On 22 August 2024, Pavlo Tychyna Uman State Pedagogical University in cooperation with the Ministry of Education and Science of Ukraine and the National Erasmus+ Office in Ukraine organised the All-Ukrainian seminar on ‘Erasmus+ opportunities for higher education institutions’, bringing together partners from all over Ukraine for an information session on the Erasmus+ programme.
The event was joined by about 80 participants, including academic staff and representatives of Ukrainian HEIs, namely: Sumy State Pedagogical University named after A.S. Makarenko, Khmelnytsky National University, Kherson State Maritime Academy, Hryhorii Skovoroda University in Pereiaslav, Kyiv International University, Lviv University of Trade and Economics, Rivne State Humanitarian University, Nizhyn Mykola Gogol State University, Dnipro University of Technology and Volodymyr Vynnychenko Central Ukrainian State University.
The honorary guest of the event, Svitlana Shytikova, NEO Coordinator in Ukraine, spoke about the key priorities, areas and ideas for participation in the competitions, complementarity between the areas and opportunities for universities to interact with other organisations, and the EU Erasmus+ Programme as a tool for internationalisation and transformation of Ukrainian education on the path of Ukraine's accession to the EU.
In the second part of the meeting, the university shared its own experience of international cooperation and project implementation. Kateryna Ilnytska, the Head of the International Relations Department, spoke about Erasmus+ Projects at Pavlo Tychyna USPU. At the end of the presentation, the participants had the opportunity to discuss the key features and challenges of implementing projects during wartime, the potential of the Erasmus+ programme for the development of academic mobility and cooperation between educational institutions.
The seminar became a platform for sharing experiences, learning about new grant and study programme opportunities, and establishing partnerships between HEIs. Participants learned about successful examples of project implementation under the programme, as well as how to apply for grants and receive funding for their initiatives, discussed the potential and prospects for cooperation between the universities participating in the seminar within the Erasmus+ programme. The event was an important step in the development of international cooperation in education and opened new horizons for Ukrainian universities.