AgriSciences Platform for Scientific Enhancement of HEIs in Ukraine

Sumy National Agrarian University

is a higher educational establishment with level – IV of accreditation; it is one of the best agrarian universities of Ukraine. Sumy National Agrarian University was founded in 1977; for 40 years of its existence, it has gone from Sumy branch of Kharkiv Agricultural Institute named after V.V. Dokuchaiev to powerful educational establishment of national importance.

Sumy National Agrarian University trains highly qualified specialists for agriculture with profound learning of foreign languages and computer science. The structure of University includes 8 faculties, one Institute and five colleges.

Nowadays large agricultural joint-stock companies and processing enterprises of Ukraine need highly-qualified specialists, capable to work on the new technologies. Students of Sumy National Agrarian University get theoretical knowledge and use it in practice at leading agricultural enterprises of Ukraine and foreign countries our University cooperates with.

Our students have the unique opportunity to go abroad and to work on the agricultural farms in England, Denmark, Finland, Sweden, France, the USA, Australia, the Netherlands; it greatly increases their professional level and helps them to be employed at leading agricultural and processing enterprises of Ukraine.

There are about 11,000 students at the university. At the University there is a conception of unremitting computerization: we have 1,000 computer seats and the amount of contact display time spent by each student, depending on his or her specialty, is 250-350 hours. Students and teachers have the opportunity to get information about new achievements of science through international information network Internet. There is a local computer network at the University.

Scientific and research work is conducted in 19 research laboratories; we have 26 specialties for postgraduate students. Research Institute of Potato-breeding in the north-eastern region of Ukraine was founded at the Department of plant-breeding and seed-production.

In the library of Sumy National Agrarian University there are more than 500,000 editions: scientific, educational, fiction, additional publications, e-books for distance learning with access to the Internet.

We have an educational and scientific laboratory (vivarium) for practical training of students, where farm animals and poultry are kept, it is like a living textbook for future veterinarians, livestock experts and specialists of other faculties of Sumy NAU; an educational and experimental farm situated on the territory of 2, 6 thousand ha, agricultural lands include 2, 3 thousand ha; experimental field, where engineers-technologists work using machines for crop cultivation on new technologies.

The university campus is the pearl and the glory of Sumy. Educational buildings, stadiums, laboratories, hostels are located on large, clean and well-equipped territory. The University has a cafe and a canteen with the lowest prices in the town, a club and gyms, where about 3,000 students go in for sport in 20 sport sections.
In the youth-entertainment center there are different clubs, art studios, amateur groups. Every year we hold a contest among the first-year students “Meet: here we are!” Amateur groups are groups with rich creative history, repertoire, own traditions.

Self-governing, which is closely connected with organizational and management activity of students, takes active part in the formation of a future specialist. Nowadays bodies of student government are organized at every faculty and in hostels; student university administration has been working.

Sumy National Agrarian University has become a real “source of manpower” for many agricultural enterprises and institutions of Sumy region and Ukraine. The University is proud of its graduates. Some of them conduct research work, teach students, but most of them work successfully in the agricultural sector of our country.

Despite its relatively young age, Sumy national agrarian university is known as the center of international educational and scientific relations, since it views itself as an educational institution focused on Western educational and scientific standards.

Cooperation with foreign partners is implemented in various content areas using various organizational forms: from students and staff academic mobility, participation in international conferences, seminars, and round tables, to the implementation of joint educational programs and participation in projects jointly with various international scientific and educational organizations. International mobility programs do not only promote scientific and cultural exchange, but also ensure sustainable development, as well as support innovation capacity. Currently there are more than 150 concluded agreements (including more than 90 agreements with educational and scientific institutions) on cooperation with foreign partners from more than 25 countries. SNAU activities on the international educational level focus on long-term programs and projects that are implemented in order to improve the quality of educational and scientific activities and its coordination to the level of world standards.
SNAU is an official partner of The Black Sea and the Eastern Mediterranean Academic Network BSEMAN, Visegrad University Association and the international partner network on agricultural management.

The university is pro actively engaged into implementation of grants on scientific and educational projects in collaboration with Erasmus+, the German Academic Exchange Service DAAD, the Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations (FAO), the European Bank for Reconstruction and Development (EBRD), Nestle Ukraine, Swiss Cooperation Office in Ukraine, Czech Development Agency and others. Such a cooperation allows us to improve our scientific laboratory base, improve knowledge and skills of teaching staff, expand partnerships and provide our students with the opportunity to study during the semester in leading European universities, which significantly strengthens the position of Sumy NAU in the formation of practically oriented expert teams and strengthen cooperation ties with the agribusiness.

As part of the project “Support in Harmonization of Introduction of Bologna Principles at Ukrainian Agri-Universities, case study SNAU” , which is being implemented jointly with Czech University of Life Sciences Prague and with financial support of the Czech Development Agency, a strategic internal document was developed – Policy for Quality Assurance of Sumy NAU. Sumy NAU has received the “Certificate of implementation of ESG policy”, which confirms that the university has introduced “Standards and Guidelines for Quality Assurance in the European Higher Education Area” into its Policy for Quality Assurance.

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