Second Cycle of the Academic Managers’ Professional Development Programme Launches
The second cycle of the Academic Managers’ Professional Development Programme for university leadership teams in Ukraine has started. This cycle is designed so that training is directly synchronised with the current policies and needs of the Ministry of Education and Science of Ukraine (MES): from modernising the network of higher education institutions (HEIs) and strengthening managerial capacity to student-centred approaches, the development of dual education, and transparent financing under the updated funding formula. A separate emphasis is placed on support for frontline and displaced universities.
We are launching the second cycle as a tool for implementing MES policy in every university. The Programme is synchronised with our priorities: an updated funding formula with a coefficient to support frontline territories, real individual learning trajectories for students, strong supervisory boards and responsible management. We expect managed change and public results from participants — new regulations, partnerships for dual education, and transparent financial practices that students will feel already this academic year,
said Mykola Trofymenko, Deputy Minister of Education and Science of Ukraine.
The second cycle brings together 85 teams selected on a competitive basis from HEIs under MES. In total, 571 academic managers are taking part — vice-rectors, deans and their deputies, institute directors, heads of departments, and leaders of administrative units. Shiro Nakata, Senior Economist, Europe & Central Asia, Education Global Practice, World Bank, welcomed participants at the launch and underlined the importance of advancing institutional development in challenging conditions.
Training covers four modules — “The Role of the University in the Context of Societal Transformations,” “Strategising under Uncertainty,” “Human Resource Management,” “Finance, Resources, Projects” — and will run until the end of March 2026. Each module includes practical assignments aligned with MES priorities, as well as mentoring to support implementation inside institutions.
The Academic Managers’ Professional Development Programme is an initiative of the Ministry of Education and Science of Ukraine implemented by the British Council within the joint World Bank project “Ukraine Improving Higher Education for Results (UIHERP)”. The international component remains key: experts from universities in the United Kingdom and the EU participate alongside Ukrainian practitioners from business and civil society to strengthen management practices, transparency, and a culture of quality.
The first cycle of the Programme concluded on 19 September 2025 with a final online conference: teams from 60 universities presented institutional change projects, and 444 participants of the core teams (together with reserve members) completed professional development and received the relevant documents. In total, approximately 1,000 academic managers from state HEIs across all regions of Ukraine are expected to complete the Programme.
Background. In the first cycle, the Programme was designed and delivered by 70 experts from 16 Ukrainian universities and the Institute of Higher Education of the National Academy of Educational Sciences of Ukraine (NAES of Ukraine), with contributions from representatives of the Ministry of Education and Science of Ukraine and the National Agency for Higher Education Quality Assurance (NAQA), as well as international specialists from the British Council. In the second cycle, this collaboration is being expanded to ensure synergy between policy, modern management practices, and tangible change on the ground.