In partnership with CLAYSS [the Latin American Center of Service Learning], the Ukrainian Catholic University (UCU) in November-December will organize “A month of service-learning education at UCU.” UCU is the first university in Ukraine to introduce the service-learning model at an institutional level (as part of UCU Strategy-2025).
Since February 2019, the theme of “the university of the 21st century” has been discussed in Ukraine. This foresees full autonomy for institutions of higher education and closer work with other universities, the community, businesses, etc. The theme calls for a university’s purposeful involvement in the life of the community and the demonstration of its values through action in the community.
UCU Senior Vice-Rector Taras Dobko noted: “On October 15, Pope Francis promulgated the Global Compact on Education, proceeding from the conviction that ‘education is an act of creating hope.’ The Holy Father invited Catholic educational institutions, in particular 1,750 Catholic universities, where 11 million students study, to join in this pact. He assigns a particular role in the transformation of education, in ‘creating brotherhood, peace, and justice,’ to service-learning education.”
UCU together with its partners at CLAYSS has developed a program of events which will give UCU’s teachers practice in developing service-learning education so that students will add to their academic successes by solving specific problems of the local community.
The program opens on November 6 and will include three workshops for UCU teachers, the development of individual projects, and various gatherings of university leaders.
