LIFE REQUIRES MOTION

The history of creation and development of Kherson State Maritime Academy is quite significant in historical retrospect, and therefore we have the right to say that this is the oldest educational institution in Ukraine, which educated, educates and I think will educate generations of sea and river transport professionals, so we need to move forward with confidence, looking for new ways and developing new ideas.

Since its foundation in 1834, the maritime educational establishment of Kherson has been repeatedly reorganized: from the navigation classes to a modern educational institution, and namely Kherson State Maritime Academy (KSMA).

Today the academy has the 4th accreditation level and carries out training of maritime professionals for different education and qualification levels from Skilled Worker, Junior Specialist and Bachelor to Master and Doctor of Philosophy. The Academy has state-of-the-art educational and training facilities that allow students to acquire all the competencies which are important and necessary when working onboard a ship.

The educational and training facilities of KSMA and its structural subdivisions meet the international requirements for standards of maritime education. The modernization project of the KSMA facilities received support from the international partners and investors of the academy, in particular the International Maritime Employers' Council (IMEC), German investment fund DEG, and others. The equipment for practical training gives an opportunity to get as close as possible to the real conditions in the process of learning. 

In 2010, KSMA has gained the right to educate maritime professionals from foreign countries. For the third consecutive year, the academy has been successfully implementing the project on training international students exclusively in the English language.

In 2012, Kherson Maritime Specialized Training Center (KMSTC KSMA) was established at the premises of Kherson State Maritime Academy. As the result of its activity, KMSTC KSMA obtained permission from the OPITO organization to conduct specialized courses for offshore employees, and got the Certificate of Conformance to the Requirements of the International Convention on Standards of Training, Certification and Watchkeeping for Seafarers (the STCW Convention 78/95) issued for a range of specialized courses by the Ukrainian Marine and River Inspection. 

Expanding contacts in the international arena, the high demand for maritime professionals in the world, the unconditional adherence to international standards, in particular the requirements of the STCW Convention 78/95 have enabled KSMA in recent years to increase significantly the quantity of cadets and the number of shipping and crewing companies for which the academy trains future maritime professionals. The current system of maritime education in Ukraine and at the academy is closest to the requirements of the Bologna Declaration and in line with the Convention of the Council of Europe and UNESCO on the General Equivalence of Periods of University Study and on the Equivalence of Diplomas leading to Admission to Universities, due to which the graduates of the academy are employed in the international labor market and are not exposed to difficulties during the employment.

Over the years of existence of KSMA, a number of important steps have been taken by its administration and leading researchers to strengthen the foundations of scientific activity. Thus, the departments of the Academy carry out scientific research on more than 25 scientific topics, in accordance with the priority thematic areas of research and development. All research works are innovative, competitive and important for practical use on river and sea vessels. Special research laboratories have been established at the academy, international and all-Ukrainian scientific conferences are held here, and the results of our research are widely known both in Ukraine and abroad.

In order to implement scientific research results in production more effectively, the Science Park of KSMA “Maritime Industry Innovations” was created in 2019, which nowadays actively cooperates with the range of Ukrainian and European educational institutions as well as various enterprises and organizations. Thus, it has created conditions for expanding our capacity not only as an educational institution, but also as a powerful research center focusing on education, production and science in the area of sea and river transport.

Therefore, holding the VII Baltic-Black Sea Economic Forum in 2020 at the premises of KSMA by our partners and co-organizers – Non-Governmental Union Baltic-Black Sea Economic Forum and the Science Park of KSMA "Maritime Industry Innovations" is a landmark event, especially in view of the challenges of our time both in education system and maritime industry and in the world as a whole.

The realization of the main goal of the forum – to establish a corridor of effective cooperation from the Baltic Sea shores to the eastern Caspian coast – will also create new global and strategic opportunities for the development of a maritime education system worldwide.

We are grateful to our partners from different countries who have agreed to participate in this conceptually important event, which will open new horizons for cooperation in the field of education and science, creation of new projects, development of joint actions, exploration of existing educational and research ideas, etc.

Based on these principles, we seek to objectify the following issues during the forum and thus to:

• discuss and coordinate plans for cooperation and development of new partnership programs and contracts for the implementation of joint international scientific projects on global problems related to development of the transport industry, logistics issues, etc. (especially in the maritime sector);
• explicate new challenges and approaches in the modern online education system (creating joint projects and programs); 
• work out plans on implementation of dual degree programs and the formation of the best possible ways for their implementation; 
• develop new models of teacher and student mobility programs;
• update the role of a partner group in training the necessary personnel for ports and the maritime sector as a whole;
• formulate relevant models for cooperation of transport higher education institutions and industry sectors as a whole in terms of the search for new approaches to solving personnel, scientific and production problems on a global scale.

Rector of Kherson State Maritime Academy,
Doctor of Pedagogical Sciences, Professor,
Deputy Head of the Organizing Committee for Preparation and Holding
of the VII Baltic-Black Sea Economic Forum 
Vasyl Cherniavskyi