Ukrainian Higher Education Delegation to Meet with SUNY Educators

Albany – Leading higher education officials from the Ukraine will meet with State University of New York faculty and administrators Monday, March 26, 2007 at Hudson Valley Community College.  Monday marks the first day in a week-long series of meetings on 11 SUNY campuses.

The Ukrainian delegation of 11 people will be led by Dr. Mikhail Stepko, deputy minister of education and science for the Republic of Ukraine, and consists of rectors and other prominent figures in higher education from across the Ukraine.  Representatives from the U.S.-Ukraine Foundation will also attend the meeting.

SUNY and Ukrainian higher education officials will discuss the possibility of extending SUNY’s award-winning dual-diploma program to include, for the first time, SUNY community colleges and higher education institutions in the Ukraine. 

Chancellor Ryan said, “SUNY welcomes Deputy Minister Stepko and the Ukrainian delegation to New York.  Collaboration between SUNY and the Ukraine will lead to new academic opportunities for our students and faculty, a greater understanding of our cultures and, we hope, expansion of our award-winning dual-diploma program to include the Ukraine.”

Dr. Stepko said, “The main goal of our work here is not just to attract students and to develop faculty and student exchange programs. Our goal is to build a bridge between the Ukraine and the state of New York and to include in this building process people from both sides. In the future, we hope people from the Ukraine and from America will use this bridge.”

“Hudson Valley Community College is proud to host today’s meeting," President Andrew J. Matonak said. "We – and SUNY’s 29 other community colleges – have so much to offer and our students have so much to gain through collaborations such as those we will be discussing today. At Hudson Valley, diversity is one of our college’s greatest strengths. We are proud to support any initiative that fosters greater understanding and presents broader opportunities for our students, faculty and staff.”

In addition to Hudson Valley Community College, representatives from Corning Community College and Tompkins Cortland Community College are participating in the week-long series and will host meetings. Deputy Minister Stepko has indicated his strong interest in the structure and functions of SUNY’s community colleges.

Articulation agreements between SUNY community colleges and Ukrainian institutions of higher education and the utilization of distance-learning instructional technology to accomplish educational goals are also important topics of the discussions.

Among SUNY’s doctoral and baccalaureate granting institutions, the University at Albany, Stony Brook University, the SUNY Colleges at Brockport, Cortland, Oswego and Potsdam, and the Colleges of Technology at Canton and Delhi, are also on the Ukrainian delegation’s itinerary.

Ukrainian educators and their counterparts on SUNY’s four-year campuses will discuss the development of dual-diploma programs and academic partnerships in a number of academic areas including business, psychology, special education and the environment.

The Ukrainian visit is a follow-up to an initial meeting held in Yalta, Ukraine, in fall 2005, at which more than 20 SUNY faculty and administrators, including Chancellor Ryan, met with Deputy Minister Stepko and 20 rectors of Ukrainian universities to discuss collaboration between Ukrainian universities and SUNY campuses.

SUNY’s dual-diploma program model with Turkey was selected to receive the prestigious Andrew Heiskell Award for International Exchange Partnerships for 2006-2007, by the Institute of International Education.

The IIE administers the U.S. Department of State Fulbright Program, and the Heiskell awards are named for the former Chairman of Time Inc., Andrew Heiskell, who served on the IIE Board of Directors.

In addition to Turkey, SUNY has dual-diploma programs with Russia, Mexico and Poland.

The State University of New York is the largest comprehensive university system in the United States, educating more than 417,500 students in 7,669 degree and certificate programs on 64 campuses.