International Training Program for senior college administrators of Ukraine “Raising Profile of Colleges through the Quality of Education Improvementˮ
On September 18-20, International Training Program for senior college administrators of Ukraine "Raising Profile of Colleges through the Quality of Education Improvement" is hosted by the Poltava National Technical Yuri Kondratyuk University, by the Poltava Oil and Gas College of PoltNTU in collaboration with Scientific-Technical Center of Engineering Academy of Ukraine with support from the Ministry of Education and Science of Ukraine, U.S. Department of State, Embassy of the United States of America in Ukraine, Fulbright Program in Ukraine, Santa Fe College and International Charitable Foundation "International Foundation for Educational Policy Research".
The participants of the training are directors of colleges and technical schools of Poltava region and other regions of Ukraine, in particular alumni of the Fulbright Academic Exchanges Program who studied the Community College of Florida (USA).
Training should become a platform for an open debate regarding the future of colleges in the national education system and for building an effective dialogue between representatives of the educational community of Ukraine and the United States around the most important aspects of the colleges’ life and development.
Yesterday, September 18, the opening of the Training was held. With greetings, the attendees approached: Volodymyr Onyshchenko, Rector of Poltava National Technical Yuri Kondratyuk University; Oleg Sharov, Director of the Department of Higher Education of the Ministry of Education and Science; Olena Kharchenko, Director of the Department of Education and Science PODA; Vira Ternovska, Academic Affairs Specialist of Public Affairs Section, U.S. Embassy in Ukraine; Anthony Koliha, Director, Office of Global Educational Programs, U.S. Department of State.
During session 1 “Legislation re colleges: domestic and foreign practiceˮ, Oleg Sharov, Director of the Department of Higher Education of the Ministry of Education and Science analyzed the current state and future of colleges / technical schools in the national education system of Ukraine.
Dan Rodkin, Ed.D. Associate Vice President for Student Affairs, Santa Fe College, USA introduced with community colleges in the U.S. system of education.
Session 2 was devoted to reform of content and colleges’ management. Dan Rodkin, Ed.D. Associate Vice President for Student Affairs, Santa Fe College and Dug Jones, Associate Vice President for Economic Development, Santa Fe College, USA, Fulbright Specialist explained how the U.S. community colleges are administered and funded. They stressed to the role of colleges to satisfy the needs of communities and regional job markets and collaboration between colleges and business.
Anthony Koliha has congratulated about the beginning of the II stage of the "Community College Administrator Program". This was made possible thanks to the active work of alumni of CCAP-2016, providing implementation in the educational process of Ukrainian higher educational institutions of the I-II level accreditation the best achievements of the U.S. Community Colleges.
Extremely interesting and meaningful was Skype presentation and discussion with Vilma E. Fuentes, Ph.D. Assistant Vice President of Academic Affairs, Santa Fe College. She comparing common challenges and opportunities for American and Ukrainian Colleges.
Lyubov Shumska, Director of Poltava of Oil and Gas College and Yevhen Karpenko, Chief Specialist of Department of Higher Education of the Ministry of Education and Science, were moderators of the first day of the Training. The sessions were held in an atmosphere of benevolence and cooperation, a constructive discussion of important issues, productive dialogue.
Participants took part in the opening of the Ukrainian-American Center PoltNTU.
Intense day ended informative cultural program. A tour of sights of Poltava was held for guests of the city. An interesting theatrical form was the visit of the museum-estate of Ivan Kotliarevsky..
The work of the training continues. The next step is to discuss important issues of quality assurance.