University President Vil Bakirov’s Message to the University Staff

To members of the University Board of Overseers,
members of the University Academic Board,
delegates of the Conference of Employees,
faculty, staff, students

Dear colleagues and friends!

At the University Academic Board meeting on February 22, 2021, I announced my intention to request the Minister of Education and Science of Ukraine for my resignation from the position of the University President. Last week, I submitted a resignation to the Minister.

I received a lot of letters, SMS messages, calls, appeals and realized that for many of my colleagues this decision is a bit unexpected and needs some additional explanation. I sincerely want to provide it.

First, this decision was made quite a long time ago. I did not plan to run for the University President once again, having a worthy substitute, my colleague and friend, Vice-President Yu. V. Kholin, who professed the same university philosophy and enjoyed great and sincere respect among colleagues. Unfortunately, he died suddenly and prematurely. The University was preparing to celebrate its 215th anniversary, and it was necessary to continue the University President’s activities for this important event. We carried out a huge amount of preparatory work, successfully implemented numerous anniversary projects, demonstrated the greatness of Karazin University. After that, I hoped to fulfil my intention to leave the position and did not hide it from colleagues and friends. However, COVID-19 occurred, and with it came great uncertainty, the need to reformat the educational process and all the University’s life as soon as possible. Due to the fact that long before the pandemic we launched the creation and introduction of e-learning technologies, we managed to meet this challenge, stabilize the work of the University, successfully complete the academic year and conduct an effective admission campaign. The University has gained a positive and confident momentum of development under new difficult conditions. This enables me to resign now, as they say, with a clear conscience.

In my report (PDF, YouTube) at the Assembly of Academic Boards of the University on January 29, 2021, I tried to show that during my President’s term the University doubled the number of schools and departments, professors and associate professors, students, doubled the material base, including the University premises, and so on.

Karazin University has become a world-class university, the undisputed leader of higher education not only in the region but also in Ukraine. For seven years in a row, it has been the only Ukrainian university in the top 500 of the influential international QS Ranking. The University gained national status and was named after its famous founder.

Karazin University became the center of institutional attraction of other institutions of higher education. Last year, the staff of the Kharkiv Institute of Banking joined us, and on February 24, 2021, by order of the Government, another powerful institution of higher education joined the University — Kharkiv Regional Institute of Public Administration of the National Academy of Public Administration under the President of Ukraine. This is an important event that opens up fundamentally new opportunities for training and retraining civil servants, which is now gaining special importance.

Karazin University with its complex, diverse, branched structure, a wide range of scientific and educational areas, its active role in social and cultural environment — it takes too much time and effort from its head. To this should be added the duties of the Chairman of the Board of Kharkiv University Presidents, a member of expert commissions of regional and city councils, member of the Presidium of the Union of University Presidents of Ukraine, member of the Board of the Ministry of Education and Science of Ukraine, member of the Certification Board of the Ministry of Education and Science, member of the Board of KHODA, member of the Committee on State Prizes in Science and Technology, President of the Sociological Association of Ukraine, President of the Kharkiv Branch of the Minor Academy of Sciences of Ukraine, and many other public functions.

Of course, there is almost no time left to work as a professor, a scientist. I am a research supervisor of two research topics at the Department of Applied Sociology and Social Communications, I am a participant in three major international projects, for many years I have headed the Thesis Committee, I am a guarantor of the educational and scientific program that has been accredited as a model. Together with colleagues from the Department we have created and are now implementing a new complex master’s educational program «Digital Society».

I used to work as dean for four years, for almost two years I worked as the First Vice-President. For more than 22 years, I have had the honor to justify the trust of the staff as the University President. In total, almost 30 years of administrative work, which in itself has never been a source of happiness and inspiration for me, has always stimulated the dream of once working as just a professor. These years are unwritten and unread books, unwatched plays and films, unpainted paintings, unvisited museums, and so on. I feel that it is becoming increasingly difficult for me to combine administrative and professorial functions, and the effectiveness of both of them suffers from this. Therefore, the only responsible decision in this situation is the one I made.

It was discussed with the Minister of Education and Science S. M. Shkarlet, Chairman of the Board of Overseers A. H. Zahorodnii, who understood its feasibility and timeliness. It was brought to the notice of colleagues from the University Administration, the School and the Department. And I am grateful to everyone for their understanding.

As a sociologist, I understand very well that there is the law of generational change in society as a whole and in any social systems. You can resist it, or, on the contrary, support it. Life is constantly moving forward, at certain stages it needs new approaches, new views, a new sense of challenges of the world around us, new energy. And this is important to realize. In making the decision in question, I repeatedly asked myself — am I doing the right thing, am I not in a hurry, will it harm the University? And every time I answered — it will benefit the University’s further development.

Dear colleagues and friends!

Everything valuable that I have managed to do happened only thanks to your support, your creative inspired work, your sincere love for our dear University. And only I am responsible for everything that has not been done or done wrong.

I heartily thank all of you and each of you for these blessed years of our joint service to the University, for the joy of great and small achievements and the bitterness of failures that have certainly happened. I will never forget your support in the turbulent 2005, when you defended not only the University President, but also the University autonomy, dignity, justice and truth. I will remember this for the rest of my life.

My friends and colleagues!

For many years, we have established at the University a system of democratic and collegial governance, joint search for consolidated solutions, mutual respect and mutual trust. But the main responsibility lies with the leader. There are enough individuals among us who are able to take on this responsibility in terms of intellectual level, managerial experience, significant real work results, age, energy, character, and most importantly, human qualities. So Karazin University classics will continue to be ahead of time!

V. Bakirov