And … commercialization of the whole UzhNU

The new acting rector of Uzhgorod University Fedir Vashchuk above all put money

On Friday, September 7, the largest university received a new acting rector. It had long been assumed that Vitaly Nikolaychuk would be acting rector only temporarily, and in fact the university would be headed by Fedir Vashchuk, who for many years had sought this office, waging war with the previous management of the university in the media controlled by him.

On Friday Minister of Education Dmytro Tabachnyk signed an order appointing Fedir Vashchuk the head of UzhNU, and the head of the Transcarpathian Regional State Administration Oleksandr Ledyda immediately hastened to present him to the university. In honor of this an extraordinary meeting of senior staff was convened. Without any digressions Ledyda immediately read Tabachnyk’s order, which stated that Nikolaychuk resigned from the office, and that Vashchuk was appointed instead of him.  

In general, the first speech of Vashchuk before the staff appeared rather interesting and significant. First Fedir Vashchuk thanked former rector Mykola Vehesh and his vice-rectors. It looked like a condescension to the vanquished rivals. According to Vashchuk, we should not blame the predecessors in dire financial straits. Moreover, they have managed to do a lot of good for the university, despite the difficult financial situation.

Also Vashchuk explained how he was going to earn money. Firstly, he said, he agreed with Tabachnyk that UzhNU would receive the right to take students from commercial universities of the region, so they paid the same amount as in the institution which they had entered to. An interesting move and not quite transparent instruments of its implementation. Furthermore, it is not clear whether the acting rector is going to transfer to UzhNU students from TSU. Moreover, online media recently published the order appointing Vashchuk, according to which he is not dismissed as rector of TSU and appointed as Acting Rector of UzhNU without remuneration.

The staff greeted the new head of the University with applause, although a few months ago, many declared that they would never agree to have a rector from another university. It is difficult to judge whether it was a fear of a new boss, or a sincere joy. The fact is that Vitaliy Nikolaychuk was, to put it mildly, unpopular persona and during his stay in the office did not create a good image of himself. So in comparison to him even Vashchuk no longer looks that bad.

Even the former rector thinks so. "Vashchuk, if compared with Nikolaychuk, is definitely a progress, Mykola Vehesh said in a comment to the "Zamok".  Firstly, he is a very rich man and for the sake of prestige is even ready to spend his own money on the improvement of the university. Secondly, he is not so petty to prosecute a person just because they did not prolong somebody’s contract (ex-rector hints at Nikolaychuk whom he had once did not extend his cadence as the Dean of the Biology Faculty. – Author) .

The leader of the United Center Victor Baloha also commented on the event. "The decision of Education Minister Dmytro Tabachnyk on the appointment of acting rector of UzhNU is legally correct. But if you look at the issue more broadly, it is a political corruption and pure disrespect to the team of UzhNU" – he reacted in facebook social network.

However what happened, happened. And the new broom began to sweep immediately. Already on his first working day Fedir Vashchuk gathered the staff of the Philological Faculty and the Faculty of Romanic and Germanic Philology and made some sensational claims. Thus, he announced that he was going to convert FRGP into the institution, "because it will give an opportunity to create new jobs." Why create new jobs, despite the present lack of money is not clear. In addition, the faculty has not so much students to create an entire institution. Philology students were "happy" to know, that henceforth they would study business Ukrainian and English all 5 years and as a result, take state exams in these subjects. Furthermore, he appointed as a deputy dean of Phililogical Faculty a journalist Hanna Tarkaniy, introducing the position of the third deputy dean. Anyway, here he created at least one new job.