From Career Roadmap to Career Boardmap: Building Institutional Support for Women Leaders in Academia in Ukraine

25 march 2026 year

In 2026, a new project titled “From Career Roadmap to Career Boardmap: Building Institutional Support for Women Leaders in Academia in Ukraine” was launched.

This project continues and further develops the initiative started within the project “A Career Roadmap for Women’s Leadership in Higher Education in Ukraine.”

The project is implemented within the gender equality programme of the British Council’s Going Global Partnerships initiative in Ukraine.

Project partners:

• University of Bedfordshire (Luton, United Kingdom)
• Simon Kuznets Kharkiv National University of Economics
• Educational and Research Institute “Ukrainian Engineering and Pedagogical Academy” of V. N. Karazin Kharkiv National University
• Innovation Generation

The project coordinator from Karazin University is Professor Maryna Vasylieva, Deputy Director of the Education and Research Institute “Ukrainian Engineering and Pedagogics Academy.”

Last week, the project team conducted two focus groups in Kyiv, which became an important step in the transition from individual career tools to systemic solutions.

We express our gratitude for the hospitality and partnership support to EdCamp Ukraine, the Academy of Teaching at V. N. Karazin Kharkiv National University, and Mariupol State University.

The focus groups brought together an active community of women leaders in Ukrainian higher education and became a space for structured dialogue and co-creation.

During the sessions, participants:

• tested the Career Roadmap as a tool for strategic career planning;
• discussed real career trajectories of women in academia;
• identified key success factors and systemic barriers;
• collected ideas for transforming the roadmap into an interactive board game — Career Boardmap.

Participants included women who are already shaping the managerial landscape of Ukrainian education: vice-rectors, directors of educational and research institutes, heads of departments, leaders of research units, library directors, professors, and researchers from leading universities and research institutions of Ukraine, including:

• Taras Shevchenko National University of Kyiv
• Kyiv National I. K. Karpenko-Kary Theatre, Cinema and Television University
• Kyiv National Economic University named after Vadym Hetman
• Kyiv National University of Technologies and Design
• Mykhailo Drahomanov Ukrainian State University
• Borys Grinchenko Kyiv Metropolitan University
• Igor Sikorsky Kyiv Polytechnic Institute
• National University of Life and Environmental Sciences of Ukraine
• V. N. Karazin Kharkiv National University
• Kherson State Maritime Academy
• Odesa I. I. Mechnikov National University
• Mariupol State University
• Institute of Higher Education of the National Academy of Educational Sciences of Ukraine

The focus groups confirmed that there is a strong demand in Ukraine for systemic support for women leaders in higher education, as well as significant potential for implementing institutional changes.

This year, the project focuses not only on supporting individual career development pathways but also on creating conditions for long-term institutional transformation that will ensure a more inclusive, equitable, and effective academic environment in Ukraine.