The Department of Management (DM) of the Faculty of Management and Marketing is one of the largest and most successful departments of Igor Sikorsky Kyiv Polytechnic Institute. The DM is the same age as the country since the moment of its independence. This year, they both celebrate their thirtieth anniversary.
The Department started in 1988 when the DM was only a division of the Order of Lenin Kyiv Polytechnic Institute in memory of the 50th anniversary of the Great October Socialist Revolution. Then, the Department became the first in Ukraine, which trained managers of production processes. The idea of its creation appeared due to the new challenges in the domestic economy. These challenges demanded both the strengthening of the economic and managerial components of educational faculties. A complicated situation in economics demanded a different style of thinking and training of new types of managers. At that time, not a single higher education institution could accomplish that task. In the first years of its foundation, the Department staff trained specialists of the second higher education – managers of production activities. Later, according to time requests, managers became specialists of a broader scope.
The first successes inspired the staff, so in September 1991, the DM began to prepare students of full-time education in management as the core specialty. A fundamentally new profession attracted much public attention because this event coincided with establishing our state independence. Moreover, it even symbolized independence to some extent. The media covered all the details of the Department. Many Western and domestic universities, heads of enterprises, and newly created corporations attended the DM and laid great hopes for the students. At the same time, future managers felt that they were forerunners and pioneers of the new market stage in developing the country's economics. One of the media called the new specialties ‘the future elite of our society. It is undeniable that Department graduates fully met the hopes. Today, Department graduates are heads of industrial enterprises and organizations, top-managers of international corporations and successful entrepreneurs, professors of Ukrainian and foreign universities, ministers, and other state-owned high-ranking officials. They are people having a direct impact on forming and developing market relations in Ukraine.
The Department of Management pays significant attention to ensuring the proper level of quality of education. Because management is more than other specialties depends on changes in the external market environment and must meet its requests. The Department study programs always address the experience of leading domestic and foreign higher education institutions implementing such programs. Besides, the wishes of employers, graduates, and students determined from the surveys, conducted by the Department, are also significant for study programs.
The experts at the heart of the Department gave impetus to developing a scientific and educational school of management in Ukraine. They are - First Head of the Department, Professor Viktor Niemtsov, Professor Ljudmila Dovgan, and Professor Liubov Smoliar. The department graduates continued the good work of their teachers. The new generation successfully presented its Ph.D. thesis in its native alma mater. They also increase the achievements of the Department with their perseverance, professionalism, and creativity.
The beginning of the DM initiated the Faculty of Management and Marketing at Igor Sikorsky Kyiv Polytechnic Institute. Today, it includes six departments. Basing on the Department, the very first educational and methodological commission on management had performed accreditation of higher education institutions for a long time.
Since 2011, Doctor of Economic Sciences, Professor Viktoriia Dergachova is Head of the Department. During the years of existence, the Department has gained significant scientific and pedagogical potential. Today all its teachers have a degree, the staff includes 4 doctors of economic sciences and 26 candidates (Ph.D.). Most teachers - 3 doctors and 18 candidates - are graduates of the Department.
The Department has prepared lots of managers of enterprises, foreign economic activities, and innovation. Since 2016, to meet the reform in education and labor market requests, the academic staff of the Department train students according to four study programs: “Management and Business Administration”, “International Business Management”, “Management of Investments and Innovations” and “Logistics”.
Further Department development based on a student-centered approach transformed the study program for modern managers into “Management and Business Administration”. At the same time, the new program ensures a broader sample component within which students have the opportunity to form an Individual educational trajectory. Students have both a wide variety of disciplines and specialized certificate study programs. Students can get relevant certificates along with a diploma.
Today, more than 1100 students study at the Department. Only in 2020, 230 students of the first (bachelor) level of higher education, 59 students of the second (master's) level of higher education of the day, and extramural forms of study in the specialty 073 “Management” joined the Department.
The year 2020 was very unusual. New challenges that faced many countries and affected all spheres of life, demanded fundamentally new organizational forms in education. Research and teaching staff of higher education should take fast but weighted actions to provide a qualitative educational process in a distance mode. During this time, the Department staff have developed 95 distance courses. According to student feedback, one can say that the Department has successfully passed the test. Moreover, teachers deepened their knowledge and acquired new skills in information technology, particularly in using platforms of distance learning and online communication facilities.
Distance learning didn’t stop teachers and students from doing research. They continued working on scientific themes: “Management of economic provision for business and entrepreneurship international forms based on the principles of sustainable development and economic security” (Head of the research – Prof. Viktoriia Dergachova); “Improvement of logistic systems management of Ukrainian enterprises in сonditions of integration into the world economy” (Head of the research - Assoc. Iryna Lutsenko); “Management of the development of innovative enterprise in the conditions of the neo-industrial economy” (Head of the research - Assoc. Maryna Kravchenko). There are also three science clubs for students at the DM: “Managing talents of managers” (Head - Assoc. Marina Shkrobot), “Foreign economic activities of enterprises” (Head - Prof. Alla Dunska), and “Logistics Management” (Head - Assoc. Iryna Lutsenko). Distance mode helped them acquire a new form, quality, and skills of zoom conferences and invited numerous speakers. On April 18, 2020, the International Scientific and Practical Conference “Business, Innovation, and Management: Problems and Prospects” was held online. Over the year, the Department has published more than 90 scientific articles, 120 abstracts at conferences, 130 publications with students, and issued 22 textbooks.
The international activity of the Department continued in 2020: 11 teachers of the Department passed international internships. Also, we signed a memorandum of cooperation with Harran University (Turkish Republic) to provide joint research activities. The three-year international joint Project "European business models: transformation, harmonization, and implementation in Ukraine" has been completed. The project was between the Department of Management of Igor Sikorsky Kyiv Polytechnic Institute and the EACEA (Education, Audiovisual and Culture Executive Agency, sponsored by the Erasmus + European Union program according to the terms of the Jean Monnet Funding). Such cooperation, hopefully, has laid the beginning of our new direction of scientific and international activity.
You can talk about the achievements of the past year a lot. Aims we have reached, things we have understood, realized and learned. The result of the joint coherent work, in support by the FMM and University administration, shows the unrestricted desire of the Department to develop and improve. We hope to achieve more, continue to master new horizons, and initiate new directions of activity.