Participation in the Launch of the THEA Ukraine Lead Project

From October 29 to 31, 2025, the first stage of the THEA Ukraine Lead program took place — a large-scale initiative aimed at developing leadership and university management in Ukraine, focused on modern European practices.

In September, after successfully passing the competitive selection, Associate Professor Iryna Borovyk of the Department of Therapy and Family Medicine, and a member of the University Center for Teaching Excellence team, joined the program. For further implementation, she prepared a project aimed at developing team interaction, effective communication, and conflict resolution skills among the university’s teaching and administrative staff.

During three eventful days, there were online meetings with trainers, mentors, and facilitators of the program, including:

Prof. Frank Ziegeler (Higher Education Management and Policy, CHE)

Kai Handel (Higher Education and Research Management, HWM Osnabrück)

Kateryna Suprun (Faculty of Management and Business, Tampere University)

Alla Krasulia, Head of the Office for International Cooperation, Sumy State University, partner of THEA Ukraine Lead project

Dmytro Tsymbaliuk, Sumy State University, partner of THEA Ukraine Lead project

Petra Pistor (Centre for Quality Assurance and Enhancement, FH Münster University of Applied Sciences, Germany – Project Manager, THEA Ukraine Lead)

Johanna Henrich (Wandelwerk – Centre for Quality Assurance and Enhancement, FH Münster University of Applied Sciences, Germany – Project Assistant, THEA Ukraine Lead).

The sessions on strategic management, the connection between personality types and leadership styles, the specifics of university work under crisis conditions, effective communication in emergencies, and joint modeling of future scenarios for Ukrainian higher education institutions were extremely engaging and practical. A particularly impressive and inspiring element was the real case study of Sumy State University, which demonstrated successful crisis management.

The first meetings also took place with the program mentors — Kostiantyn Kyrychenko, Kateryna Skyba, and Olena Tupakkhina — who will support the implementation of the planned projects.

There is still much learning, practical work, experience sharing, and co-creation ahead, together with a highly professional and truly inspiring team.