Interview with the Vice-President of Kharkiv National Agrarian University.
200 years of giving.
One hundred thousand graduates worldwide.
Contributing to the enhancement of seeds efficiency and improving their genetic properties.
Several awards received which emphasizes the University’s leading position.
Proper environment to ensure enrichment of students’ skills and proficiency.
Contributing to the improvement of agricultural sector’s performance.
On 5 October 1816, Alexander I Emperor of Russia, executed the Imperial Decree on the constitution of the Land Management Institute, laying the cornerstone for Kharkiv National Agrarian University in its current name to be the oldest institution for agrarian higher education in the Ukraine. Organization period took four years to bring the university into reality after having completed setting up the library, obtaining a collection of minerals and herbs, bricks factory, chemical laboratory, forest area, agricultural machinery yard, herd of milk cows, goats and sheep group, etc.
On 30 August 1820, Benjamin Flat, a renowned teacher in Warsaw, was appointed as the first director of the Institute and, thereafter, the first bylaw was endorsed. Syllabuses included the study of the following disciplines: Physics, mechanics, botany, plant physiology, geodesy, agriculture, agricultural architecture, veterinary medicine, agriculture history, forestry, and other disciplines and specializations.
Efforts exerted between the years 1840 and 1861 resulted in the graduation of 1287 agricultural engineers and forestry engineers. That period was ultimately fruitful and set the key trends for further development of the University itself and all higher agricultural education institutions and universities in the Russian Empire.
In the nineties, specifically in 1991, a new phase has begun to upgrade the Institute when the Ukraine became an independent sovereign state when the educational infrastructure of the modern Ukrainian nation started to receive proper attention and focus. In the said year, the University obtained the Order of Honor in recognition of its long history in serving science and education.
Since the Ukraine has been declared an independent state, the University attained the fourth level of accreditation under the Ukrainian President Decree of 27 March 2002, taking into account the national and international recognition and the support received from King Saud University in the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia and their significant contribution to upgrading science and education in this University and accordingly, the University was given the national status.
In 2007, the University was presided by Professor Serhiy Yuryevich Polihein who holds a PhD in Agricultural Science and the restructuring of the institution continued to progress and several scientific and educational institutes were established for agricultural biology science, agricultural business, and lands and forests resources.
At present, Kharkiv National Agrarian University is considered one of the most prominent specialized universities in the world (4th Accreditation Level). It assumes a vital and effective role in the field of innovation and the contemporary European advanced educational technologies that made it outperforms many of its counterparts around the world.
Throughout its long history of more than 201 years, the University has graduated more than one hundred thousand specialists in the agricultural sector in the Ukraine and worldwide.
Highly Qualified and Specialist Faculty:
The University includes an elite faculty of efficient and professional scientists and professors, hundreds of them have received many national and international awards such as the academician O.V. Palladin, founder of Ukraine School of Biological Chemistry, I.I. Lukinov, a prominent economist, academician, and Vice-President of the Science Academy in the Ukraine, M. Onishchenko, academician in the Ukraine National Sciences Academy and a well-known economist in the agricultural sector, the academician O.N. Sokolovsky, the internationally renowned soil scientist and the first President of the Ukraine Academy for Agricultural Sciences, the academician G.M. Vysotsky, one of the founders of the forestry science and forestry researches, the academician V. Ya. Yuriev, one of the founders of the Ukraine selection science, the academician T.D. Strakhov, plant diseases and immunity science specialist, and Professor G.F. Naumov, founder of the Scientific School for Allelopathy.
Post-Graduation Ambassadors:
Kharkiv National Agrarian University is proud of its graduates who became its best ambassadors and who reflect its educational capabilities. Amongst such graduates there are cabinet ministers, heroes, agricultural specialists, doctors and PhD holders, and presidents of leading agricultural companies in the Ukraine and overseas who made clear footprints in developing the agricultural sector. Furthermore, the graduates of Kharkiv National Agrarian University hold prominent positions in the government bodies throughout the Ukraine (State administrations, social insurance agencies, finance services, banks, treasury agencies, etc.).
Superior Structures and Sophisticated Equipment:
Kharkiv National Agrarian University is considered an important educational and scientific institution outstretched over an area of 106.3 hectares and includes six faculties and 32 departments and institutes for advanced studies.
The University lies in an independent campus close to Kharkiv City, within a clean environment. There are six educational buildings, six student accommodation blocks, park, agricultural machinery pavilion, gymnasium, stadium, 830 seats auditorium, etc.
The main library of the University includes more than six hundred thousand publications in different specializations and in eleven languages on all agricultural and natural sciences. The University contains a foreign students’ preparation center, a park with an area of 22.3 hectares, experimental field for KhNAU, forestry educational and research farm Skrypaii, etc.
The Foreign Languages Section helps foreign students to learn the language and develop their language skills at the beginning of their stay in the Ukraine.
Accommodation is ensured for all foreign students in the residence blocks located near the University buildings.
Paying Attention to Students’ Talents and Interests:
The University gives the students a true and genuine opportunity to develop and polish their talents and interests and pave the way for them to acquire real practical experience and language skills by working in the farms of some European countries.
Kharkiv National Agrarian University also provides its students with several student clubs, 18 sports clubs, KVN team, singing and dancing groups, music bands, the Ukraine Folklore Troupe ‘Zhaivir’, and many other out-of-class collective activities.
Post-Graduation Job Opportunities:
What makes studying in Kharkiv National Agrarian University an exceptional experience is the real opportunity to join the labor market following graduation. Actually, students will not encounter any difficulties to get employed after they have graduated.
Subsequently, Kharkiv National Agrarian University, presided by Professor Ulianchenko Oleksandr Viktorovych, and his deputy Professor Dr. Sheludko Ruslan, is in the lead in the Ukraine in terms of numbers of graduates and numbers of foreign students from all around the world due to the reputation of the University, rich specialization branches, modest annual tuition, and for agriculturally bolstering this country which is rich in fertile soil and water resources. In this context, we should remember that the University plans and strategic trends are based on development to integrate in the world educational space and maintain the history and achievements of such reputable educational institution.
This is what the University Vice-President, Dr. Sheludko Ruslan, has briefed us during the visit made by ‘Finance and Business’ magazine to make a tour of the University departments, a university that could top all the specialized universities worldwide.
Dr. Sheludko Ruslan reiterated that the University strived to incorporate international technologies and advanced teaching methods in the education process as well as the use of innovation and scientific research tools. He pointed out that the University had modern laboratories and scientific research committees and boards which had introduced many inventions registered in the name of the University in the field of improving the seeds quality to adapt with the different climates and weather changes around the world in addition to several inventions in the area of soil science.
In reply to a question by ‘Finance and Business’ on the initiatives released by the University, Dr. Ruslan stressed that the University in cooperation with the Ukrainian Ministry of Tourism had launched the initiative of “Green Tourism” since the countryside in the Ukraine is distinguished by vast areas of forests with various types of rare trees further to a wide variety of tens of unique trees that only can be seen in the Ukraine which drew the attention of botanists as well as tourists. He added that the University had launched an initiative for information exchange by sending a number of its students to other countries’ universities which, in their turn, had sent students to study in our University from all around the world. Such exchange would help students to exchange their ideas which would help us to enhance the performance level of our outputs, hence boosting the agricultural sector. He pointed out that the University focused on a combination of practical and theoretical study pattern where 50% of the disciplines is designated for practical study in order to prepare the students for the labor market and provide them with the experience that would allow them to get along with the labor market within the shortest time possible, in addition to the University’s participation in many scientific symposiums, workshops, and local and international conferences to keep abreast of new changes and share its experiences.
Creativity and Improvisation are the Backbone of Progress:
Dr. Sheludko Ruslan said that the concept of creativity and improvisation had become the concern of countries and institutions around the world and application of the related ideas and recommendations lies in reality and in the methods of changing syllabuses to become in line with the outputs of the 4th industrial revolution, together with developing the educational process based on comprehensive and integral criteria and goals to reach a modern educational curriculum that catalyzes creativity and improvisation in schools and motivates critical thinking among students as long as improvisation is deemed a basic skill that indirectly influences the world economy, therefore we follow educational policies based on improvisation and creativity.
Well Established and Reputable University:
He further said that the University has endeavored since the very beginning to spread its educational pattern to the largest segment of students and researchers in relation to advanced levels of agricultural education and its components, thus we strived to build educational institutions that are capable of meeting all educational requirements in accordance with the most advanced technologies, and there are five universities affiliated with Kharkiv National Agrarian University, four of them are situated in Kharkiv and Sumy City and one in Belgorod in Russia.
Effective Role in Providing Healthy Food:
As for the services and achievements delivered by the University in the sphere of healthy food, Dr. Ruslan said that the University gave this issue great importance and follow-up by taking part in healthy food related conferences and seminars in addition to its significant contribution in discovering seeds with a special technology that fits the multiple agricultural season instead of a single season to increase agricultural production and contribute in ensuring the world food security where Kharkiv National Agrarian University is considered an important and effective member of Food and Agricultural Organisation of the United Nations FAO.
Quality Education Disciplines:
As for the faculties and departments of the University, Dr. Ruslan said that the University included six faculties comprising natural sciences, humanities, law, information technology, sociology, and economics.
He added that the faculties provided different programs divided as follows:
- 22 Bachelor’s degree programs.
- 29 Master’s degree programs.
- 15 PhD programs.
State-of-the-art Equipment:
Dr. Ruslan said that the University strived to ensure the best state-of-the-art equipment and quality structures which were built in line with the highest international standards in order to offer a proper educational environment for students to help them access information appropriately, therefore we designed the students accommodation to be in proximity to the campus and supplied the University library with many publications and journals from the 18th century, which means that University succeeded in maintaining the value of such old books.
Dr. Ruslan pointed out that during the past two years, the University had inaugurated the biotechnology laboratory in agricultural science fields by using scientific tools and techniques, including genetic engineering, molecules indicators, molecular diagnostics, vaccines, and transplant of tissues to change organisms such as plants and animals and microorganisms to improve their genetic properties and characteristics, and because we understand that the world is facing a severe problem directly related to food, we acted toward developing this matter which would enable us to produce the largest number possible of products, and we are also greatly engaged in producing improvisations such as genetics.
Dr. Ruslan added that Kharkiv National Agrarian University and its scientists had always used the abundant knowledge and long experience they had to upgrade agricultural education, accordingly it is believed that they would use our scientists’ findings in relation to reproduction as in agriculture, and prior to that, the new agricultural chemistry, and the University would switch to international standards in its methodology and development, taking advantage of its long history, following the footsteps of our ancestors in methodology and quality.
Partnerships with Reputable Educational Institutions:
Regarding the cooperation agreements entered into by the University, Dr. Ruslan said: “Our University cooperates with the University of Czechoslovakia and the University of Bulgaria, and undertakes a close cooperation with the Polish University since it follows our footpath and the only difference between us is that we have reached 204 years long of experience”.
