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17.06.2016
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The delegation of Vysočina visited UzhNU

The delegation of Vysočina visited UzhNU

The Transcarpathian region and the Vysočina region have been maintaining close ties of cross-border cooperation for 9 years. Over this period of time they managed to implement about 80 investment projects in the area of education, culture, and healthcare (total value over 40 million UAH) in all districts of the Transcarpathian region. This was discussed during a series of meetings held by a Vysočina delegation headed by the hetman of the region Jiri Behounek in Uzhhorod.

One of the results of cooperation between Transcarpathia and Vysočina was an interest of local youth and their parents to the Czech language. At present, more than 350 children have the opportunity to study it as the second foreign language in accordance with the relevant programmes approved by the Ministry of Education of Ukraine in three schools of the region. A few more schools are willing to introduce the Czech language course into their curriculum in the next academic year. However, there’s lack of qualified teachers of the Czech language in Transcarpathia.

During the visit, the Czech delegation visited Uzhhorod National University, which began preparing such professionals two years ago. The Rector of UzhNU Volodymyr Smolanka said in his welcome speech: "We have a lot in common in history, and there will be even more in the future" and told the guests about qualitative changes that were taking place in the largest university of Transcarpathia within the process of its integration into the European educational space. In particular, UzhNU is actively cooperating with foreign partners due to 12 bilateral agreements signed over the past two years. The agreement with Charles University (Prague), the Universities of Pardubice (Czech Republic), Porto (Portugal), Oradea (Romania), Novi Sad (Serbia), Latvian University (Riga) and Lithuanian University (Vilnius), Nyiredhaza College (Hungary), the Faculty of physics, mathematics and computer science and the department of experimental physics of  J. Comenius University (Bratislava) and Greek Catholic Theological Faculty of the University of Presov (Slovakia). In total UzhNU has scientific and educational relations with more than 90 universities from 17 countries. At the same time, nearly 400 foreign nationals are acquiring professional education at several faculties of UzhNU.

In academic year 2013-14 the course of the Czech language and literature was introduced at the Department of Slovak Philology of UzhNU to meet the needs of educational institutions of Transcarpathia. At present, 14 students are being trained there, who are provided with necessary literature and classrooms. Today, the university needs assistance in strengthening the teaching staff - in particular a native speaker lecturer with the degree of Candidate of Philology (PhD) to provide training courses; language laboratory equipment and assistance in organizing educational practice for students in the Czech Republic. Professor Smolanka thanked the guests for their assistance in implementing a large-scale joint project on energy saving - replacement of windows at the Faculty of International Relations.

The hetman of the Vysočina region Jiri Behounek noted that both parties should make use of the favorable opportunity to strengthen cooperation in all possible areas and promised Transcarpathians his personal support in establishing direct contacts with the educational institutions of Vysočina.

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