From December 5 to 9, in the French city of Versailles, a week-long study will be held within the framework of the “UNIVERSITY TEACHERS’ CERTIFICATION CENTRES: INNOVATIVE APPROACH TO PROMOTION TEACHING EXCELLENCE (UTTERLY)” project of the ERASMUS+ program.

It is yet another meeting of the consortium of Ukrainian and European universities dedicated to the formation of teacher certification facilities in Ukrainian higher education institutions. Many of our foreign colleagues have already implemented such an initiative. Today they are willing to share their experiences with our higher education institutions to enhance higher education in Ukraine and integrate it into the European educational system.

The representatives of the following universities take part in these trainings: University of Versailles-Saint-Canton-en-Yvelines(France), Vytautas Magnus University(Lithuanian), University of Bayreuth(Germany), Wrocław University of Science and Technology(Poland), Ivan Franko National University of Lviv (Ukraine), Kyiv National Economic University named after Vadym Hetman(Ukraine), Poltava V.G. Korolenko National Pedagogical University(Ukraine), Lutsk National Technical University(Ukraine), Volodymyr Vynnychenko Central Ukrainian State Pedagogical University(Ukraine), Hryhorii Skovoroda University in Pereiaslav(Ukraine), Nizhyn Gogol State University(Ukraine), National Academy of Educational Sciences of Ukraine(Ukraine), Kryvyi Rih National University(Ukraine),the Union of rectors of higher education institutions of Ukraine(Ukraine).

The meeting began with a greeting from the President of the University of Versailles, Professor Alain Bui, and an opening speech from a Vice President for International Relations of this institution, Professor Jan Borm. They noted that European cooperation with Ukrainian universities is particularly essential today! “We, like no one else, must support Ukraine, its young generation and education. Our joint project is exceptionally the best embodiment of the modernization of education because it aims to unify the teacher certification process in the leading higher education institutions of Ukraine and the EU. “Further, the syllabus included a presentation of the University of Paris-Saclay and a presentation of achievements in improving teaching skills in practice by colleagues from Poland, Lithuania and Germany.

Ukrainian partners also shared their experiences. Olha Oseredchuk, head of the Center for Marketing and Development at Ivan Franko National University of Lviv, presented Lviv University as the initiative’s coordinator. She told the audience about the professional development course for academic staff “Improving teaching skills “, which became a prerequisite for writing the project. Allowing teachers to improve their skills by implementing active learning methods and developing skills in a mixed form of education using information technologies was the objective of this initiative. Above 1,500 educators from Lviv University and other institutions of higher education in Ukraine took part in the three previous courses. Today, as part of the project, we have a higher goal – to spread the best practices of our university and partner universities from the EU by creating a network of teaching excellence improvement centres in Ukraine.

Among the training topics included in the following days are developing new training programs, competency models for academic and non-academic employees, and intercultural aspects of communication in international projects. We are confident that the heard new practices and riveting ideas will be beneficial to our university.

We remind you that the project “UNIVERSITY TEACHERS’ CERTIFICATION CENTRES: INNOVATIVE APPROACH TO PROMOTION TEACHING EXCELLENCE (UTTERLY)”  is designed to improve the system of professional development of university teachers in Ukraine by creating a network of nine certification centres. You can find out more about the initiative by following the link.