Під час конференції понад сто представників університетів та наукових закладів України і Баварії провели низку тематичних дискусій та раундів двосторонніх переговорів, метою яких є пошук спільних наукових та освітніх проектів.

У рамках урочистого відкриття конгресу до присутніх із вітальним словом звернувся Генеральний консул України в Мюнхені Юрій Ярмілко:

 

Dear Professor Forchel,

dear Mr. Djukic,

dear Dr. Parchmann,

dear Ladies and Gentlemen,

 

I sincerely thank you for the invitation to the Ukrainian-Bavarian Higher Education Day, it’s an honour and a pleasure for me to join you today.

I am glad to greet the higher representatives of the universities and research institutes, of the German-Ukrainian Academic Society and the Union of the Ukrainian Students in Germany, of the Bavarian government.

The history of the official bilateral relations between Ukraine and Bavaria dates back to 1918, when the first Consulate of the Ukrainian People’s Republic was opened in Munich. Today we are working hard to retain this tradition. Although Bavaria is not a sovereign independent country, we have a number of unprecedented common projects, which Ukraine has with no other German region: bilateral Governmental commission with a wide range of cooperation projects, the office of Bavaria in Kyiv and the House of Bavaria in Odessa, the Ukrainian Free University in Munich, annual Ukrainian conference in Tutzing among others.  An important part of this list is the today’s event, the Ukrainian-Bavarian Higher Education Day.

In the today’s global world the international scientific and educational cooperation does not need that kind of support from the governmental institutions, as 20 or 40 years ago. Today you don’t really need the embassy or the consulate to arrange contacts with your international partners, you often don’t need to travel to your foreign counterparts to make a joint scientific project, and you probably don’t need an official cooperation agreement between the universities to carry out some particular common research activities.

 What is needed though, is

1)  financial support opportunities from the state agencies and the non-governmental sector and

2)  good international platforms for the universities to exchange information about the cooperation opportunities.

With the great amount of financial support possibilities here in Germany and especially in Bavaria I am confident, that Ukrainian-Bavarian Higher Education Day is a great platform for all of us to improve our cooperation. I think, that the effectiveness of the scientific discussions today and the bilateral talks tomorrow will give us good reasons to think about making it a regular Ukrainian-Bavarian higher education congress. Perhaps, not an annual one, but to hold it every two or three years would be appropriate and realistic. 

Today we are talking a lot about reforms, about modernizing Ukraine. It is obvious, that this process is impossible without up to date competitive scientific institutions, universities, which provide such education that corresponds to the actual needs of the country. To do that, Ukraine needs the experience of Bavaria, undoubtedly the most highly developed German region. Common scientific and educational projects bring benefits not just to their direct participants; they tremendously and substantively change Ukrainian higher education system in general.

Everybody in Ukraine wants to cooperate with western partners to achieve better scientific results; everybody wants to be financially supported in their endeavors. But only those Ukrainian universities or particular scholars, who use modern technologies and deliver on challenging and crucial issues, who can communicate without a need to be translated into German or English, only those have a realistic chance to benefit from international projects. This is a good motivation for Ukrainian universities. This is a good reason to implement reforms and modernize. This is one of the important factors, which makes us work on ourselves and make progress.

Let me thank the Wuerzburg University and BayHost for organizing this conference and the state of Bavaria for its generous financial support. Let me thank all the participants, both from the Bavarian and Ukrainian sides, for their interest and their time, which they spend to arrange new common scientific and educational projects.

As a Consul general in Munich I have enough experience to assure my Ukrainian countrymen: Bavaria is a great place for cooperation and Bavarians are great people to deal with, we must use the opportunities, which this conference creates.

Dear ladies and gentlemen,

I am wishing you interesting and productive discussions, new scientific and social contacts and of course many joint projects between Ukraine and Bavaria.

Thank you for your attention!