NAQA ALL-UKRAINIAN FORUM “UNIVERSITY IS PEOPLE” BRINGS TOGETHER EDUCATORS FROM ACROSS THE COUNTRY
On June 4, 2026, a landmark event for the educational community took place in Lviv — the dialogue platform “University_Is_People”, organized by the National Agency for Higher Education Quality Assurance (NAQA).
The large-scale event, hosted by Lviv Polytechnic National University, brought together about 400 in-person participants representing 118 higher education institutions from all over Ukraine. The forum served as a powerful platform for open dialogue, sharing management case studies, addressing the challenges of modern university management, and shaping new strategies for the development of higher education.
The Department of Public Administration and Business Management of the Faculty of Financial Management and Business at Ivan Franko National University of Lviv was represented at this forum by its Head, Doctor of Economics, Professor Hanna Komarnytska.
The forum agenda featured three fundamental panel discussions focused on building a quality internal environment within universities:
- “People at the Center of University Strategy: Recruitment, Evaluation, and Recognition Policies” (moderated by Nataliia Stukalo, Vice-Chair of NAQA).
- “Modernizing Criteria for Faculty Qualification Compliance: External Evaluation” (moderated by Andrii Butenko, Chair of NAQA).
- “Motivation, Guidance, Training — Does an HEI Truly Impact Team Quality?” (moderated by Ivan Nazarov, Vice-Chair of NAQA).
During the engaging discussions, participants and leading experts in the field agreed that no amount of innovation, modern laboratories, or digitalization can succeed without the core element — the personality of the teacher, researcher, manager, and student. It is people who build the reputation of a higher education institution and drive its progress forward.
Special attention at the forum was dedicated to the modernization of faculty evaluation criteria. The speakers emphasized the importance of a gradual transition from formal quantitative metrics (such as years of service, number of publications, or hours taught) toward assessing actual capability, performance, value, and the balance between academic requirements and the practical experience of a modern educator.
The participation of our university representatives in such systemic events reinforces the active stance of Ivan Franko National University of Lviv in the processes of reforming and improving the quality of higher education in Ukraine. Only through synergy, trust, and the collaborative development of new, transparent rules of the game within the academic community can Ukrainian higher education be elevated to a fundamentally new institutional level.