Green Education in the Netherlands and Ukraine: Ways of Cooperation and Development

3.4.2023

On March 30, the international seminar “Green Education in the Netherlands and Ukraine: Ways of Cooperation and Development” was held.

The seminar was held on the initiative of the Association “Ukrainian Club of Agrarian Business”, the educational project “Agrokebety” and with the support of the Embassy of the Kingdom of the Netherlands.

During the meeting, our colleagues shared the experience of cooperation between Ukraine and the Netherlands using the example of the Wageningen University and the HAS Green Academy, and also introduced the participants to the models of implementation of green education in the Netherlands.

Olena Karaman, the Rector, presented the university to foreign partners, spoke about the challenges that the twice-displaced educational community has been overcoming since 2014, and proposed priority directions for further cooperation in the development of “green education”.

At Taras Shevchenko Luhansk National University, the training of specialists who are directly involved in the implementation of the “green course” in their professional activities is traditionally carried out by one of the oldest educational subdivisions – the Faculty of Natural Sciences, which is celebrating its centenary these days.

Due to the occupation of the city of Starobilsk, the Faculty continues its work in the city of Myrhorod. More than 50 highly qualified scientific and pedagogical workers of four departments are engaged in the training of future bachelors, masters, and postgraduate students. Active cooperation with local communities, enterprises, state institutions, public associations, national natural parks, and other institutions is already developing in Poltava Region. For example, in 2022 we started cooperation with the Ukrainian Club of Agrarian Business and the educational project “Agrokebety”, to which we are grateful for their strong support and promotion of the professional development of future farmers. In addition, the Faculty expands cooperation with international partners in the framework of scientific and educational activities with such powerful European universities as Vytautas the Great University (Lithuania), Forestry University (Bulgaria), Batumi Shota Rustaveli State University (Georgia).

Specialists in various specialties are trained at the Faculty, and most of them relate specifically to green education. These are such educational programs as agronomy, ecology, earth sciences, forestry and landscape gardening, etc. Every year, about 200 graduates of the Faculty join the ranks of young professionals.

The European Green Deal covers all sectors of the economy and, in particular, it concerns agriculture. Therefore, the teachers of the faculty face the task of preparing such a specialist for agribusiness who will be maximally knowledgeable and adapted to the new norms of the EU “green” policy and will be able to implement the standards of the “Green Course” at the enterprise without any problems.

Representatives of the Faculty of Natural Sciences took part in the meeting: the Dean Natalia Matsai; Iryna Kyrpychova, Associate Professor of the Department of Landscape Gardening and Ecology, coordinator of the “Agrokebety” project; Halyna Yevtushenko, Head of the Department of Biology and Agronomy.

We thank the organizers of the event – the Association “Ukrainian Club of Agrarian Business”, the educational project “Agrokebety”, the Embassy of the Kingdom of the Netherlands for the exchange of experience, and we hope for further fruitful cooperation.

Faculty of Natural Sciences