THE NEO-UA MONITORING MEETING ON 5 OCTOBER 2021 IN A BLENDED FORMAT

As part of the Agency’s on-going monitoring of Erasmus+ CBHE projects, the National Erasmus+ Office in Ukraine, represented by Ivanna Atamanchuk and Veronika Tkachenko (supervised by Svitlana Shytikova (PhD), Coordinator, NEO-Ukraine (EU-funded project), Managers carried out a field monitoring visit to project “BUILDING ACADEMIC CAPACITY IN GLOBAL HEALTH IN THE EASTERN EUROPE-CENTRAL ASIA REGION” (618868-EPP-1-2020-1-DE-EPPKA2-CBHE-JP).

The NEO-UA monitoring meeting was conducted on 5 October 2021 in a blended format: offline format for the Ukrainian partners – the Ivan Horbachevsky Ternopil National Medical University hosted the National University of Kyiv-Mohyla Academy and online format (ZOOM meetings) for the NEO-UA monitoring team to meet with both Ukrainian partner HEIs and project coordinator representative – Jamila Nabieva, Coordinator, Ruprecht-Karls-University Heidelberg. The blended format also allowed the NEO-UA monitoring team to meet with the students and stakeholders involved. 

The project and its objectives are relevant to the needs of defined target groups and involved stakeholders to build capacity of the higher education systems of partner countries in order to integrate Global Health into their study programmes.

As a result of the monitoring visit and based on the information received the following conclusions can be drawn:

During the monitoring meeting, the project was on its 9-month implementation stage according to the Workplan. The BACE Workplan timeline for 2021 was revised because of the COVID-19 pandemic reality which led to the slight changes of some of the initially planned project work and milestones terms. Nevertheless, the partnership monitors the implementation phases precisely to fit into the project planned content timeframe. Both Ukrainian teams and partnership as whole, demonstrated their flexibly in adaptation of the project content activities to the online format as well as interproject communication with the partners, and with the target groups and stakeholders outside the project because of the COVID-19 restrictions.

Within the WP1, the kick-off meeting was organised on time and launched the project planning and implementation phases.

Within the WP2, 2 blocks of courses (I. Global Health Courses – 60 ECTS; II. Global Health Research Courses – 30 ECTS) are under development by the Ukrainian partners and to be finalised by the end of 2021.

The UA project partners took part at all nine workshops on GH curriculum development and research methods and approaches within the WP2. It has become a solid base for the development of the courses based on the EU universities best practice.

Accreditation. The TNMU has been developing courses within the accredited Master of Public Health programme. Next accreditation is planned in six years from now. The accreditation issues have been discussed during the 1st project workshop. The NAUKMA Master of Public Health programme will be accredited in 2023-2024 academic year.

The NAUKMA and TNMU teams with other project partners became the founders of the Eurasian Alliance for Global Health. This alliance will serve as an institutional mechanism for inter-regional and international collaboration, knowledge exchange, training and research on priority GH issues. This alliance is expected to ensure the international impact and sustainability.

The impact of the project activities is visible at the individual and institutional level. The Ukrainian project partners and all the partnership make efforts to ensure other levels of impact and have involved different stakeholders in the realization of the project as well as participation in the project events. The sustainability and impact effects as well as dissemination activities are expected to be strengthened upon finalization and usage of the project Sustainability/Impact and Dissemination plans/strategies.

The general information about the BACE project is published on the Ukrainian partners’ websites – NAUKMA, TNMU - ukr, eng.

The Ukrainian partners demonstrated a solid support of their institutional leaders for both universities’ teams.

Despite of the belated Grant and Partnership Agreements signature and 1st funds transfer to the Ukrainian partners; the Ukrainian partners were devotedly involved into the project content development activities from the very first months of the project implementation process.

Recommendations that should be taken into account in the next phases of your project’s implementation:

-       To pay attention to the courses quality assurance (including academic integrity) and the usage of the Bologna tools. The video resources provided by HEREs Ukraine could be of a good help in this matter – at the link.

-       To make sure that the developed courses are based on the best practices of the project partners from the Programme Countries and equipped with modern methodologies and technologies for teaching and learning.

-       To strengthen the project QA system; finalize the QA plan/strategy;

-       To speed-up as much as possible the BACE project registration in the Secretary of the Cabinet of Ministers of Ukraine in cooperation with the NEO-UA team;

-       To communicate with the EACEA project officer to finalise the project budget reallocation approval to proceed with the equipment procurement for the Ukrainian partners;

-       To communicate with the EACEA project officer on any delays within the Workplan; make sure, all the project partners are aware of any Workplan adjustments;

-       To ensure the dissemination and further sustainability and impact effects at the institutional level, integrate the BACE Project Results/Outcomes sections on the Ukrainian HEIs’ websites/webpages; post the project progress information and outcomes achieved on the BACE websites/webpages regularly;

-       To finalise the development of the project website and update it regularly on the progress with a particular focus on the achieved results and outcomes;

-       The Erasmus+ Programme visibility rules for visual identity must be used for all the tangible results and make them visible on the project websites and both Ukrainian partners’ websites/webpages;

-       To assure strong horizontal communication and collaboration between project WG members and other structural units, especially financial departments within each Ukrainian university to ensure effective financial coordination, financial viability and further sustainability of the expected project outcomes;

-       To finalise the development of the Sustainability/Dissemination/Impact strategy(ies)/plan(s) and describe sustainability factors and sustainability goals that BACE should focus on during its implementation;

-       To use the NEO-Ukraine, Ministry of Education and Science of Ukraine Ministry of Health of Ukraine websites for promotion of the project results and outcomes to ensure expected impact and sustainability for the project achievements in the HE spheres for other universities which are potentially involved and interested in the project professional spheres;

- To strengthen the interproject cooperation with other projects related to the Global Health implemented by UA partners and funded by other international organisations; 

-       Get the project results and deliverables ready to post on the Erasmus+ projects results platform in the second half project phase;

-       Due to uncertainty with the COVID-19 restrictions, constantly monitor the Work plan calendar and update and disseminate for all partners the adjusted Work plan terms if they are changed, so, all participants are aware of the updated calendar timeframes.

-       To ensure the specifics of the Ukrainian national legislation, use NEO-Ukraine recommendations for CBHE projects teams;

-       To submit on time the monitoring card to the Ministry of Education and Science of Ukraine on the half-year and yearly bases.