The first stage of the Battle of Universities

On May 12 at 6:00 p.m., the first part of the great battle between Zaporizhzhia’s higher education institutions – ZNTU, ZNU, ZIA, ZIEIT, KPU and ZDMU – took place in the ZNTU assembly hall.

It was announced from the stage that the "Battle of Universities" consists of 8 stages, however, as it became known from communication with representatives of higher education institutions, none of the participants received a clear position on each of the stages and on the entire "Battle". Each of the stages of the competition will be held in one of the higher education institutions of Zaporizhzhia:

– student amateur art competition "Student Spring";

– Zaporizhzhia city championship in the game "What? Where? When?» among student youth;

– KVK games;

– entertaining game «Who’s on top?»;

– mini-football championship;

– social projects forum;

– « Flashmob» competition;

– video competition « My University».

At the beginning of the event, representatives of the administration of all universities and the deputy mayor Anatolii Pustovarov took the stage to congratulate the creative teams and cut the ceremonial red ribbon. It is worth noting that the only rector present was the Rector of ZNTU Prof. S.B. Belikov. «The main theme is unification, acquaintance, new projects. We will correct all ideas and shortcomings so that next year it will be better,» said A. Pustovarov. The composition of the jury, which included representatives of each university, surprised me. Such a composition of the jury did not look very competent, because in this case the jury members were interested in underestimating the points of stronger competitors.

The format of the competition was somewhat unusual for the students of «Mashinka»: each university had 22 minutes for its performance, where it showed practically everything it wanted. The performances differed from each other radically. ZNTU used strong numbers that impressed the audience with their energy, but there were not enough of them and it was not possible to connect them into a single theme, as is usually the case at the «ZNTU Student Spring». But what can be shown in 22 minutes? For example, a KVN performance by the «Chistye Prudy» team. Or a fight between two kickboxers on stage? No matter what, each university was interesting in its own way.

It was very nice to see how ZNTU students supported their own university – they waved flags from the back rows, and after each performance you could only hear «Mashinka». This became an example for other universities to follow. But our fans, including the rector of the university, supported with all their hearts, not only their own university, but also the good performances of other universities, and there were quite a few of them! However, no matter how wonderful the performance was, it is difficult to perceive it if you have been sitting at the concert for 3 hours, which is exactly how long the audience had to sit until all the universities performed and the jury divided the prizes. After half an hour of tense waiting and listening to the singing of the representative of ZNTU Kosovska Anna, the audience heard the result: Zaporizhzhia National University took first place. Zaporizhzhia State Engineering Academy took an honorable second place. Zaporizhzhia National Technical University became the laureate of the third degree. This result surprised everyone, because the performance of ZNTU students was at the usual high level.

We hope that the student friendship between Zaporizhzhia universities will only become stronger, despite the mistakes of the organizers and the incorrect actions of some university employees!

Press service of the ZNTU students’ trade union committee