VMU Organized Training for Lecturers from Ukraine
On 3-5 December, VMU was visited by lecturers from Ukraine, who came here as participants of Erasmus+ project Rethinking Regional Studies: The Baltic-Black Sea Connection. In the project, VMU is represented by the Faculty of Political Science and Diplomacy, while its goal is the europization of the MA degree studies of political sciences offered by the universities of Odessa, Mariupol, Lviv, and Kiev (Ukraine).
In cooperation with the universities of Tartu (Estonia), Lund (Sweden), and Poznan (Poland), VMU is planning to prepare new European MA degree study programmes which will subsequently be developed by the Ukrainian universities themselves. In accordance with the agreement, each lecturer from Ukraine has to make a visit to a European university for academic training.
The visiting Ukrainians were provided training by VMU lecturers. Topics such as handling stress, providing high-quality lectures, adapting various spaces for education, and many other matters were presented by the Dean of VMU Faculty of Economics and Management Assoc. Prof. Rita Bendaraviečienė, employees of the Institute of Foreign Languages Teresė Ringailienė and Almantė Meškauskienė, the head of the Innovative Studies Institute Assoc. Prof. Airina Volungevičienė, employee of VMU Library Inga Lukoševičiūtė, scientists of VMU Dept. of Psychology Assoc. Prof. Loreta Gustainienė and Andrius Šmitas, employees of the Studies Department Izabela Savickienė and Virginija Bortkevičienė, Assoc. Prof. Jaq Greenspon from the VMU Dept. of Public Communication, and lecturer of VMU Education Academy Dr. Auksė Petruškevičiūtė.
On the morning of 3 December, the guests discussed the cooperation opportunities between VMU and Ukraine’s universities as well as the project’s activities with the VMU Vice-Rector for International Relations Prof. Ineta Dabašinskienė and the Head of VMU International Cooperation Department Ilona Kazlauskaitė.
During the visit, Ukrainians and the VMU representatives also took a trip to Vilnius, where a meeting was held at the Ministry of Education and Science with the Deputy Minister Prof. Eugenijus Butkus. Other meetings were also held at the Centre for Quality Assessment in Higher Education and in the Seimas of the Republic of Lithuania. There, the project’s participants were greeted by the Speaker of the Seimas Viktoras Pranckietis, the Deputy Speaker Jonas Liesys and his assistant, lecturer of the VMU Education Academy, Dr. Auksė Petruškevičiūtė.
The reception of the lecturers from Ukraine at Vytautas Magnus University was coordinated by Prof. Mindaugas Jurkynas from the VMU Dept. of Regional Studies and the Senior Administrator at the VMU Faculty of Political Science and Diplomacy Aistė Žemaitytė.
