4 March 2019, Kyiv: Advance HE CEO, Alison Johns co-delivered a high-level leadership event in Kyiv to mark the concluding part of a highly successful three year programme to develop leadership capacity in over 40 universities in Ukraine. VIP speakers at the event included Liliia Hrynevych, Minister of Education and Science, Svitlana Kalashnikova, Director, Institute of Higher Education, and Simon Williams, Director, British Council.
Over the past three years, Advance HE – largely through its legacy agency, the Leadership Foundation – has worked with the universities, each with a powerful change agenda as its focus, to develop leadership capacity and change agency. Advance HE worked closely with National Academy of Educational Sciences of Ukraine and with the assistance of the Ministry of Higher Education and Science of Ukraine to deliver the programme, which was sponsored by the British Council, Ukraine.
This large-scale initiative engaged the university teams intensively in development centres and change academies. With an emphasis on areas such as rethinking teamwork, exploring transformational change, distributing leadership, understanding communication and drawing upon the talents and potential to be discovered at every institutional level, the programme has opened the door for a new and progressive leadership culture to emerge in Ukraine higher education.
Alison Johns, Advance HE CEO said,
“It has been a great privilege to be closely involved as the specialist delivery agent within this important partnership in Ukraine. The impact of the programme has been seen powerfully at a range of levels: for the individual leader, for the team, for the institution and for the higher education system overall. I have been extremely impressed with the delegates embracing new ideas and with their commitment to engaging in the change process. I would also like to compliment the vision of the Institute of Higher Education and thank the British Council for their superb support.”
Simon Williams, British Council Ukraine said:
“Over the last 3 years the Ukraine Higher Education Leadership Development programme has provided capacity building for 40 Ukrainian universities to foster a new leadership culture in national higher education. The feedback we have heard from participants on the knowledge and skills is impressive. For many, the programme has clearly been a truly transformative experience. What we value most in this programme is the creation of a network of new university leaders - change agents able to facilitate and implement innovations in their universities and in the higher education sector at large”.
Advance HE works with governments, sector agencies and higher education institutions worldwide to support sustainable improvement, share global best practice and build international networks. Advance HE has led or participated in projects in over 50 countries in Asia, Australasia, Africa, North and South America, Europe and the Middle East. In addition, over 350 member institutions, including almost all UK HE institutions and over half of the universities in Australia, use its services.
Find out more about Advance HE’s support for higher education providers outside of the UK.