Ukrainian Education Minister Serhiy Kvit is one of the few Cabinet members who has remained in his job since the end of the EuroMaidan Revolution last year.
Kvit says he’s happy with the progress he’s making in overhauling a system that remained stuck in the Soviet era too long. The nation’s universities are good at pumping out graduates and diplomas every year, but not always as good at equipping students with knowledge most in demand in the modern world. Consequently, some employers don’t give much respect to a degree from many universities in Ukraine.
But all that is changing for the better, says Kvit, the former president of Kyiv Mohyla Academy.
“Overall I’m satisfied, there have been results,” Kvit told the Kyiv Post in a recent interview. “Maybe, for the public they will become visible a little later.”
Under his watch, Ukraine has approved a new law on higher education, reached the Horizon 2020 agreement with the European Union that provided money to Ukrainian students and relocated 26 educational institutions from embattled parts of eastern Ukraine.
Law on higher education
The law, approved on July 1, cut the number of higher educational institutions from 802 to 317. By the end of 2015, the number might go down to 270, Kvit says.
Most of those institutions still exist, albeit in a different capacity, as technical or vocational schools. “Technical schools and colleges were transferred to a different category,” Kvit explains. “These institutions are related to the labor market while higher education is related to scientific research.”
The ministry is also unhappy with the quality of education and plans extensive inspections of 53 universities, mostly privately owned. Many of them are accused of selling diplomas and have less than 200 students, according to Kvit. By June, the end of the academic year, those universities might have their licenses cancelled, Kvit says.
Some in the education and academic communities, though, are skeptical about the minister’s efforts.
Serhiy Babak, vice president of economics and future development department at Kyiv-based University of Emerging Technologies, says that the ministry should further reduce the number of state universities and cut subsidies to them. Currently there are 215 state universities in Ukraine, according to the state statistics committee.
“Since many students don’t go to the public sector for employment, the number of state universities should be reduced and budget on free education revamped,” Babak says.
He also says that state universities with identical curricula, such as the Kyiv National Economic University and Kyiv National University of Trade and Economics, should merge to ease the burden on the budget.
Budget cuts
The education sector suffered some of the smallest budget cuts when Ukraine’s Parliament approved austerity measures for the nation earlier this year. Although the International Monetary Fund asked for a Hr 3 billion cut out of Hr 24 billion, the trim was only Hr 300 million. Kvit said the cut will be directed at unpopular schools and universities that the ministry plans to close anyway.
Students rally in front of a government building on Feb. 5 in Kyiv calling to take into account the problems in Ukrainian education. The poster reads “Don’t bully a student.”. (UNIAN)
Kvit, however, convinced legislators that education should not be cut as much as the IMF sought.
“We convinced them that it’s important, that education and science are not expenses but investments. Unfortunately, it’s our major problem that there is no understanding of that among politicians and officials,” he says.
Kvit has been cutting back the ministry. Several dozen employees have been fired so far, but it’s not the right way to go, says the minister.
“I don’t think it’s good because we have more responsibilities, while salaries are very low,” he says. A recently approved law set the ceiling for public sector employees wages at Hr 8,200 ($316). “Salary and staff cuts should stop – at least in our ministry. Agriculture universities are now being transferred to our domain which means more work, while the number of employees is going down,” he says.
Universities in Donbas
Most of the relocated 26 Donbas education institutions simply moved from separatist-controlled areas to Ukrainian government-controlled ones of Donetsk and Luhansk oblasts. “They didn’t want to leave. They wanted to stay at home,” Kvit says.
Donetsk National University, however, moved to the central Ukrainian city of Vinnytsia in November. Its teachers have complained about the ministry’s passivity and slow pace of decision-making during the move.
Kvit recently visited some of the universities in Luhansk Oblast, and says that although much equipment and facilities were left behind, “all who wanted to continue studying in Ukraine are doing it now.”
“Of course, we always keep in mind the problems of those people left on the occupied territories and try to address them,” he adds.
The ministry also wants to create a university for those who left the Crimea peninsula after the annexation.
Fighting corruption
Kvit says the ministry is doing a lot to shed corrupt practices which flourished under his predecessor, Dmytro Tabachnyk, who is accused by the Security Service of Ukraine and the General Prosecutor’s Office of selling millions of overpriced school textbooks. Tabachynk, who fled with most of the administration of overthrown President Viktor Yanukovych, is also suspected of fraud related to the Education Ministry’s property and other crimes.
“One had to pay for everything, to get a stamp of approval or protection. This no longer stands at the central level but in the current economic circumstances when people receive pauper wages, such things are very hard to change quickly,” Kvit says.
The ministry also has to adjudicate many allegations of violations by teachers and principals, including financial violations that involve the infamous “voluntary contributions” that parents are often asked to make to schools.
“While we formally don’t have a right, when it gets to scandalous cases related to corruption or separatism, we work with local authorities and sometimes dismiss heads of schools or state officials,” he says.
A recent case involves Volodymyr Onyshchenko, the dean of a Poltava university who used to be a member of the then-ruling Party of Regions. In a conversation leaked online recently, a man who sounds like Onyshchenko is heard threatening one of the teachers with dismissal after her students welcomed him with the revolutionary greeting “Glory to Ukraine!” and then goes on to call the president “a moron.”
The ministry asked the Security Service of Ukraine to check the recordings, Kvit says. “We know this person and know that this is true. As soon as we have confirmation, we won’t tolerate him as dean.”
Horizon 2020
On March 20, Kvit together with Carlos Modeas, the European commissioner for research, science and innovation, signed the Horizon 2020 agreement between Ukraine and the EU which allows Ukrainian students and researchers to apply for grants from the EU research fund, which has a budget of 70 billion euros. The areas of research include space and aeronautics, physics, nuclear research, food and materials.
“It’s a big achievement for us,” Kvit says. Ukraine was also given a 95 percent discount on taking part in the program. It will have to pay 35 million euros in membership fees in the next for years and it can still be halved, Kvit says. This year fees have been waived for Ukraine because of financial crisis. The program will run through 2020.
Kvit says his ministry is also drafting a plan to increase the use of English. As part of the plan, the ministry will set up three-week English summer courses for students. But the project, which is planned to run on volunteer basis, is still a work in progress.
Kyiv Post staff writers Anastasia Forina can be reached at [email protected] and Olena Goncharova at [email protected]
