|
NATIONAL UNIVERSITY OF LIFE AND ENVIRONMENTAL SCIENCES OF UKRAINE – ON THE WAY FROM THE TYPICAL AGRICULTURAL UNIVERSITY TO THE UNIVERSITY OF LIFE AND ENVIRONMENTAL SCIENCES National University of Life and Environmental Sciences of Ukraine (NUBiP of Ukraine) started its history in XIX century from Agricultural Department within Kyiv Polytechnic Instiitute. In the 50th of the past century it has united Kyiv Agricultural with Kyiv Forestry and Kyiv Veterinary Institute. During that period its name has being changed few times, joining other institutes, colleges, technical schools and research farms; on the other hand some educational institutions got separated from it (as its separated subdivisions) (fig. 1). In 1990 this institution had the name of Ukrainian Agricultural Academy; that year it won the 1st place according to the rating between 108 agricultural Universities of the former USSR. In 1992 the Academy obtained status of Ukrainian State Agricultural University, in 1994 it became the National Agricultural University (NAU), along with this high status the University has been subordinated directly to the Cabinet of Ministers of Ukraine as self-managed higher educational institution. Besides, wide autonomy rights were granted to the University, particularly concerning its international activities. During 2000-2008 the following subdivisions joined National Agricultural University: Crimean Agrotechnological University (as a Southern Branch of NAU) and other regional scientific, research and experimental divisions (as separated subdivisions of the University) (fig. 1). In 2008 NAU was renamed into National University of Life and Environmental Sciences of Ukraine (NUBiP of Ukraine) and obtained research status. The Basic Institution of NUBiP of Ukraine is in Kyiv, the rest structural divisions are spread geographically almost all over Ukraine (fig. 2). The University's regional Educational Institutes and Colleges, Technical Schools and Consulting Offices, Stations and Research Farms are located in 7 different regions of the country and at Crimean Peninsula. The main directions of scientific activities of NUBiP of Ukraine prove that the University is multisectoral institution, it focuses on food, agricultural, environmental and biosocial issues: natural and humanitarian sciences, including biologization and ecologization of agriculture and its sustainable development; sustainable development of biotechnology and environmental protection; standardization of food and agricultural production technologies, their quality, biosafety and certification; economics, marketing, management and biosocial economics of rural areas; modern management and finance of agricultural production; technics, energetics and automatics in AIC and nature-conservative area; innovative activities and life quality international standards; forestry and park gardening; phytomedicine and veterinary medicine; information and telecommunication support of agroindustrial and nature-conservative branches of economy; law and land resources management etc. The main structural divisions of the University are the Educational and Research Institutes (ERI). Each of them includes Research Institutes and 2 to 4 faculties and few research centers, laboratories each. If to consider just Kyiv Territorial Center of NUBiP of Ukraine (without its structural regional subdivisions), nowadays there are 12 Educational and Research Institutes, 12 Scientific and Research Institutes and 23 faculties, 45 Scientific and Research Centers. Regional subdivisions also have their structural particularities and are coordinated from Basic Institution in Kyiv. Today NUBiP of Ukraine trains: Besides during the last years according to the rating results NUBiP of Ukraine takes 1st place among 21 Agricultural Universities of Ukraine and is in the Top-10 Ukrainian Universities. Educational activity of the University has public character and is protected from interference of political parties as well as religious organizations. Tab. 1. The main results of the university’s scientific activities, 2009-2011 Special attention should be paid to the international cooperation of NUBiP of Ukraine with foreign countries considering its role as a host University as well as taking advantage of broad learning, practical and scientific experience from the foreign educational institutions. More than 3 thousand specialists from different foreign countries were trained at the University during the previous decades. There are students from 14 countries who currently study at the different faculties by the different educational and qualification levels (Junior Specialist, Bachelor, Specialist, Master and Post-Graduate) as of 2010. Moreover we have met significant support and encouragement from the World Bank, US Agency for International Development (USAID), US Information Agency, some EU organizations, leaders of abovementioned universities and Ukrainian Diaspora. The University is also a member of University Associations, Councils and other Non-Governmental Organizations. The most significant results of this collaboration are the following: - over 30 new specialties were set up during the last 20 years (there are 43 nowadays, there were 13 in 1990); During the indicated period of time the University saturated typical applied agricultural sciences (like agronomy, animal science, veterinary medicine, plant protection, mechanization of agriculture) with fundamental issues of ecology, ecobiology, biotechnology and biochemistry, quality and safety of food and agricultural products and environment, information science and telecommunication, climatology, legal and social development of rural areas and their architecture, life quality and safety, technical and technological, financial and economic sciences etc. The need for these changes was dictates of time. Thus, production area had to be completed with food science and technologies, plant and animal products processing, quality control. Besides market economy also made us transforming the way of thinking in terms of business requirements to specialists in sphere of finance, taxation, accounting, management of the organizations, foreign economic activities, agricultural marketing etc. And all the students graduating from the University have to meet these requirements to be competitive in labor market. All these (and many others) specialties, which are typical for the classical universities, were set up in order to accomplish this task. Only combination of fundamental and applied sciences enabled initiation the adaptation of sustainable nature management and biodiversity system, alternative energy sources use, intro¬duction of adaptive agricultural technologies in terms of climate changes, adjusting the system of food and forage quality and safety control, updating an equipment and technology in production, processing and storage of agricultural products etc. All these changes enabled us to create a new model of the University where educational activities were combined with research, scientific and innovative activities. Our Master’s Programs are particularly successful; they allow bachelors of any professional direction to get specialized in different areas. Master course may offer several peculiarities by following directions: industry-oriented, research-oriented, teaching direction, managerial and other areas. Special assistance in these Programs we have received from Penn State University, Iowa State University, Louisiana State University and others (fig. 5).
Along with the number of specialties available at the University, the amount of students of Master Degree courses has also been increasing in many times (Fig. 6). There are also newly-created educational and research laboratories, centers and institutes, educational and research farms (station), scientific and innovative centers etc. All of them combine educational, research and innovative activities of the University with the problems of production area. On the other hand, production area is able to adjust research and educational activities, becoming a customer for some particular investigations. To this end, the University makes the most out of more than 30 thousand hectares of its lands, where all the stages of production, processing and storage of many types of agricultural products (crop production, forestry, animal husbandry, fishery, poultry farming, alternative energy, food and fodder processing) are represented. Thus, nowadays NUBiP of Ukraine is an important educational, research and production complex, which resembles “planetary” interaction of its structural subdivisions (fig. 7.). Its center contains modern labs and equipment, where fundamental and large-scale applied research is conducted; the regional structures are specialized in applied research of local level and scientific and innovative activities which also can lead directly to the manufacturing application. This type of universities is presented in many developed countries, and their key task is to prepare specialists of high technology specialties in order to meet future needs and challenges of economy and science. As a conclusion, we would like to remind that NUBiP of Ukraine being a research institution and one of the Universities of Agriculture and Life Sciences has to pay the key role in global problem of food security solving. Our universities are becoming global Centers for scientific, technological and cultural advance in particular areas of economy and are joining efforts not only of educational and research institutions but also private business. This could be reached by means of creation of scientific and technological parks, technopolises, complexes, concerns, associations etc. The Universities of Agriculture and Life Science should play a key role in solving the above mentioned problems, because their mission consists in training the specialists and providing the scientific support of food and agricultural technologies. Nowadays former Agricultural Universities get transformed into Universities of Life and Environmental Sciences (or Natural (Biological) Sciences and Environment, of Nature Management etc). And this is a worldwide tendency. There are also many University Associations (both global and regional ones). These universities should network in order to join their efforts more actively to face new global challenges, to prepare specialists according to the principle of negative prevention, this actually is one of the tasks for International organizations of agricultural universities, such as GCHERA and other Regional University Associations. Another important role of the Life Science Universities is participation in social and cultural development of rural areas. And now it’s proper time to join their efforts and intellectual capacity globally in order to solve above mentioned issues. For more information visit us nubip.edu.ua |
