Mykhailo BRYK, “The Main Principle of Kyiv Mohyla University Is Absence of Any Privileges”

“What traditions do you think the present-day National University of Kyiv Mohyla Academy (NaUKMA) has inherited from the old Kyiv Mohyla Academy?”

“In my opinion, the most distinctive feature inherited from the old Kyiv Mohyla Academy is aspiration to educate the Ukrainian spiritual, academic, and cultural elite within the university walls. The second cultural tradition we have inherited is that the university provides full, profound, and serious knowledge. The third tradition — a very serious and important one, almost missing from today’s Ukrainian universities — is the combination of teaching and research with culture and art. A permanent art gallery and exhibitions of young and well-known Ukrainian artists is ample proof of this important component of human education in the broad and elevated sense of the word. These features of the old Mohyla Academy have been retained and are being developed in NaUKMA.”

“It is common knowledge that NaUKMA maintains very far-flung international ties. The Academy cooperates with dozens of Western European, US, and Canadian universities. Has your institution — a trail-blazer in the area — achieved anything new?”

“Indeed, NaUKMA’s far-flung ties with the world’s universities is another tradition that dates back to the 17th-18th centuries, for it is known that many of the Academy’s graduates and professors used to study or teach at, and cooperate with, the European universities of those times. Many of them knew European and classical languages, which undoubtedly promoted — to use a modern phrase — international contacts. Fortunately, we have kept this tradition intact. The fact that the Academy did not exist in Soviet times is, paradoxically enough, an advantage. This means it is not burdened with Soviet- style prejudices, closeness, and the nasty tradition of casting suspicion on all things foreign. As the Kyiv Mohyla Academy began to revive, we set course for modern European and worldwide higher education. So we were to establish contacts and cooperation with the universities of Europe and North America, study their experience and try to plant it, as much as possible, on Ukrainian soil. Why, ‘as much as possible’? Because our laws, our economic capacity, and our mentality not always allow us to copy foreign experience fully. And is it worth doing so? The university has always tried to borrow all the best from the European and American models of higher education. The immediate result was that the university dropped many traditional Soviet methods of teaching (in terms of form and organization) and the system of admission. Speaking of admission... I don’t want to say anything bad about Soviet education — it also had a lot of positive sides. Yet, it suffered from incurable diseases. Incidentally, the Ukrainian higher school is still ill even now. First of all, corruption and bribery. This is bad and amoral, for it immediately hurts and breaks young hearts and sows the seeds of overall mistrust. For if one sees that he was undeservedly denied admission, while inept people were enrolled, he loses faith in society and in the possibility of achieving anything. So our university has abolished entrance exams and switched over to anonymous admission tests. This is not just a whim or a mere formality. Testing allows the university to spot talented young people. This only improves the university’s moral atmosphere, for the majority of students (80-90% according to our surveys), when asked why they applied to NaUKMA, said, ‘There is no bribery at this university, and enrollment is fair.’ These apparently external signs apart, the fundamental feature of today’s university of the Kyiv Mohyla Academy is that we do not train narrow specialists (former Soviet engineers). The university’s goal is to give the individual a profound and serious higher education, mold a genuine Ukrainian national elite, and graduate the all-round-educated citizens. Of course, he or she is being given basic knowledge. We have a factual, not fictional, two-tier system of education: students take a four-year baccalaureate course and then go on to seek a master’s degree. We try to impart basic education to the bachelor’s degree students, without putting emphasis, so to speak, on specialization. In other words, we want baccalaureate graduates not only to be well-trained professionally but also to be well-developed and well-mannered, to know culture, politics, and sociology. On the other hand, they computer literate and have a fluent command of several foreign languages.

“Figuratively speaking, there are three foundations on which the high prestige of our graduates rests. This is sound knowledge (I say ‘sound’ to distinguish it from what a popular student song once said, ‘from one exam period to another’). Our students have to do a continuous rating-based course, winning a certain number of credits in every subject. Students are well-versed in computers and have a good command of two or even three European languages. This enables them to enter the labor market practically on their own. This is so far an entirely vacant niche. In fact, none of Ukraine’s universities can boast of two things: proficiency in languages and computer science. I mean classical, not technological, universities. Conversely, the master’s degree course provides a narrower training. Yet, in this case, too, we usually train people for a research and teaching career. Of course, the acquired knowledge can also be applied in other spheres. The master’s degree level allows one to continue his or her scholarly pursuit on a self-education basis, while being employed and depending on the labor market. The higher school’s purpose is not to cram as much knowledge as possible into one’s mind, for it will soon be forgotten. We must teach an individual to work on his own and educate himself. As a rule, our lectures are not passive; our seminars and practical classes are also very active. Unlike all the other universities, NaUKMA provides its students with an off-class week each trimester. The students work hard on essays, often attend consultations and interviews. What is more, we teach them how to work in a library. We compared quite recently the attendance-per-place rate in our and other universities: so our rate is about 10 times as high as in any other institution. And if students attend the library, this means they work on their own. The lecture-exam system is hardly workable here. In spite of this, the attendance of lectures is free here — this is a matter of principle for us — while seminars and laboratory classes are compulsory because students gain credits and the required rating there.

“Therefore, education at Kyiv Mohyla Academy is basically aimed at providing serious background knowledge followed by specialization, while the Soviet school used to produce narrow-profile specialists. This was a serious drawback, although there also were some advantages: in purely theoretical terms, a narrow specialist knows very well, as the joke went, ‘everything about nothing.’ World experience shows that the requirements and demands of society are changing, as is the labor market. In the West, there is quite a firm relationship between the work done and the wages paid. This is not the case, unfortunately, over here: one is often paid for nothing or is not properly paid for the work done. Yet, Ukrainian society is gradually shedding this stale tradition. An individual should develop, get adjusted to the labor market, and undertake self-education. World experience says: there should be life- long learning. Figuratively speaking, people should receive education while they study, work, or engage in non-profit activities — from the kindergarten to the old age.”

“What are NaUKMA’s basic requirements for the prospective and current students?”

“NaUKMA’s admission and teaching principle is absence of any privileges. If you have an aptitude, talent, and the ability to work, you will be a Kyiv Mohyla Academy student. It makes no difference whatsoever if the applicant has a complete or incomplete higher education or is a high school honoree. You must go through the admission tests. So if you have knowledge, you will study at our university. The absence of privileges — an atavism of former Soviet society — purifies the atmosphere in the university and makes it possible to select apt and talented students.”