An acting rector was appointed at the National Aviation University. She became an educator and deputy of the Kyiv City Council, Ksenia Semenova.
NAU was headed by a woman for the first time, reported on university website.
According to the Order of the Ministry of Education and Science of Ukraine, from April 10, 2024, acting The rector of the National Aviation University was appointed to Ksenia Semenov, who until now held the position of acting vice-rector for scientific work and innovative development of the National Aviation University.
For the first time in the long history of the Ukrainian technical university, it will be headed by a young woman who focuses on the field of education, qualitative changes in it, and the implementation of the best practices of the EU and the USA in the higher education system of Ukraine. Ksenia is a graduate of the Faculty of Electronics of NAU, her father was a scientist who graduated from the Radio Engineering Faculty of the Aviation University.
The appointment of a candidate by the Ministry of Education and Culture was preceded by a discussion and vote of the Supervisory Board of the National Aviation University. As a reminder, within the framework of the experiment, the NAU Supervisory Board was created, headed by Petro Chernyshov from January 2024. She is given a wider range of powers, including in solving issues of strategic personnel appointments and changes.
Petro Chernyshov, Chairman of the NAU Supervisory Board:
"We are moving in the right direction on the path of transformation of NAU. I consider this appointment a matter of pride not only because it was carried out according to the principle of discussion, debate among all members of the Supervisory Board of the National Academy of Sciences, transparent voting for the candidate, which is an unconventional mechanism for Ukraine for the appointment of heads of higher education institutions, but is an accepted practice in many progressive countries of the world , but also because it will really bring powerful positive changes to the university. Ksenia is a young, talented woman, an effective top manager. She "lives" this university, does everything possible so that it not only returns its lost reputation, respect, power and influence. The new head aims to make it one of the best engineering universities in Eastern Europe with a modern material and technical base and concern for the promising future of its students and team."
"In business, the reputation and integrity, knowledge, experience, efficiency and motivation of the candidate are of priority when appointed to management positions. The system of higher education in Ukraine is imperfect, it has a lot to learn from the foreign experience of managing higher education institutions, including in matters of personnel policy. Such a unanimous decision of all members of the Supervisory Board of NAU in favor of Ksenia's candidacy demonstrates our great trust and respect for her and the values and competencies that should be given preference by ZVO when appointing its heads. For the first time in Ukraine, the Ministry of Education and Science makes appointments at a state university based on the recommendations of the Supervisory Board. And this is a big step, an effective approach. I wish Ksenia success and success in her new position," - Volodymyr Tsoi, member of the Supervisory Board of NAU, Ukrainian entrepreneur and public figure, president of the MTI Group of companies, graduate of the Kyiv Institute of Civil Aviation Engineers (the name of NAU from 1965 to 1994).
What is known about Ksenia Semenova:
Ksenia Semenova — acting vice-rector for scientific work and innovative development of the National Aviation University, educator, director of educational programs at the business incubator YEP, deputy of the Kyiv City Council, secretary of the commission on digital transformation and administrative services, from 2013 to 2021 she taught at NAU, coordinated various all-Ukrainian and international educational and popular science projects. Since the beginning of the full-scale invasion, she is the co-founder of the "Solomyan Cats" charitable foundation.
Born: March 3, 1990 in Kryvyi Rih.
Marital status: married, raising a daughter, Solomiya.
Education
Co-author of the large-scale study "The Future of Universities" of the Ukrainian Institute of the Future.
Scholarship recipient of the "Zavtra.UA" program of the Viktor Pinchuk Foundation.
In 2013, she graduated from the field of "Electronic devices and systems", in 2016 - from the educational and professional program of a candidate of sciences at the National Aviation University.
professional experience
From 2023 — acting vice-rector for scientific work and innovative development of the National Aviation University.
From 2021, she is the director of educational programs at the business incubator YEP.
Since 2019, she has been an assistant to People's Deputy Roman Hryshchuk, head of the Committee's subcommittee on life-long education and extracurricular education and adaptation of Ukrainian legislation to the provisions of European Union law.
From 2017 to 2021, she is the director of educational programs in the network of academic business incubators YEP, which deals with business education for young people and develops the entrepreneurial ecosystem of Ukraine.
From 2017 to 2019, she worked as an engineer at the Radionics company in the direction of signal processing algorithms and radar signal simulation.
From 2015 to 2018, she worked as a director of the Ukrainian section of the IEEE, which is the world's largest professional technical organization engaged in the promotion of technologies.
Since 2013, she has been a teacher at the National Aviation University.
Public work
In 2023, she became a participant in the Young Elected Politicians program and represented Ukraine and Kyiv at the 156th plenary session of the Committee of Regions in Brussels.
In 2020, she was elected a deputy of the Kyiv City Council, she is a member of the Standing Commission of the Kyiv City Council on Digital Transformation and Administrative Services, and is the deputy head of this commission.
She is the author of projects of the Public Budget of the city of Kyiv related to science.
Since 2013, she has been a co-organizer of a series of annual science festivals and events: Science Picnics, Medical Picnics, Science Days, March for Science, Day of Women and Girls in Science.
The founder of the open space of informal education at NAU HUB.
Co-organizer of hackathons:
Open Data & Local Media Hackathon — a hackathon on the topic of open data and local media.
NASA Space Apps Challenge Kyiv is an international hackathon for coders, scientists, designers, storytellers, makers, builders, technologists and others in cities around the world, where teams use free and open data from the National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA) to develop solving real problems on Earth and in space.
ActInSpace is an international innovation competition that inspires young people around the world. In 2018, ActInSpace is a hackathon in 35 countries and 75 cities, with 5000+ participants looking for real solutions to specific 72 problems.
Co-founder and organizer of the "Science Picnics" festival in Kyiv — an annual open-air festival, during which experts debunk myths and provide a logical explanation for certain phenomena in the field of physics, chemistry, biology, and other areas of science.
Semenova was elected by a vote of the NAU Supervisory Board. It was created in January 2024 to support the administration of the university and strengthen the modernization process. The Supervisory Board consists of 7 members, including representatives of state authorities, university graduates, business representatives, and professional managers.
"I am a hereditary educator, I know what the atmosphere of scientific research is like since childhood, and I also know what GVF (the old name of NAU - ed.) is like since preschool age. But I am not a person of this system. I don't understand the value of formal titles behind which there is nothing, rigid hierarchy, status, inappropriate bureaucracy, attribution of authors who did not write anything in the article, plagiarism," Semenova said in her post.
She also added that now "the state is ready to build a good engineering university."
"NAU has great potential and it was very painful to watch the university being destroyed over the past 10 years.
Now a huge number of professionals and graduates of NAU are ready to join the reform of the university. There are people inside who are not afraid to lean on. Everything should work out," added the new head of the university.
We will remind you that in September 2023, it became known about the government's plans to reorganize NAU and divide it into two structures: the State University "Kyiv Aviation Institute" and a separate institution called the Ukrainian State Aviation Academy (Kropyvnytskyi).
This decision was made due to numerous problems at the university: a drop in education level indicators, student complaints against the management, violations of the language of the educational process, scandals regarding the illegal alienation of university lands.
After this information, the current rector at that time, Maksym Lutskyi, announced that he had decided to join the ZSU. The former regional manager and friend of the ex-Minister of Education Dmytro Tabachnyk headed the university from 2021.
In July 2023, Minister of Education Oksen Lisovyi announced a reprimand to Lutsky for violating the legislation on education and the terms of the contract.
In October 2023, the decision to reorganize NAU was approved. The university called it "the destruction of 90 years of history and property."
Then Volodymyr Shulga was appointed acting rector of the NAU reorganization commission.
