Student Led Services

Student Support Service Centres

The Centres are created to emphasize the importance of Student Services to Ukrainian Education and also to be a focal point for all project activities. They will provide a permanent sustainable structure which is flexible enough to respond to the rapidly changing demands of modern society this satisfying one of the most pressing needs of a modern university. The major functions of these centres will be to:

improve the recruitment procedures in the face of changing student demographics;
offer courses that emphasize personal skills;
offer opportunities to use modern communication technology;
promote collaboration between industry and educators;
disseminate project activities especially to Alumni.

The centres are thus an integral part of this project. The choice of centre managers is therefore crucial and they must be selected with great care. Ideally they will be academics with management skills, business skills and knowledge of modern communication networking who can also establish and maintain a rapport with students.

There are four deliverables. The first will be the physical centre itself. A suitable set of rooms will have to be selected and refurbished. Equipment must then be ordered, purchased, installed and maintained.

The second will be responsible management. The directors of these centres should be given appropriate status by the university. They will visit the EU institution associated with their university and observe how centres are managed over there.

The third will be delivery of, personal skills and updated student services ( especially recruitment and placement). The centre will use the trained staff from these activities and become the hub of student procedures and activities. Administrative assistance is provided for these tasks.

The fourth deliverable will be the dissemination and sustainability of the project activities.

All three European universities will participate in this important activity.

Development of a National Strategy

In order that the project can help the Ministry to formulate a national strategic plan, the Ministry needs the following:

Precise knowledge of the Project Activities and their relationship to the Bologna Process.

The Ministry will attend the initial meeting where there will be a presentation of European best practice and agreement of the precise nature of the project activities. The Ministry will be regularly updated on progress and will receive a mid-term and final report on the progress of the four major activities from the management meetings at months 18 and 30.

A set of Key Performance Indictors (KPIs) to measure improvements

Key Performance Indicators are valuable tools for Ministry to use when deciding to implement activities on a national scale. KPIs must be long term, and reflect national goals. They are key to any successful implementation of a national strategy, A set of KPIs will be developed in year 1, using discussions between staff, enterprises and students. These indicators will be provide a consistent set of measures and provide reliable information on the improvements made to the following : widening participation of student groups; student recruitment; student placement; personal skills and the student centres. They will be applied to the four Ukrainian universities and presented to the Ministry at the second management meeting in month 30.

Benchmarks to measure against

Data on European Benchmarks for placement, recruitment, efficiency of centres and training will be gathered by the European partners and presented to the Ministry also in month 30.

Development of a National Strategy

The rectors of four classical Ukrainian universities will meet regularly with the Ministry. The dissemination Workshop on Performance Education in HE with special emphasis on Student services will provide further data. The combination of the KPIs, the benchmarks and the data collected will enable a national strategy for Ukraine to be developed.

Encourage Student Societies at the Partner Universities

A major contribution to the student experience in Europe is the role of the student societies within the universities. They provide students with the opportunities to try out business, financial, social and management skills. It is an opportunity to learn about survival in life. Student societies do exist in Ukrainian universities but in reality, they are in name only and are not effective or developed. It is intended to create societies such as exist in the EU universities to provide the opportunity for creativity, competitiveness, and the growth of entrepreneurial sprit. This activity will be led UASS working with the student societies from the universities in the project. Typical activities would be:

• Ukrainian benchmarking of student society activities in Europe;

• Promoting Best Practice from the EU in Ukraine;

• Competition for the best ideas for student initiatives within the project;

• Formal recognition of successful organisations ;

• Development of existing student societies;

• Promoting contacts with European Student Organisations.

The modus operandi will be for the national student body UASS to work with the ESU in the first year to investigate EU practices, then help set up five student societies in each partner university in the second year and for the ESU to evaluate them in the final year. Outputs will be 20 well organised and functioning student societies and a plan to strengthen the national student bodies. The outcome will be graduates with more responsibility and better prepared for life.

In the final year, a report will be prepared by the centre manager and passed to the management team for the Ministry. The students will also work with the centre manager to prepare and then implement Key Performance Indicators to assess the impact of their work and assist the Ministry to extend these ideas on a national scale.