Ukraine Ukraine Kharkiv City Council Students' Panel Discussion

« Kharkiv City Council » takes part in the European Local Democracy Week - a paneuropean event coordinated by the Congress of Local and Regional Authorities of the Council of Europe - as « Partner city »

Students' Panel Discussion

Karazin Kharkiv National University
From 19/10/2018 to 19/10/2018
A panel discussion hosted by Karazin Kharkiv National University by students with the participation of other students to look into local democracy issues, challenges and prospects, to discuss what has been achieved and what remains to achieve. The guest and speaker of honor is the Head of the Youth Council at the Mayor of Kharkiv.
On initiative of Kharkiv City Council, Karazin University hosted a discussion panel "Public governance at a university: students’ view”. The event took place within the European Local Democracy Week October 19, 2018. The participants in the event were Head of International Relations and European Integration of the International Cooperation Department of Kharkiv City Council Tetyana Varenko, Head of the Youth Council at Kharkiv Mayor Mikhaylo Lazariev, Deputy of Kharkiv City Council, Director of the Institute of International Education Oleksii Navrotskyi, Head of International Relations Office Oleksandr Khyzhniak, Chairperson of the Primary Trade Union Organization of Undergraduate, Postgraduate and Doctoral Students of the University Serhii Makhnovskyi, representatives of the student self-government and the Council of Foreign Students of the University. The moderator of the event was Chairperson of the Student Council of Karazin University Maryna Dudnichenko, who detailed the role of local student self-government in a modern university, where the right to elect and be elected to working, advisory, elective and other bodies of student self-government belong to all students of the institution. Among the directions the student self-government is steering in, Ms. Maryna pointed out the following: optimizing and improving the academic process quality, seeking out solutions for issues related to students; protecting students’ rights and interests; maintaining a full-fledged partnership, agreeing all important students-related decisions with the student self-government bodies. Commenting on the importance of the event, Tetyana Varenko remarked that, having learned and mastered the self-organization and self-government principles at the University, young people afterwards continue to comply with these principles in their adulthood, actively engaging in the development of the city. Ms. Varenko also noted that it is its citizens, particularly youth and students, that the City of Kharkiv largely owes its image of a European city and its significant achievements ?n the international arena, which is evidenced by the facts that Kharkiv is currently the presiding city in the Association of Towns Awarded the Europe Prize re-elected for the second term ion end, was the first (from 2010) Ukrainian city to have received all the four distinction of the PACE and is a EUROCITIES member, etc. When building a democratic society and following the development vector of European integration, an important element is the ability of each person to self-organize and to form self-governing communities. An example of this is university practices of students’ self-organization, which, according to Oleksandr Khyzhniak, is a solid contribution to further shaping and development of our state. In his welcoming address, Oleksii Navrotskyi stressed that an important achievement of the University over the past year was creation of the Council of Foreign Students, which has its own structure, looks into the problems of foreign students both in the university and in the city, helps work out adequate decisions. Mikhaylo Lazariev told the students about the work of the Youth Council at the Mayor of Kharkiv, presented the achievements of the participatory budget project, which enables citizens to submit their suggestions as to what they want to see implemented in their city, and then vote themselves for the projects submitted to choose those that will be implemented at the expense of the funds allocated for this from the city budget (this year's participatory budget is 50,000,000 hryvnias). The discussion revealed that Karazin University students are not only aware of the implementation of this project in the city, but some of them have already voted for the projects that they are interested in. Mr. Lazariev congratulated them on their active civic position, urged them not to be complacent, and to come up with their own projects the next year. Let us remind you that voting for participatory budget projects is open until the end of October, and all those willing can give their votes for 3 projects at the Kharkiv Citizen Portal, which is another successful youth, and not only, project that is being implemented in the city to involve citizens in the decision-making process. According to Serhii Makhnovskyi, in the historical aspect, the University has always had strong self-government traditions that have been constantly evolving. At the dawn of the University, there used to exist student fraternities that stood up for the rights and interests of student youth and students' well-being, and thus were the centers of university democracy, on the basis of which the student self-government bodies continue to work today. "The creation and operation of the Research Society, the Student Council of the Student Quarters, the Council of Foreign Students have actually made the university model full-scale and ideal because we cover all students of the Karazin University. Important in the activity of an institution of higher education is accounting for the positions of all subjects of the educational and academic activities,” said Mr. Makhnovskyi. Another important matter that was enthusiastically discussed was the comparison of the organization of student self-government at Karazin University and universities in Europe. The Deputy Head of the Student Council of Karazin University, Daniela Daas, reported on that relying on her personal experience of exploring the matter during her internship at the universities of Europe under the Erasmus+ program. Ms. Daas emphasized that Karazinites have what to be proud of and that student self-government is organized at a quite high level compared to their European counterparts. Original at: http://www.univer.kharkov.ua/ua/general/univer_today/news?news_id=8275
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