Ivan Franko National University of Lviv has been working on the UTTERLY UNIVERSITY TEACHERS’ CERTIFICATION CENTRES: INNOVATIVE APPROACH TO PROMOTION TEACHING EXCELLENCE / UTTERLY project for the nine months already. The program aims to modernize the higher education system in Ukraine by introducing university training centers to promote European educational innovations through the professional certification of university teachers.

On November 22 – 26, 2021, the representatives of the University namely: Associate Professor of General Pedagogy and Higher School Pedagogy, Faculty of Pedagogics Nataliia Horuk, Associate Professor of Translation Studies and Contrastive Linguistics Department named after Hryhoriy Kochur , Deputy Dean of the Faculty of Foreign Languages for International Cooperation and Educational Work Yullia Naniak and Oksana Molderf, Assistant Professor, Department of Intercultural Communication and Translation, Faculty of Foreign Languages visited Bayreuth University, where they learned from the experience of organizing and ensuring the work of teacher certification centers on the basis of higher education institutions.

As part of the exchange program, the participants had the opportunity to listen to a presentation by the Bayreuth University Center for Teaching and Learning prepared by the Head of the Center Frank Mayer, a presentation by the Bavarian Network for Improving Learning (by Paul Dolle), and a report by Annie Hager, Thomas Schmitt and Catherine Horn on certification programs for learning with digital support.

Our colleagues also took part in a panel discussion on “How the university works toward the improvement of teaching and what are the benefits of international exchange”, which was attended not only by speakers from Ukrainian higher education institutions, but also by speakers from Bayreuth, Versailles, Kaunas and Wroclaw.
Our colleagues from Bayreuth University told the delegates about their Service IT Center (Nikolai Jahreis) and presented the report “Summary of the self-study phase” (Nikolai Toyfel). The last speaker also touched on the topic of the teaching advantages and good practices in Ukrainian universities.
No less relevant and interesting were the talks on innovative projects, including QUADIS (Improving the quality of digital teaching at the Bavarian University) and DABALUGA (Assistance in Data-Based Learning) (Anya Hager, Christoph Koch).

The last but one day was dedicated directly to the UTTERLY project, namely presentations and discussions. During the last conference we also managed to discuss the Bavarian-Ukrainian-Belarusian exchange programs within the framework of dual training programs.
In addition, the participants had the opportunity to visit the Christmas market, the botanical garden, go on a tour around Bayreuth as well as visit Bamberg.

In the words of the delegates, the informal communication provided an opportunity to discuss key issues and challenges that complicate the implementation of “UTTERLY”, as well as possible ways to tackle these difficulties. This week was not only a great opportunity to gain new knowledge and skills in furtherance of the project on the basis of Ivan Franko National University, but also a successful attempt to consider future cooperation with European educational and research centers. In particular, there was a talk about establishing cooperation in the field of educational exchanges as part of dual training programs.

Therefore, we hope that through common efforts we will be able to implement the UTTERLY program “Teacher Certification Centers: Innovative Approaches to Teaching Excellence” as effectively as possible.