The public organization “Union of Rectors of Higher Education Institutions of Ukraine” sent a letter to the Prime Minister of Ukraine, in which it opposed granting university boards of trustees the right to manage the property and funds of higher education institutions, as well as to appoint and dismiss the heads of these institutions.
“We have repeatedly warned government officials against ill-considered steps and reforms that lead to a decline in the quality of educational and research processes and destabilize the situation within academic communities, which are already suffering during these difficult years of war. The public is concerned about the unchecked influence of certain civil society organizations and individuals who abuse their power to initiate so-called ‘reforms,’ for which the ministry’s previous leadership allocated up to 50 billion hryvnias in grant funds, World Bank loans, and other resources. “The results of these ‘reforms’ are either unknown to the public or highly questionable,” the organization’s statement reads.
In particular, it is noted that Union members were outraged by the efforts of a group of individuals to exert influence over university leadership by introducing management changes through the strengthening of supervisory boards.
In this regard, the Union sent a letter to the Prime Minister of Ukraine, in which it strongly opposed granting supervisory boards the right to dispose of the property and funds of higher education institutions, as well as to appoint and dismiss the heads of these institutions.
“In practice, academic councils, faculty conferences, and student self-governing bodies are being stripped of their influence over university affairs, and all faculty members, researchers, staff, and students are being deprived of the right to elect and recall the university president,” the civic organization added.
At the same time, according to Ksenia Semenova, president of the National University “Kyiv Aviation Institute” (KAI), the Union of Rectors is a controversial civic organization known for its statements opposing educational reforms.
“Half a year ago, they issued a statement calling for the repeal of the high school reform. It later turned out that none of the university rectors had actually signed that statement or even seen it in person. The members of this civic organization are not universities but individuals, some of whom are not university administrators. In short, this is not a representative body but a special-interest group,” she wrote on Facebook after a meeting between the Union and the leadership of the Ministry of Education.
In response, the Union claimed it was under attack by “certain radicals, heads of educational institutions who were appointed in violation of current legislation and are exerting overt pressure on the leadership of the Ministry of Education and Science of Ukraine through certain members of the Ukrainian Parliament and specific political forces.”
As previously reported, in September 2024, the Cabinet of Ministers launched a pilot project at three universities aimed at strengthening the role of supervisory boards. Specifically, the participants in the pilot project were the National Aviation University (NAU), which was reorganized into the state-owned non-profit enterprise “National University ‘Kyiv Aviation Institute’ (KAI),” as well as Zaporizhzhia National University and Vasyl Stefanyk Carpathian National University.
Mykhailo Fedorov, the former deputy prime minister in charge of education, announced in mid-2025 that the reform would be extended to all higher education institutions in 2026. However, in late 2025, Mykola Trofimenko, the deputy minister of education responsible for this area, stated that supervisory boards would be enshrined in law, but the reform would remain voluntary.
On October 6, 2026, Trofimenko stated that the Ministry of Education had not found the two-year pilot program sufficient to confirm the effectiveness of the model for strengthening the role of supervisory boards at universities. For his part, Minister of Education Andriy Butenko believes it is still too early to assess the results of the pilot program at this intermediate stage.
Ksenia Semenova, president of the National University “Kyiv Aviation Institute” (KAB), believes that the experiment to strengthen the role of supervisory boards at universities should be extended to all higher education institutions or, at the very least, provide for a change in their organizational and legal form to state-owned nonprofit associations.
The Ministry of Education proposes to extend the slightly modified pilot project on implementing a strengthened model of higher education institution governance for another two years. Specifically, the bill proposes to conduct another two-year pilot program involving the National University “Kyiv Aviation Institute” (KAI), Zaporizhzhia National University, and Vasyl Stefanyk Carpathian National University, which already participated in the previous pilot program that lasted the past two years. Other state universities under the jurisdiction of the Ministry of Education and Science will be able to initiate their participation in the enhanced model by decision of their academic council, and the ministry will also be able to independently initiate the inclusion of an institution in the enhanced model if signs of a crisis situation are identified.
In late October, following a meeting with the Union of Rectors, the Ministry of Education and Science stated that it does not plan to involve universities on a large scale in the pilot program aimed at strengthening the role of supervisory boards in higher education institutions.
Source: https://zvo.knu.ua/ua/news-1-3-438-zayava-spilki-rektoriv-ukraini
