Santa Fe College hosted two delegations of higher education administrators from Ukraine as part of the Community College Administrator Program (CCAP) funded by the United States Department of State. Both CCAPs with Ukraine were administered by Florida State University and Santa Fe College. The first Ukrainian delegation came to SF May 2-13, 2016. The second delegation visited our college May 17-28, 2018. In total, these two programs allowed our college administrators, faculty and students to dialogue and share experiences with 28 Ukrainian college presidents.
Since declaring independence from the Union of Soviet Socialist Republic (USSR) August 24, 1991, Ukraine has experienced significant economic and political reform. These reforms have accelerated since the 2014 Maiden Revolution, particularly in the realm of education.
A new Law on Higher Education was passed at the end of 2014 just a few months after the Revolution of Dignity. It represented the first legislation of its kind in twelve years. The law created the National Agency for Quality Assurance, a new independent body charged with monitoring the quality of education in higher education institutions. The law also introduced the concept of inclusive education. A broader Law on Education was approved at the end of 2017. These and other recent pieces of legislation represent a major reform of Ukraine’s education system in order to align it more with world standards and produce the types of educated and skilled graduates the country needs to fuel economic growth.
Ukraine currently has approximately 800 technical colleges throughout the country, which serve students 15-19 years of age. Each technical college averages in size from 1000–1500 students. Directors from 28 of Ukraine's top performing technical colleges as well as representatives from the country's Ministry of Education and Science participated in the 2016 and 2018 CCAP in order to learn more about the U.S. community college system and help inform the ongoing dialogue and process of education reform in their country. The video below captures some of what these visitors experienced and learned.
Learn more about Ukraine Program Overview here.
Narrator
Santa Fe College hosted a delegation of Ukrainian community college administrators in May 2016 as part of a Community College Administrator Program (CCAP) funded by the US Department of State. In order to learn best practices in the U.S. Community college system, they were exposed to every aspect of the administrative and educational process as well as cultural opportunities that enriched their experience. They toured classrooms, shadowed with instructors and administrators, engaged in discussion with academic leaders and students, and they left with an understanding of how shared governance has helped Santa Fe grow, build, and expand to serve students and the community better.
President Jackson Sasser:
The President of the College in a democracy must listen honestly.
Lyubov Shumska, Deputy Director of the Poltava Gas and Oil College:
I saw much more than I expected. It was openness and transparency of your administration, for all, for faculty, for students. I think faculty of Santa Fe College, they work not only for payment they work from soul, from heart.
Yevhen Karpenko, Ukrainian Ministry of Education and Science:
In this community college system education is open to all levels of the society without having to compete for entry. Students with special needs here feel like normal active participants in campus life and the study process. It is the most important part of what I am going to bring back to Ukraine, to the Ukrainian educational system.
Lyubov Shumska:
It is good relationship between college and employers and between college and community. It's really what we need to implement in Ukraine.
Oleg Kuklin, Director of Cherkasy State Business College:
It is very important for me to transfer knowledge to the other people in Ukraine.
I need to radically change the communication with business and community from people in Cherkasy.
Lyubov Shumska:
We are only 12 administrators from Ukraine, but there are many hundred colleges and we must to share this information to other colleges. We will make conference.
Yevhen Karpenko:
I think that there is a real need to bring representatives of the Santa Fe College to Ukraine with a goal of collecting information on how the ideas we learned during this program were implemented into the life, the work of Ukrainian community colleges.
Ganna Schustka, Director of Kyiv College of Light Industry:
It will be with me all my life. I'm sure. Because it was not just like details about work. It was knowledge about relationships between teacher and students, relationship between American people and Ukrainian and Latinas and Afro-Americans and Chinese. It's what I saw here, and we need it now. We need it more than -- much more than maybe a different time.
Oleg Kuklin:
I like everything about Santa Fe. It is very good!
The Community College Administrator Program (CCAP) is sponsored by the U.S. Department of State with funding provided by the U.S. Government and administered by Florida State University and Santa Fe College.