Not so long ago, Professor Yuriy Bobalo, Lviv Polytechnic National University Rector, initiated a meeting with the members of Students and PhD Students Union.
– University exists only when there are students, – emphasized Rector, starting the conversation. – You are the hosts of the University. You hired me to work for you. So demand from me and help me…
The main task of the students is to study well. Unfortunately, some students do not want to it, some students are not able to study hard. Every year, almost 800 students are expelled from the University.
Rector said that there had been a discussion on retaining the average score at 71 in order to pay scholarships when 45% limit of distributing scholarship fund for all higher educational institutions of Ukraine had been introduced. That is why he decided that it should be up to students. They decided not to take into account the average score while distributing scholarships. They calculated 45% of students in each speciality with the highest points and drew the line. However, Yuriy Bobalo, presented the statistics of average scores in almost all institutes. Unfortunately, there are quite a lot of institutes with the average score lower than 60. This happens, as a rule, in the institutes where it is hard to study – Engineering Mechanics and Transport, Power Engineering and Control Systems. It was hoped that a part of the scholarship fund could be used for students’ social needs. However, the money that has not been spent goes back to the budget of the Ministry of Education and Science.
Rector also touched upon a very delicate issue – bribery among lecturers. It is next to impossible to fire such lecturer according to the article of the Criminal Code because everything has to be documented. However, if there are complaints from students, such lecturers are recommended to resign. Yuriy Bobalo urged students not to conceal such facts.
Rector also asked students, «Do you like when a lecturer is late for classes or lets you leave the class much earlier?». Students kept silence, considering this question a rhetoric one. Yuriy Yaroslavovych answered himself, «Only those who do not wish to study may like it…»
At the meeting, Rector told students about the wide scope of renovation work on classrooms (there are nearly 1000 classrooms in the University), dormitories. In the nearest future, the renovation of the dormitory 1 will be completed. It is the oldest one on the campus. One of the students complained about bad conditions in the dormitory 4. University Rector promised to go there together with Vice-Rector Volodymyr Krayovskyy as soon as possible.
Members of the Students and PhD Students Union also talked about the need to extend Internet service in the dormitories, to study the negative impact of mobile communication aerials. They also asked Rector to help them provide food on the geodesic training ground in Berezhany. They discussed the issue of the mechanism for granting subsidies on bills to students that live in dormitories.
At the end of the conversation, Rector as well as students agreed to hold such meetings on a regular basis.
