On February 2, 2021, there was a regular meeting of the Scientific Council of DSUM. It was held off-line, in compliance with quarantine requirements. The colleagues, who for various reasons are on self-isolation, were able to join the meeting through the Zoom Conference. The important issue brought up for discussion by the Scientific Council was improving the quality of education at DSUM through the modernization of educational programs in accordance with the needs of external stakeholder groups.

Valentyna Tokareva, Vice-Rector for Academic Affairs and Research, informed the participants on the results of the expert survey “Business and Community demand on educational products of higher educational institutions of Mariupol” conducted by the research team consisting of Andriy Stoyka, Natalia Nykyforenko, Mykola Chaplyk,  in the frames of EduSpace project which is realized by the consortium comprising Donetsk State University of Management, Donetsk Law Institute of the Ministry of Internal Affairs of Ukraine, University of Genoa (Italy) and Mariupol City Council Executive Committee in partnership with Mariupol Development Fund and Green Center Metinvest within the framework of the “EU Support to Displaced Higher Education Institutions in East of Ukraine”.

In this survey 53 experts took part representing Mariupol City Council, one of the district Department of Social Security of the Mariupol City Council and Mariupol Infrastructural Development Center enterprise several communal enterprises: Commercial Communal Enterprise “Mariupolteploset”; Communal Enterprise “Komunalnik”; Communal Enterprise “Mariupol Production Water and Sewage Directorate”; industrial enterprises: “Ilyich Iron and Steel Works of Mariupol”; “Azovstal Iron & Steel Works”; “Metinvest-Promservice, LLC”; Private Enterprise “PROMTEKHAZOV”; commercial network “SILPO”; Joint-Stock Company Commercial Bank “PrivatBank”; LLC Transport and travel company “Onyx Tour”; LLC Travel agency “Costa Rica”; advertising agency “Kraboff”; 5 NGOs: Mariupol Development Fund; “Caritas Mariupol”; “Council of Women of the Donetsk Region”; “Dovira”; :Za Prava”; as well as a number of private individuals.

Valentyna Tokareva in her speech focused on the analysis of compliance of the range of specialties and educational programs offered by DSUM with the list of “scarce” professions in the Mariupol labor market, determined by representatives of employers:

“The stakeholder survey demonstrated high demand for training in Mariupol for IT specialists, managers, moderate demand for service specialists, in particular –  tourism, for qualified lawyers, marketers, specialists in social support in crisis situations, in particular – conflict resolution specialists, social workers; entrepreneurs, qualified economists, accountants”.

The characteristics of the “ideal graduate of a higher education institution”, as outlined by the experts’ responses, were also examined:

“Today, along with professionalism, a graduate must have highly developed soft skills associated with a motivated attitude to work and the ability to communicate effectively, namely, be communicative, have developed leadership skills, be able to present themselves, be responsible, motivated, capable of self-education and self-development”.

Particular attention was paid to the analysis of employers’ request for hard skills and soft skills of graduates in 2025:

“Both today and in the future, the priority should be increasing the level of higher education applicants’ knowledge of computers and information technology and improve their skills in English, the formation of their ability to synthesize theoretical and practical knowledge, increasing the volume and quality of practical training in the specialty”.

It also considered the current state of cooperation between stakeholders and universities, and ways to improve it. The participants discussed improving the quality of students’ practice at stakeholder bases, namely the need to increase the volume of practice, analysis of the need to assess its results, as well as the active participation of employers in the educational process – holding trainings, master classes, lectures and practical classes at the university.

As a result, the Scientific Council made a number of decisions to develop and submit for public discussion the updated educational programs of DSUM, taking into account the stakeholder recommendations; review and make additions to the catalog of selective disciplines of the general cycle, taking into account the list of soft skills, updated by representatives of employers; upgrade the concept of practical training of the students of DSUM; review the effectiveness of the  new system of teaching English, and so on.