Defense of the state, ensuring the high quality of education, safety of participants in the educational process are priority tasks discussed at the Council of Rectors by representatives of Lviv universities together with the Lviv Regional Military Administration (Lviv RMA). The academic year will soon begin, and new living conditions require changing the usual formats and solving such urgent problems as resettlement of internally displaced persons and military from dormitories, resettlement of higher education institutions evacuated to Lviv region, arrangement of shelters in educational institutions and choosing the format of education for the near future.
The war became a challenge for absolutely every Ukrainian, and institutions of higher education faced the question of how to maintain a high level of education, despite all the difficulties that arose after February 24. Lviv region is a rear region, where the educational process continued, and all this is thanks to the staff working in our higher education institutions.
«Thank you very much for your work, thank you for helping us with IDPs, for being here, that, despite everything, young people and students remained in our higher education institutions and the country has a future. We are building a strong state, and a strong state is not only about buildings, it is about raising our children and the education we give them. Our youth have a future thanks to you, so allow me to award you on behalf of the President», addressed the audience Maksym Kozytskyi, head of Lviv RMA.
On behalf of the President of Ukraine Volodymyr Zelenskyi, the title «Honored Worker of Science and Technology of Ukraine» was awarded to Professor Mykhailo Kelman, the Institute of Jurisprudence, Psychology and Innovative Education, Lviv Polytechnic, and Associate Professor Viktor Shtets, the Institute of Architecture and Design, was awarded the title «Honored Worker of Art of Ukraine».
After the ceremonial part, they began to consider urgent issues that guarantee the quality of the educational process, namely: resettlement of IDP from dormitories, deciding the future of evacuated to Lviv higher education institutions, arranging shelters in universities and choosing the format of education.
According to Oleh Paska, director of the Department of Education and Science, Lviv Regional State Administration, the biggest burden on IDPs fell on institutions of higher and vocational education. Today, work on this issue continues in two directions: the first is the processing of lists of IDPs in order to analyze to what extent their status corresponds to the status of internally displaced persons. The second direction is the resettlement of IDPs from dormitories, which will help to establish the educational process more efficiently.
«Internally displaced persons, according to the resolution, are defined as people from certain regions. At the same time, due to circumstances, people from the liberated territories are divided today into those who can receive IDP assistance and those who do not receive it. Not everyone has the right to receive it, but only those in whose communities active hostilities are taking place, whose territories are temporarily occupied, and those who have nowhere to return due to destroyed housing», explained Roman Andres, Acting Director of the Department of Social Protection.
Lviv has become a new location for higher education institutions, in particular for Ivan Kozhedub Kharkiv University of Air Force. Its cadets have been defending our country from the first days on the front lines. However, the main task of the HEIs is to train qualified specialists. Nowadays, Kharkiv is constantly under fire, and the University has no possibility to return there.
The next question, which concerned absolutely all participants of the educational process, is the format in which the training will take place and the date of its commencement. According to Borys Zimenkovskyi, rector of Danylo Halytskyi Lviv National Medical University, the conditions of higher education institutions are not unified, so such decisions cannot be made collectively – everyone will work depending on the circumstances and opportunities they have. Such a decision was supported unanimously, so each educational institution will determine the date of the beginning of studies and its format.
In addition, given the new living conditions, universities, as places where many people congregate, need quality shelters. According to Yurii Bobalo, rector of Lviv Polytechnic, there are no classic bomb shelters in any HEIs, so the basements need to be converted. It will cost about a million hryvnias for our University alone, and we need tender for it. But in the conditions of martial law, everything related to defense needs, in particular the financing of shelters, is a priority for the State Treasury.
The representatives of the Main Department of the State Emergency Service of Ukraine in the Lviv region commented on the readiness of shelters in educational institutions of the Lviv region.
The safety and comfort of participants in the educational process is a priority issue that every university must resolve before the beginning of the academic year. At the moment, Lviv Polytechnic has not chosen a form of education yet, but is actively working to ensure that the buildings and dormitories are safe for students and employees of higher education institution, and the educational process becomes as productive as possible.
