Serhiy Belikov: «The analysis allows us to assess the state of ZSIA as critical»

The question of the reorganization of the Zaporizhzhia State Engineering Academy by including it in the Zaporizhzhia National Technical University arose in connection with the deep systemic crisis of ZSIA as a higher education institution of the III-IV level of accreditation, which is reflected in the certificate of the commission of the State Inspectorate of Higher Education of the Ministry of Education and Science of Ukraine. The conclusions of the commission after discussion at the personnel commission of the Ministry of Education and Science of Ukraine served as the basis for terminating the contract with the rector of ZSIA, V.I. Pozhuevy. Analysis of these conclusions and discussion of the activities of the academy together with the appointed acting rector rector E.Ya. Shvets allows us to assess the state of ZSIA as critical.

Over four years, the contingent has decreased by 46 percent

Over 2009-2013, the contingent of ZSIA students in absolute terms decreased from 8278 to 4474 people, that is, by 46 percent. If we take into account the ratio of the contingent of full-time and part-time students, then in ZSIA 35 percent are full-time students and 65 percent are part-time students. For comparison, 61 percent of full-time students and 39 percent of part-time students study at ZNTU…

The academy’s management’s refusal to accept a budget order for part-time students and a reduction in budget admissions to the full-time department led to a critical decline in the number of students at ZSIA.

In 2013, ZSIA enrolled 346 full-time students and 190 part-time students. In 2014, 452 full-time students and 587 part-time students are expected to graduate. This will lead to a further drop in the absolute numbers of the number of students by 503 people or 11 percent.

For comparison, in 2013, ZNTU enrolled 1,752 full-time students and 814 part-time students. With the graduation in 2014 of 1,522 people and 694 people, respectively, an increase in the absolute indicators of the contingent by 350 people is expected.

At the ZSIA, the number of students per teacher decreased to 7.45 [with a further decrease to 7.1] with a general trend of a progressive increase in this indicator to 18 [Action Program of the President of Ukraine]. At ZNTU, this indicator reaches 12.71 with a further increase to 13.1.

No students were accepted for the first year of full-time studies in the specialties of «Water supply and drainage», «Metallurgy of non-ferrous metals», «Pressure processing of metals», and only two (!) full-time students in the specialties of «Finance and credit», «Occupational safety»…

Due to the catastrophic drop in the contingent in the specialties of «Metallurgy of non-ferrous metals» 13 students of the 1st-4th years are taught by ten teachers of the specialized department.

The licenses for most areas of training are expiring

The critical situation regarding the contingent of students in most areas and specialties of the ZSIA is aggravated by the fact that on July 1, 2014, the licenses for 16 out of 18 areas of training for bachelors and 27 out of 37 specialties of training for specialists and masters expire.

Specialists who do not meet the profile of these departments continue to perform the duties of heads of departments with scientific specialties…

The preserved supporting departments of the ZSIA [foreign languages, philosophy and political science, physical education and sports, Ukrainian studies] do not meet the requirements of the Law of Ukraine «On Higher Education»…

For many years, the academy has There is no practice of working with graduates of colleges that are part of it. The program for college graduates to receive full higher education on the basis of a junior specialist diploma on a budget basis was not implemented. In 2013, only ten college graduates were accepted for budget training at ZSIA, and 315 college graduates at ZNTU.

According to the scientometric database Scopus, as of 15.10.2013, ZSIA dropped to 113th place among Ukrainian universities, while ZNTU rose to 40th place, moving up nine positions.

Violations established by the state commission

As a result of the inspection of ZSIA by the commission of the State Inspectorate of Educational Institutions of Ukraine, gross violations of the Law of Ukraine «On Higher Education», the Regulations on the Organization of the Educational Process, and industry standards of higher education were established, including:

• complete exclusion of exams as a form of semester control;
• arbitrary reduction of the volume of normative disciplines;
• the number of credits [class hours] of curricula for all directions and specialties are two times less than the normative one;
• nine training laboratories and six specialized offices were liquidated.

This objective assessment of the decline in the quality of training, the number of students and the number of teaching staff allows us to conclude about the possible prospect of depriving the ZSIA of its license in most directions and specialties, the validity of which expires by July 1, 2014.

The Academy is proposed to maintain maximum autonomy

Therefore, it was proposed to reorganize the ZSIA and ZNTU with the preservation of maximum autonomy of the ZSIA, including: preserving the name, symbols, flag and other attributes of the academy, autonomous self-government bodies, introducing the position of the first vice-rector – director of the academy, etc. It is also planned to create a system of institutes that unite related faculties, elect institute directors as officials and assign them the tasks of strategic development, and faculty deans the tasks of direct management of teaching and student groups.

The reorganization of universities should ensure a significant increase in the quality of specialist training, the development of scientific schools, a significant strengthening of the teaching staff, the creation of specialized academic councils for the defense of doctoral and candidate theses in new specialties, an increase in the rating of higher technical education in the Zaporizhzhia region, obtaining decisions from the Ministry of National Education and Science of Ukraine on the extension of the validity period of licenses and certificates for the combined university for two to three years to preserve all specialties of the ZGIA.

The main conditions that ensure the preservation of the teaching staff and the level of salaries during the reorganization of the ZGIA are summarized in the draft agreement of the teaching staff and students of ZNTU and ZGIA.

With the participation of the acting rector of the ZGIA Shvets E.Ya. meetings of the Zaporizhzhia Metallurgical and Zaporizhzhia Hydropower Colleges of the ZGIA were held, which almost unanimously decided to appeal to the Ministry of Education and Science of Ukraine to reorganize these colleges into structural units of the ZNTU.

Reorganization is calmly perceived by sensible people

However, the prospect of reorganization of higher technical educational institutions in Zaporizhzhia, which is calmly perceived by sensible teachers and students, began to receive a biased assessment in the media and social networks from a group of irresponsible phrase-mongers… This group, using the media and appeals to people’s deputies of Ukraine, falsifies reliable information about the state of affairs in the ZGIA and ZNTU, proposing for career reasons either to preserve the current crisis state of the ZGIA, or to reorganize the academy into a structural unit of one of the universities of the city. Dnipropetrovsk.

Deeply respecting the history of the Academy of Agricultural Sciences, the merits of its staff and rectors Prof. Yu.M. Potebny and M.P. Revun, I, as the Chairman of the Council of Rectors of Higher Education Institutions of the III-IV level of accreditation of the Zaporizhzhia region, am concerned about its current crisis state and the possibility of liquidation of the academy due to non-compliance with licensing requirements for most specialties of this university.

I ask you, when considering the issue of reorganization of ZSIA and ZNTU, to pay attention to the urgent need to significantly improve the quality of higher education and training of highly qualified specialists for the city of Zaporizhzhia and the Zaporizhzhia region, which can only be provided by a powerful joint technical university of national status with the highest state and academic ratings.

S.B. Belikov,

Chairman of the Council of Rectors, Rector of ZNTU

We offer a selection of documents for download:

Letter of the Rector of Zaporizhzhia National Technical University Belikov Serhiy Borisovich to the People’s Deputies of Ukraine (PDF, 1.5 MB)
Appendix 1 (PDF, 10.0 MB)
Appendix 2 (PDF, 99.2 KB)
Appendix 3 (PDF, 236.6 KB)
Appendix 3a (PDF, 199.6 KB)
Appendix 4 (PDF, 97.1 KB)
Appendix 5 (PDF, 97.6 KB)
Appendix 6 (PDF, 2.5 MB)

ZNTU License (PDF, 2.59 MB)
Appendix 7 (PDF, 92.7 KB)
Appendix 8 (PDF, 111.8 KB)
Appendix 8a (PDF, 572.9 KB)
Appendix 9 (PDF, 412.3 KB)
Appendix 10 (PDF, 394.4 KB)
Appendix 11 (PDF, 601.2 KB)
Appendix 12 (PDF, 117.1 KB)
Appendix 13 (PDF, 139.1 KB)
Appendix 14 (PDF, 255.5 KB)
Appendix 15 (PDF, 488.5 KB)

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