Participation of teachers of the Department of Financial Management in Ukraine Creative Spark Policy Forum 2021

On December 1, 2021, the online Ukraine Creative Spark Policy Forum 2021 took place. The event was joined by teachers of the Department of Financial Management Prof. Sytnyk N.S. and Prof. Vatamanyuk-Zelinska U.Z. The key topic of the forum was the role of higher education in the development of creative industries. In particular, the following issues were discussed:

– the existing and possible role of higher education in the development of creative industries; trajectories of their development and reform of higher education in Ukraine;

– the impact of policies on the role of universities in the development of creative industries;

– educational landscape of training specialists for creative industries – key actions, policies, interventions that can strengthen the contribution of universities to their development;

– institutional capacity of universities and adaptation of teachers.

The forum featured presentations by experts from the UK and Ukraine, as well as panel discussions and presentations of the best cases of policies already implemented.

Discussions touched on issues that are important for creating new educational programs and improving existing ones. Problems and prospects of readiness of Ukrainian universities for financial autonomy were discussed; creation of interdisciplinary (scientific) educational programs of higher education; systematic organization of guest lectures and international cooperation in such programs; integrated dual education; formation of entrepreneurial competencies within the framework of elective disciplines; patronage of education; licensing, legal context of educational services; non-formal education and many others.

We were interested in new, already established practices related to the creative economy: “Regional Development Policy Instruments for Creative Industries” (Ministry of Development of Communities and Territories of Ukraine), “Regional Program of Innovative Technological Development of Lviv Region” (Lviv Regional State Administration), “Entrepreneurship University” (YEP! – a network of academic startup incubators), discipline and distance learning course “Creative Entrepreneurship” (Poltava University of Economics and Trade).

As we can see, the importance of creative industries in society is growing – in the future – an independent ecosystem is being built, in which an important role, however, belongs to universities. At the same time, this requires the development of an action plan (policies, approaches) to strengthen the institutional capacity of universities at different levels – national, regional, local, sectoral, institutional and at the level of each of us!