European Union Hails First PhD Program in Ukraine and Ranks Kyiv-Mohyla Academy N.2 and N.3 in Social and Political Sciences

The EU Commission on Education and Culture issued a “Study on the organisation of doctoral programmes in EU neighbouring countries”. Its country report on Ukraine ranked National University of Kyiv-Mohyla at U.S. universities Academy as the No.1 university in social and political sciences. The report included an extensive note of approval on NaUKMA’s establishment of a western equivalency PhD program.

The EU Commission Report includes the following text related to Kyiv-Mohyla Academy.

“There is an emerging trend towards a more structured approach to doctoral programmes but at present, there is no doctoral programme structure in Ukraine. The first doctoral programme has been implemented at Kiev-Mohyla University. The objective is to become a model for reform throughout the country.”

The first programmes started in 2008. 16 doctoral candidates were enrolled in to three doctoral programmes: Management in Public Health (an initiative of the Kyiv-Mohyla School of Public Health); Mass Communications ( a joint programme of the Kyiv-Mohyla School of Journalism and Department of Sociology); Finance(a joint programme of the Department of Finance and Kyiv-Mohyla Business School). Each doctoral programme was established with extensive international partner cooperation of Norwegian, American, Spanish, and Dutchacademics, serving as programme experts, research supervisors, and potential dissertation examiners.”

“The structure of training at the Kyiv-Mohyla Doctoral School cînsists of the following: during their first year of studies, in addition to commencing their individual research projects, doctoral candidates take part in a series of methodological and skills training courses that are organized by the Doctoral School, and also part thematic courses and seminars organized by each Doctoral program. During the second year of studies, the number of structured courses is somewhat reduced, with research becoming more central to each PhD candidate’s activities as he/she proceeds through the 4 year doctoral programme. The courses are officially given in two languages: Ukrainian and English.”

“At present, the Doctoral School initiative at Kyiv-Mohyla Academy is limited in resources to scarce internal university funding and small grants, and the project is currently supported by an enthusiastic group of Kyiv Mohyla faculty who see an urgent need for aspirantura reform. Background knowledge and training for this group was obtained through a European Union - funded Tempus project in 2006-7, and a follow-up application to Tempus was submitted for 2009-10. A grant from the Kyiv Mohyla Foundation of America financed organisation and management training of PhD programs. In addition, the PhD programme in Mass Communications obtained a 50,000 Euro start-up grant from Rinat Akhmetov’s Foundation for the Development of Ukraine.”

Full Text of Report: http://doctoralstudies.teamwork.fr/docs/rapports/ukraine.pdf