the view of the sea and the mythical island of Avalon with green palm trees.
Then no one knew at the time that the little dreamer in a few decades will be able to bring it all to life.
After attending the First Kiev Gymnasium and Marine Cadet Corps in St. Petersburg, in 1906, Igor Sikorsky went to study in Paris, where he began to master science at a technical school Dyuvin De Lanno. However, he dislikes the education level, and six months later he returns home, where he enteres the Kiev Polytechnic Institute of Emperor Alexander II.
KPI in 1989 was based on the model of the Paris Ecole Polytechnique, was a new type of a higher technical school, where students received a deep fundamental training in mathematics, mechanics, physics, chemistry, and other disciplines which are necessary in the teaching of general engineering courses. Education was combined with professional and practical work in the engineering industry as well as work in laboratories. Research and practical work of teachers and students in specialized scientific circles was actively encouraged.
Initially the Institute had four departments: mechanical, chemical, engineering construction and agricultural. But in 1899, teachers were in favor creating an aeronautic department.
The head of the new department was the biggest Kiev Aviation enthusiasts Professor Nikolai Artemyev, a talented student of Nikolai Zhukovsky. In 1905-1906 the mechanical department of KPI along with Nikolai organized a aeronautic section with multiple departments such as airplanes, helicopters, engines and ornithopters. Naturally, an active participant in the helicopter division was Igor Sikorsky.
In the summer of 1908 student Sikorski started developing and constructing his first helicopter. In 1909-1910 he created the world's first two helicopters. But it was premature due to insufficient power in the engine. The young designer realized this and along with the helicopter began to develop his first airplanes. In the mechanical foundries in KPI (now - the building of the Polytechnic Museum), he build his C-3,C-4, C-5,C-6 and C-6A, which were the best at that time of the Russian Empire.
In April 1911 the aircraft of the KPI’s student C-6A won the gold medal on the Moscow exhibition of aeronautics. Imperial Technical Society awarded Sikorsky the medal "for useful work in aeronautics and independent development of the airplane and its system, which gave excellent results."
It was after this, student Igor Sikorsky was hired by a prominent organizer of its industry at the time, chairman of the St. Petersburg Joint Stock Company "Russian-Baltic carload factory" Michael Szydlowski. The young aviator was the chief designer of the aviation department of this renowned company.
After that Sikorski constructs multi-engine airplanes, "Grand" and "Russian Knight", which become the precursors of a grand four-engine "Ilya Muromets", which was destined to become the best aircraft in the world at that time.
In June 1914 it held the record of flying a distance of 2000 km along the route St. Petersburg - Kiev and Kiev - St. Petersburg by plane "Ilya Muromets" manned personally by Igor Sikorsky. This proved to the world that the aircraft will not be used in the future for entertainment, and it will change the world, transporting over long distances large loads and large groups of people.
The next high spot in the life of Igor Sikorsky related to his being in America where he had to move in 1919 under the threat of post-revolutionary repressions.
Having overcome all difficulties getting used to living in a new country, Sikorsky creates gigantic airplanes S-29, S-29A, S-38, S-40 not seen then as well as the aircraft of his childhood dream – transatlantic S-42. By the way, being on the board of this very giant airplane, flying over California, Igor Sikorsky saw real scenes from his mother’s stories about huge airship and sea with fabulous island Avalon with green palm trees underneath.
But through the years he had been cherishing an idea to create a helicopter. In the late thirties – in the early forties technical progress could contribute to the creation of a new type of air vehicle. Super strength materials for creating a helical screw for helicopter as well as comparatively light and powerful engines appeared, mathematical and mechanical achievements allowed making all necessary calculations.
Thus, starting in 1939, Sikorsky dives into new work. His company “Sikorsky Aeroengineering Corporation” based in Connecticut starts producing the best helicopters in the world: VS-300, VS-316, S-55, S-56, S-58. Airplane model S-58 still remains world-beating ever. Surely, these vehicles were introduced for military services in USA and NATO countries but their main purpose, according to Sikorsky, was to rescue people. According to UNO, Sikorsky helicopters have rescued lives of over 20 million people on the Earth.
At his final life stage, Igor Sikorsky turns over a business to his son Sergii, head of a Board of Directors of Sikorsky Corporation and dives into philosophical activity. His book “Letters of the Lord’s Prayer” that says about moral and ethical values of humanity from the perspective of naturalist and engineer has been reedited for many times in 30 countries of the world. It is becoming extremely relevant at present, when scientific and technical progress is far more ahead of mankind’s achievements in the field of moral, ethics and human spirit.
Igor Sikorsky died on the 26th of October, 1972. America took farewell of him as a national hero. In the course of funeral ceremony, the contrails of two super sound airplanes on the perpendicular vectors made a giant white cross, taking farewell of the great aviation creator.
For us, current students of the Polytechnic Institute, it is important to know what was the attitude of Igor Sikorsky to the KPI. The answer on this question can be found in the interview of Igor Ivanovich, which he gave to the American journalists back in the 1970. Answering the question, concerning his education, he replied: "In the Kyiv Polytechnic Institute", and, then, added: " Hats off to the Alma Mater that prepared me to the conquering of the sky ". The lens of an American reporter snapped Sikorsky right during the hats-off moment. This image was taken by the national artist of sculpture of Ukraine, Mykola Olejnik, for the construction of the monument to Igor Ivanovich on the KPI’s museum square. At the foot of the pedestal he carved the abovesaid words of gratitude to the Alma Mater of Sikorsky.
Why does KPI should bear the name of Sikorsky? That is because he, creating his aircrafts himself, was a mechanic, a material scientist, a welder, a signalman, a radio operator, an optician, a chemist and that is not even the full list of his engineering qualifications.
That is, Igor Sikorsky was a genial engineer in the broad understanding of the word. What is the most important is that Igor Sikorsky had a good luck. He was lucky to survive after many high-risk tests of unseen before self-made aircrafts of his own construction. He always was ahead of nature and time with his machines. Hopefully, his good fortune will inclusively assist the KPI..
Returning back to the current activities of the university, it should be mentioned that the KPI’s work was aimed at implementing the provisions of the Law of Ukraine "On Higher Education", "On scientific and technical activity" as well as a number of regulations of the government and Ministry of Education and Science of Ukraine. Implementation of these documents requires substantial changes of the university’s activity.
For instance, we should obtain new autonomy opportunities and academic freedom of higher education, thus increasing own responsibility for our work. In addition, we have to move to the new level of requirements for the candidates to be given the academic title of associate professor or professor. These are the requirements related to a foreign training, a high level of English proficiency, availability of publications in journals included in the scientometric database.
One of the main priorities in the implementation of educational and scientific activity is the implementation of the academic integrity policy in all educational and research groups of the university. The need for such a step is undoubtable as, during the survey, almost half of the students pointed to the prevalence of plagiarism in the educational process, and the majority of teachers confirmed knowing that. One of the essential innovations in the combating plagiarism system and other expressions of the academic remissness will be the implementation of the National repository of academic texts in the country. However, it is important for us to make sure that academic integrity will become the key element of the KPI’s students consciousness, one of their core values. That is why last year we started a tradition: to accept the Code of Honour of the KPI on a voluntary basis by all willing members of our community.
Dear colleagues! This year's introductory campaign was held against the backdrop of the significant changes in the terms of admission to the university and a new list of disciplines and specialties. In preparation for this, the KPI held a thorough operation of determining the list of specializations, considering the labor market needs and the availability of the recognized scientific and pedagogical schools. Thus, the KPI was the only one technical university in Ukraine which kept Physics and Chemistry as the secondary profiling subjects for admission to the engineering profession in order to maintain its own standard of engineering training. Another feature of this year's campaign was the use of ZNO (Scholastic Assessment Test) when applying for a Master’s Degree in Law. Considering the demographic situation and market conditions of higher education, nowadays, it is not about the university’s selection of students, but about the student’s preferences in choosing the university. Due to this fact, our educational programs should be modern and competitive.
Summing up, the KPI fulfilled the government order, having accepted 3208 freshmen on a full-time education program, 1779 on to a Master’s level (including 280 from other educational institutions), 1086 on the equivalent master’s study, 320 on the extramural form of study, 750 on a contractual. For the second year in a row, we conduct the initial rectorial control of the contingent of students, who entered the university by e-testing. Last year, the quality of incoming knowledge, according to the KPI’s criteria, turned out to be 57% in Higher Mathematics and 50% in Physics. Considering the fact that there were no substantial changes in the system of general secondary education lately, it is not likely for the actual anticipated results to be better. That is why the gratitude to the teachers, who have to perform additional work to adjust knowledge of first-year students that are not ready enough for the studying at the KPI, needs to be expressed.
Starting from the September of 2016, we should move to the new bases of training of Masters and PhD of philosophy in accordance with international requirements. Getting the Master’s or PHD education requires immersion in scientific and innovative environment and implementation of individual research that have to be completed with preparation and thesis defense. Educational and scientific PHD philosophy training programs include the complex of system-forming disciplines totaling 30-60 ECTS credits. Another issue- the level of foreign language of the students and teachers of the university. At present, about 318, or around 1,5%, foreign students getting their education within KPI. The reason is that they are mostly interested to be educated in English, to what we are not ready for now. Because of that, from September 1, 2017, we set ourselves the task to move to a wholly English-taught education for the foreigners. In the nearest future, a high language proficiency will be the requirement for Ukrainian students applying for the Master’s degree at the KPI, according to the B1 criteria for the Master Degree and B2 for PHD. Acknowledging this, the KPI has joined the project "English for Universities" from British Council in Ukraine. The project will involve teachers of English with a professional orientation and lecturers, who will hold the academic classes for both foreign and Ukrainian students. Over the past year, the teaching and laboratory base of the university expanded and now has reached the number of 1,820 classrooms with 52 th. places. In quantitative terms, the fund fully meets the needs of the educational process, but, in reality, the state of such equipment is critical. Last year we were able to fund its updating with only 3.5 million, including 2 million in the form of sponsorship and donations, 1.5 million - budgetary funds. This is a tiny fraction of the real needs of the university. Thus, the further cooperation with Ukrainian and foreign high-tech business is, probably, the only way to address this critical problem. A good example of this is IME (Institute of Mechanical Engineering), which in cooperation with American and Ukrainian companies "Boeing", "Prohresteh Ukraine", Haas Automation, Festo Corporation, concern "Nikmas" association "Hydrosila Group", the company "Sigma" in recent years has created a number of educational and research laboratories with the latest equipment.
Dear colleagues! Modern requirements to the graduates of KPI require adjustment of scientific and educational activities of the teaching staff. The need for real involvement of teachers, especially the graduating department to research and innovation work is obvious. In this sense, we hope for fruitful cooperation of scientists and experienced teachers as well as young teachers. Last year, KPI added 63 graduates, who, mostly, had received the PHD degree, to the academic-teaching stuff. The university consistently conducts advanced training of scientific-pedagogical and scientific staff on the base of the Institute of Postgraduate Studies or external institutions.
The governmental decision on exemption from mobilization scientific and pedagogical staff of the KPI, which was initiated by the university itself, as well as the preservation of the current payment order of pensions to the working research pensioners in 2016, additionally have contributed to the stabilization of the personnel. During the past academic year, research and teaching staff of the department had a considerable amount of work on bringing the curriculum to the new requirements. Training for PHD in Philosophy was licensed for more than 25 specialties, including even the department with no graduates released. However, permission to obtain such licenses is only the beginning of a complex work, and we have to master new approaches of preparation of specialists on second and third levels of higher education.
In this context, personnel reserve of a third of university departments that in 2017 does not plan to defend their doctoral and master's theses are a major concern. In upcoming years this situation may affect the fate of such groups since, without appropriate scientific schools, they will not be able to be trained at the three levels: bachelor, master, PhD, and as a result, will have to join the other more powerful scientific and teaching schools.
External verification of education programs compliance according to accreditation and licensing conditions will be provided by the National Agency for Quality Assurance in Higher Education, which will start its work on September. So domestic specialties licensing is very important in the context of human resources and educational software.
Being one of the main centers of formation of the technical elite, the KPI has paid constant attention to the labor market. Last year the demand for our graduates was 123%, and almost all of them were employed, but, unfortunately, only 70% of them in their qualification. Most graduates of technical professions work in the IT sector, chemical industry, engineering, energetics, electronics, and instrumentation.
According to a survey of high-tech enterprises in Ukraine, conducted by the "Democratic Initiatives", it became clear that the shortage of qualified engineering and management personnel is the most acute problem for them, despite the fact that the labor market of people with relevant diplomas is over flown. But the lack of the practice, low management skills, lack of proficiency in business English make these people redundant for the modern industry.
Therefore, comprehensive monitoring system of residual knowledge of students becomes even more important, being implemented by the Institute for Monitoring Educational Quality for over 10 years. Starting this semester the results of the monitoring will be considered in the quizzes. In this, the 21st round of monitoring, there was improvement of quality of residual knowledge of basic subjects for most specialties, which is very important for the KPI.
An important form of cooperation with employers is the traditional “Job Fair” («Ярмарок Вакансій»). This spring over 45 companies and organizations interested in employment of graduates of KPI were presented at the fair. Among the prominent employers were such companies as: Kyivstar, Meleksis, Procter and Gamble, Epam Systems, Aviation Enterprises of Ukraine and many others.
Dear colleagues! Educational work, as always, was aimed to improve the quality of students’ learning and creating conditions for their spiritual, cultural, patriotic and physical education. Note that in the difficult times for our country students of KPI showed the high level of patriotism, responsibility and citizenship principle.
The indicators of student achievements in a long time has remained stable. 69% of students successfully passed the summer session. The fraction of students who get “excellent” marks is 7.1%; those who get “excellent” and “good” - 30%, and those who get mixed marks - 57%, the fraction of those who get “satisfactory” is 6.5%. The number of students that were expelled after summer session was 4.8%. The overall rating among the students from foreign countries is generally the same as the rating of Ukrainian students.
Positive trend of receiving main prizes at international and national student competitions confirms stable quality of education. During the 2015/2016 academic years 232 students participated in competitions at various levels, 69 of which were winners and prize-winners. 3rd year student of IASA Catherine Matviyiv won bronze at the World Olympiad in mathematics in Blagoevgrad (Bulgaria) among traditional universities. Our open student programming contest the S.O. Lebedev and V.M. Glushkova “KPI-OREN” has got an international recognition which this year was held for the 11th time. It was attended by 99 teams from 10 different countries.
A festival of innovative projects "Sikorsky Challenge", contests "Intel-Techno Ukraine", contest of technical universities in Europe - BEST, competition "The Queen of the KPI", "Mister of the KPI", "League of KVN KPI", festival of art song and amateur groups have become traditional. More than 20 educational and scientific circles: "The school KVN", "Cinema Club," "Chess," "Intellectual Games Club" and others are now onn an ongoing basis.
Sports life of the University is very active. The combined teams in basketball, volleyball, triathlon, orienteering, rugby have become winners of national and local contests for many times. The 18th University Olympics sports, including football, volleyball, table tennis, basketball, weightlifting and others has become traditional among students.
Now chess gains great popularity in the university. This year student of IASA faculty Pavel Vorontsov was awarded the title of international grand master and student of FIVT faculty Michael Bilous who took part of the World Chess Championship in India got the title of international master.
The student movement called "grassroots initiative" which has a high self-organizing capacity continues to develop. His works include a unique art space "Tower of KPI", where a large number of educational activities and artistic character are held. Are becoming more popular Such projects as "Student formula of KPI", "Colosseum", "Belka", "Lamp" and others are becoming more and more popular.
The problem of security on campus over the past year has intensified. According to a survey conducted among students, 16.3% of them consider this problem to be acute, and one that requires urgent solution. In the 2015/2016 academic years thefts of personal property of students and teachers, and university property in buildings and dormitories has grown up to the 15%. To prevent this more than 50 cameras were established on the territory of KPI. Project of installing turnstiles in the academic buildings, which will restrict entry to them outsiders is currently processed.
Due to the growth of social tension in society, Student Social Service, that together with social campus workers is actively working with students and conducting a series of social and preventive, socio-psychological, charitable and educational activities, plays a major role in the university.
Last year, the KPI has continued to expand its presence in the media space, including the establishment of the KPI official account on the Instagram. The project "KPI TV" has become very popular, it significantly increased students communication in networks, that have become a platform of discussing all the recent events of university life.
Dear colleagues! Last year, we continued to improve the KPI research activities in three interrelated areas: implementation of research, filling the teaching process with new scientific results, the development of innovation.
The difficult economic situation in the country forces us to seek new models of research funding, rather than relying only on the state budget. Last year, at the expenses of the state budget 133 research projects volume 20.3 million USD, 112 contractual research work volume 28.8 million UAH, 460 contracts to provide scientific and technical services were carried out. Scientific park "Kyiv politehnika" fulfilled volume of 8 million USD. Thus, last year the volume of research was CPI 56.8 million USD.
52 monographs, 58 textbooks and manuals were published. 3573 students were involved in it. 12 doctoral and 72 master's theses were defended.
Due to the current situation in the country, defense capacity of Ukraine has become the most important subject in the researches. At the initiative of the KPI, the State Concern "Ukroboronprom" and the State Space Agency of Ukraine in October 2015 Production Association "Kyiv Polytechnic" was created, which included very own the KPI Scientific park "Kyiv Polytechnic" and 7 Kiev tech companies. This includes: the S.P. Korolov "Meridian", SRI Hydrodevices, plants "Mayak", the G.I. Petrovsky "Kyivprylad", "Arsenal", JSC "Elmiz."
Except defense issues, the scientists of the KPI conduct active researches for civil sector. Unprecedented for Ukraine is Carrying out the Festival of innovation "Sikorsky Challenge" is unprecedented for Ukraine. Last year, a total investment of 23 startups festivals reached 573 million UAH. And 6 projects of the KPI were among the winners. Under the new legislation, an important task of the scientific sector of KPI is the attraction to scientific research leadership master students and postgraduate students, leading scientists and leaders of academic subjects. An important motivational component for applicants on the educational and scientific level of PhD is a possibility of getting a lump sum in the amount of remaining scholarships for the relevant calendar year or payed academic leave for the period remaining until the end of their postgraduate studies. The transferring of scientific journals on publishing platform of KPI Open Journal Systems is continuing, on which at the beginning of the year were 27 scientific publications of university, 21 of them were included into "Scientific Periodicals of Ukraine.".
Thankfully to NTB (STL) and editors of the university, in scientometric base Index Copernicus presented 14 scientific publications of KPI.
In 2015 in the database Web of Science were included two journals of the University - "Contemporary Education" ("Novitnya osvita" ) and "Herald" KPI ". (''Visnyk NTUU "KPI".)
Series "Radio appliances, radioaparatobuduvannya." ("Radio-tekhnika, radioaparatobuduvannya".) However, in the database in Scopus indexed only one university publication - the English translation of the journal "Proceedings of the universities. Radioelectronics." ("Yzvestyya vuzov. Radyoelektronyka".) Productively continued to work Scientific and Technical Library (Naukovo-tekhnichna biblioteka), which last year has added to the collection new acquisitions in the amount of 17 000 copies and from the 1 of September it will open access to the database of scientometric Scopus and Web of Science for all science employees in KPI. Our museum has become the part of many sightseeing tourist routes in Kyiv. Last year museum received more than 25,000 visitors, most of whom were school and university students. The museum was visited by 37 foreign delegations. There are 552 new exhibit enriched our museum. The readings of scientific series "The Famous designers Ukraine." ("Vydatni konstruktory Ukrayiny".) still continuing. The achievements of our scientists were marked at the national level. Professor Yevhen Tymofiyovich Volodarskyy was given the honorary title "Honored Worker of Education of Ukraine". State Award of Ukraine in Science and Technology were given to a senior research worker Mykolay Mykolayovych Kaydenko and lead engineer Yuri Vasiliyovich Ivlyev (ITS). Docent FEA Serhiy Oleksandrovych Bur'yan won the Presidential Award of Ukraine for young scientists. The Award of Verkhovna Rada of Ukraine was given to a young scientist Veronika Serhiyivna Zhukova and her assistant Kateryna Oleksandrivna Shchurska (FBT).
The Award of National Academy of Sciences of Ukraine "For scientific achievements" was given to prof. Anatoliy Ivanovych Petrenko.
Award Laureate of Cabinet of Ministers of Ukraine for the development and introdunction of innovative technologies in 2016 became professor Vitaliy Yosypovych Kotovskyy.
The Award of The National Academy of Sciences of Ukraine marked Serhiy Oleksandrovych Osypchuk, the assistant of department of telecommunication systems ITS. The Grants of the President of Ukraine for young PhDs for scientific researches in 2016 were given to Pavlo Olehovych Kasyanov and Viktoriya Mykolayivna Melnyk.
Dear colleagues! International activities are an integral part of the university. Last year KPI greeted ambassadors and high-level governmental delegations from more than 30 countries, with who we agreed on large-scale international projects. Reinforced work with France, China, Canada, USA, India, Japan, Korea, Israel, Poland, Germany, Norway, Denmark and other countries. The biggest scale of this work is with China. Shandong Academy of Sciences, within which there are 11 research institutes and centers, launched system with KPI for long-term cooperation. Especially, in the area of hydroacoustic studies OKB "Shtorm" already takes this academy contracts amount of $ 250 000 , and from Harbin Engineering University - amount of $ 50,000. Today EDO "Shtorm" is preparing for another 4 signing contracts. FAX fulfills contract with Dalyanskyy marine university amount of $ 125 000 in the area of robotics.
Heat-and-Power Engineering Department are working to create new nano-satellites of Shenyang Aerospace University amount 362 thousand hryvnyas.(UAH). In the area of chemistry and theoretical physics KPI performs basic research with University of Huizhou total amount of $ 100 000. Today we are also preparing new contracts with several other universities and research centers in China. Expanding cooperation with high-tech labor market, our university continued creating joint centers of leading companies from the USA, China, Poland, Norway, Slovakia. In total, nowadays KPI has more than 30 such centers.
One recent example of this cooperation provided our university by NVIDIA Corporation status from the US educational and research center with NVIDIA computing on graphics accelerators. Academic students mobility carried out the program of double diplomas and exchange with Germany, France, Norway, Poland, Bulgaria, Czech Republic, Slovak Republic. Last year 193 students took the chance to study abroad. In spring increased cooperation Erasmus + program with universities in Germany, Spain, Luxembourg, Lithuania and others. Important for KPI event was held in April this year, the International Forum "Lessons of Chernobyl - nuclear safety for the world." It was attended by remarkable politicians, diplomats, outstanding scientists, experts in nuclear energy, environment, radiation medicine and radiobiology from 34 countries. The weak point for the KPI is participation in international programs and projects. Today we are accomplices only 4 projects FP7, 3 projects "Horizon 2020", 2 projects of NATO, while very similar to the KPI University "Warsaw Polytechnic" participating in nearly 100 European programs and projects, half filling the budget due to this activity.
Dear colleagues! Despite the difficult social and economic situation in the country, we must embody long-term infrastructure projects of the university. Today KPI takes investment projects on construction of student dormitory in the Vyborzka str. for 500 places; educational areas of the institute of telecommunications systems in the Industrialna str.
Last year was carried out a number of tasks for the development of information management activities, including the modernization electronic university campus. Overcoming the crisis that accompanied us last time, administrative, economic and social services, the university conducted intensive work aimed at stabilizing the social situation in the team, the maintenance material and technical base, creation of proper conditions for learning and students work and university employees. The last two years have been really dramatic for us in the social sense. Due to the collapse of the hryvnya and sharp rise in in utility bills for the people currently impoverished several times. New legislation on pensions has affected devastating on preservation of scientific and pedagogical schools of the University, which led to the dismissal of more than 100 experienced teachers and more than 20 scientists KPI in 2015. Stopping by the country's social security financing university sanatorium-dispensary made it impossible for many students keeping their health. Other factors also contributed destabilizing imbalance in the well-established work of the university. Lot of attention university paid to the increase the reliability of energy supply and conservation of energy resources under conditions of constant rise in prices. Due to this fact, in recent years the KPI spend for energy have increased almost in 4 times. Therefore, only last year, compared with the previous years in KPI was forced to reduce the consumption of heat energy by 19%, electricity by 9% the cold water by 13%, natural gas by 45%. Even a reduction in consumption was offset by bills increases. To overcome these challenges, financial and economic and social services together with trade unions and social organizations of KPI conducted intense work. It was used systematic measures for effective use of funds and ensuring financial stability.
By optimizing budgets of departments and the university as a whole, during the school year, we have managed and regularly paid full wages and bonuses, financial aid and other social benefits. The use of the internal resources allowed as to provide vacation and prevention of health for students and university staff, to solve a number of other social problems. A special role in this is played by solidarity and mutual help of members of our team. Considerable attention was paid last year, maintaining in good condition for the material base of the university and improvement of its territory. Large proportion of university campus is a campus KPI, where are situated compact 20 student dormitories, student clinic, sanatorium, consolidation center student, dining, sports facilities. With forces of campus administration and business services KPI in this great economy was created all necessary conditions for living, learning and leisure for over 14k students.
The Institute of State Service has made his first significant contribution to the development of the infrastructure of the University. With its funds was made a reconstruction of the platz near the 27, 24 buildings and ends construction of the athletics stadium in the sports zone KPI.
University has promptly prepared the recreation center "Maiak", "Polytechnic", "Sosnovyi," "Globe", which this summer have been completely filled. There more than 2.5 thousand students and employees of KPI got the prevention of health. In addition, many staff and students during the year took the opportunity to rest on the recreation bases "Polytechnic" and "Pine" in the ''day off'' regime. Dear friends! Entering the new school year, we identify the main guidelines in our work. First of all we need to continue the implementation of the Law of Ukraine "On Higher Education" and "On scientific and technical activity". For the KPI as a research university main emphasis should be providing the highest quality training based on the triangle "education-science-innovation." Relying on it, we will move to the new system of masters and doctors of philosophy. We should significantly increase the amount of research in the learning process, extending the practice of combined training "Master - Ph.D.," and continually increase this share. We focus on creating topical subjects and courses based on scientific research, development of new methods for teaching mixed together with online educational platforms.
We need to continue to shape the university atmosphere of academic integrity, which will make impossible the emergence of phenomena of plagiarism, fraud, various conflicts and so on.
We have to improve quantitative and qualitative indicators of academic training, enhance innovative system which is based on the Science Park "Kyiv Polytechnic", aligned with international standards scientific publications KPI, improve citation university scientists and ratings of KPI in the world scientometric databases Scopus, Web of Science, Webometrix.
The focus on the European practice quality assurance of higher technical education must be strengthened, it is based on the evaluation of educational programs through European engineering professional associations, primarily because of the association FIANI. It is important to increase the participation of our scientists in the Framework Programme of the European Union research and innovation "Horizon 2020" and other programs of the EU and NATO.
We need to improve educational work among students, increasing the level of scientific, intellectual, cultural and patriotic education of students, fully supporting grassroots initiatives of students, expanding their participation in European and national scholarship programs for grants at all levels.
We continue to strengthen the material and teaching laboratory facilities of the university. We have to finish the dormitory building on the street. Vyborzki, athletics stadium and other important facilities of the university infrastructure.
The significant rise in fuel and energy resources makes us continually focus on energy conservation and energy efficiency, reduction of consumed energy resources. Under conditions of the economical and social instability in society, social protection of members of our staff is a particular importance. It should be clearer, targeted disadvantaged regarding appointment of team members, the disabled, the sick, veterans, large families, single parents. We appreciate and preserve an atmosphere of mutual respect, cooperation and mutual support among members of our team to defend the dignity and academic freedom of the Kyiv polytechnicians, freedom of expression.
Dear colleagues! The challenges we are facing are quite tense. Together we will make it. Good luck along the way, good health and creative achievements in the new academic year.
Thank you for your attention!