THE PRESIDENT OF THE REPUBLIC OF BELARUS ALEXANDER LUKASHENKO HOLDS A MEETING WITH REPRESENTATIVES OF THE PUBLIC ASSOCIATIONS AND THE MEDIA

The rector of Yanka Kupala State University of Grodno Iryna Kiturka took part in this event.

"A great conversation with the President" took place in the exhibition center "Belexpo". More than 200 people became its participants. Among them were political scientists, economists, employees of the economic sector, representatives of public associations and faiths.  In this event took part also heads of state bodies and members of the government.

As the presidential press secretary Natalia Eismont noted, “A great conversation with the President” is very important not only because it is a great opportunity to take stock of 2018 and discuss the most bright, resonant events with Belarusian and foreign journalists and experts.

- Another important aspect is that, as you know, in mid-spring, the President traditionally addresses the people and parliament with the message. - "A great conversation" is a kind of litmus test for the President - an opportunity to get feedback, first of all from people, as there are numerous polls on the Internet on the topic that our society cares about today.

The training seminar «Video as a learning tool for teachers and students» has been held at the University of Porto (Portugal)

During the seminar, the representatives of the leading institutions of Armenia, Georgia and Belarus were offered to discuss a wide range of issues related to using video as a learning tool in academic process of higher educational institutions:

– Video as a tool in higher education.

– Interactive technologies in the classroom: video as a tool for flipped learning.

– Using video for educational purposes as viewed from teachers’ and students’ perspectives.

– Development and editing of educational video contents within Panopto platform.

– Educational video in distance learning.

– Video as a tool for teaching special needs students.

The participants not only visited the lectures, seminars and workshops but also developed their own educational video using Panopto educational platform working either individually or in groups. The videos presented at the final day of the course were highly assessed by the course moderators Maria Pinto and Nuno Regadas and lead to a lively discussion among the participants.

After studying educational innovations at five European institutions, the participants of PRINTeL project from Yanka Kupala State University of Grodno will become moderators of skills upgrading courses “Educational innovations university: theory, methods and practice of modern education” for the university faculty. The courses will be conducted in several stages from January till May, 2019. The faculty of all University departments will have an opportunity to take part.

Two representatives of Yanka Kupala State University of Grodno have taken part in the training «Active Learning in the Flipped Classroom» held in Linköping University (Sweden)

Representatives of Yanka Kupala State University of Grodno took part in the training organized by Catholic University of Leuven

Catholic University of Leuven is one of the oldest and well-known universities in Europe.

It was founded in 1425. Catholic University of Leuven is one of the leading research centres in Europe. According to the data of 2018, the university holds 47th position in Times Higher Education rating and 81^st position in QS World University Rankings. 

The training organized by Catholic University of Leuven welcomed the participants from Armenia, Georgia and Belarus and covered a wide range of higher education issues:

• Active learning: scope, principles and forms.
• Active learning methods.
• Using ICT in teaching.
• Evaluation of active learning methods.
• Innovative educational institutions.

The participants applied the knowledge and experience received during the trainings in the educational projects presented at the closing class.

After studying educational innovations at five European institutions, the participants of PRINTeL project from Yanka Kupala State University of Grodno will become moderators of skills upgrading courses “Educational innovations university: theory, methods and practice of modern education” for the university faculty. The courses will be conducted in several stages from January till May, 2019. The faculty of all University departments will have an opportunity to take part.

Representative of YKSUG took part in “Hybrid / Blended Teaching and Learning” training in FH Joanneum University of Applied Science in Graz

Iryna Korlyukova, PhD, Head of the Department for Modern Technologies of Pre-University Training has taken part in the first seminar of Erasmus+ project “Change in classroom: promoting innovative teaching & learning to enhance student learning experience in Eastern partnership countries” (PRINTeL).

The training on “Hybrid / Blended Teaching and Learning” was conducted by FH Joanneum University of Applied Science in Graz (Austria).

The training which lasted five days attracted the participants from Armenia, Georgia and Belarus and covered a wide range of topics:

• Advantages and disadvantages of hybrid/blended teaching and learning.
• E-moderating in hybrid/blended teaching and learning.
• Reflection in hybrid/blended learning and teaching.
• MOODLe-based e-learning.
• Online-Portfolios of students.
• Online learning material production.
• Customised mobile programmes and instruments.
• Online tools to support Project Based Learning.

The participants applied the knowledge and experience received during the trainings in the educational projects presented at the closing class.

After studying educational innovations at five European institutions, the participants of PRINTeL project from Yanka Kupala State University of Grodno will become moderators of skills upgrading courses “Educational innovations university: theory, methods and practice of modern education” for the university faculty. The courses will be conducted in several stages from January till May, 2019. All university faculties and departments are supposed to take part.

A new building of the Science and Technology Park of Yanka Kupala State University of Grodno was opened in Grodno

Head of the Presidential Administration Victor Sheiman, Head of Grodno Oblast Executive Committee Vladimir Kravtsov, Rector of Yanka Kupala State University of Grodno Irina Kiturko, Rector of Grodno State Medical University Victor Snezhitsky, Rector of Grodno State Agrarian University Witold Pestis, Director of the company-developer and Director of the IT-company “Neirika Technologies” Andrei Kamornik became the participants of the opening ceremony.

The new building of the Science and Technology Park housed five research and production laboratories, administrative offices of the residents of the Technopark, a conference hall, Fablab- and Coworking areas, production facilities. The total area of ​​the building is over 1 thousand m². Technopark aims to unite the potential of scientists and the capabilities of enterprises and organizations of Grodno region, to become a territory where new highly skilled jobs and high-tech industries are created, which will increase the competitiveness of the regional economy.

“Technopark is a joint project of Grodno Oblast Executive Committee and Yanka Kupala State University of Grodno, and we are implementing it step by step. Today we made another step - we opened the first building of the Technopark. This is a multifunctional center that will serve as a solution to the challenges facing the Technopark. And the main thing is innovation. From ideas, developments to implementation in production. Technopark will allow to combine three important components of the successful development of the economy of our region and country: education, science and commercialization of promising scientific developments. In addition, this startup will allow solving one of the priority state tasks - to create conditions for the development of advanced, gifted young people of our region”, – said the governor of the Grodno region, Vladimir Kravtsov.

Rector of Yanka Kupala State University of Grodno Irina Kiturko noted that the Science and Technology Park is an innovative core of “University 3.0” concept”. “The opening of the Technology Park not only provides an opportunity to develop the entrepreneurial competencies of our students, but also to form the needs in the region for the advanced development of the economy, social sphere and society in general,” –  explained Irina Kiturko.

The guests of the event got acquainted with the equipment of the laboratories of the Technopark, the developments of YKSUG scientists, with the work of the Fablab zone. In addition, they talked to students, participants of the finals of the university open contest for student start-up projects “InnoStart”; the winners of this contest will have the opportunity to get free advice on starting a business with experts and specialists of the Science and Technological Park.

The continuation of the event was a round table discussion on the development of Technopark. During the dialogue, Viktor Sheiman, the Head of the Presidential Administration, noted that not only the result of a certain work but the ability to see the future for several years ahead is paramount in the conditions of dynamic development of the world economy. “First of all, we should take care of the training of qualified staff. Such technology parks should be in all regional cities of Belarus. This will allow our promising young people and searching students to implement themselves and realize innovative ideas that will help the development of our country”, – said Victor Sheiman.

As a part of the event, a joint innovation agreement was signed with another resident of the Technopark, IT-company “Neirika Technologies”, which provides communication services for effective business development based on its own cloud platform. As the director of the company Maxim Mikhailov noted, that in Belarus all conditions for running a successful business have been created. “In Grodno, in two months, we prepared documents and signed an agreement on the status of a resident. Everything was very fast and smooth. The main thing is that you have highly skilled personnel who have to implement our tasks, develop and promote our product”, – said the Director of “Neirika Technologies”. To organize its activities, the company plans to create 45 workplaces.

Today among the projects implemented by the residents of the Technopark are the IT project on the implementation of the tasks of building a digital economy and the first in Belarus production of equipment for diagnosing the state of sewage pipelines.

The opening of a new Еechnopark building is the next stage of its development. Next year it is planned to reconstruct another building with an area of ​​more than 6,000 m², which will attract new residents and create enterprises of various sizes. Every resident will be able to choose the premises in accordance with the goals and specifics of their work.

Associate Professor Anatol Bahdzevich and Leslie Gibson, a guest teacher from the Fulbright English Teaching Assistant (ETA) Program, present an example of co-teaching methods in the English Philology Chair at Yanka Kupala State University of Grodno.

Co-teaching is an educational approach that involves two teachers working collaboratively to plan, structure, and implement lessons. The technique of co-teaching in higher education aims to establish an interdisciplinary approach in which both teachers and students have an opportunity to formulate and solve different problems in a new interactive format. This problem-solving is based on knowledge of different specialized fields and will enrich the lessons with practice-oriented content.  A co-taught lesson aims to involve teachers and students as collaborators and the latter have the opportunity to practice and develop different professional and personal skills.

“Co-teaching broadens the scope of interaction between the lecturers and the students within a lesson, especially those who are mastering a foreign language,” commented Anatol Bahdzevich. “Within this kind of lesson the instructors demonstrate the culture of professional communication and involve students in discussions while providing them with opportunities to ask questions, present their points of view, form their own attitude towards the topic, and express their emotional engagement in the educational activities.”

Leslie Gibson considers co-teaching a way to transform traditional lessons into “exciting, productive, and interactive activities. The main goal of co-teaching is to provoke students’ cognitive processes but also to get them to practice their speaking.”  

Co-taught lessons encourage students to form not only professional linguistic skills, but provide a real possibility to master new forms of interpersonal communication. For others, it may be an opportunity to try their hand in public speeches or a chance to practice different ways of critical thinking.

Master’s students who take part in the co-taught lessons believe that they have not only gained the ability to practice communication with a native speaker, but that they also have the chance to be fully immersed in the subject with the expertise of two instructors each providing his or her own concept of the material.

Technology Transfer Center

Technology Transfer Center – is a separate structural unit of the educational institution Yanka Kupala State University of Grodno (TTC).

Its mission is providing services to support the transfer of technology and the development of innovation and entrepreneurship.

TTC objectives

·         To develop cooperation between developers, investors, producers and consumers of science-intensive products (products, technologies, services)·         To promote the commercialization of the results of  research, development and innovation activities·         Facilitate the development of entrepreneurship and innovative business

Spheres of Activities

Technology Transfer

The Center promotes the transfer of technology, knowledge, skills, methods to production and service delivery between universities, enterprises and other organizations and ensures the availability of scientific and technological development to a wider range of consumers for their further development and use in new products, processes, applications, materials or services:

• If you need a specific technology or innovation to develop your business or a business application for your technology, TTC can help.
• We will help you to find the necessary technology, find the addressee of your technology, advise on the technology transfer,  intellectual property protection and other related issues.

Consulting on the financing of innovation activities

We advise on the search for sources of innovative financing: innovative projects in the framework of state and regional programs, innovation funds, the program of the European Union, etc.

Partner search

We provide assistance to companies and research organizations to find reliable partners in the Republic of Belarus and abroad for:

• development and implementation of innovations;
• commercialization and transfer of new technologies;
• international research, technology and innovation projects.

Maintenance of the regional scientific and technical program of Grodno region "Sustainable innovative development of  Grodno region".

The main goal of the program is the integration of resources and subjects of science, industry and the social sector for scientific and technical support of the social and economic development of the Grodno region for 2016-2020 as well as the effective use of available resources to achieve sustainable social and economic development of  Grodno region through the introduction of new technologies, modernization and technical re-equipment of the operating ones, primarily based on the introduction of knowledge-based, resource, energy-saving and environmentally safe technologies and the achievement of significant progress in the industrial and agricultural spheres.

The development of competences for innovative activity

• We provide counseling, mentoring and training services to develop skills and improve competencies in the development of innovations.

 
Promoting innovation We promote innovation through seminars, publications of methodological and analytical materials, organization of exhibitions and innovative projects competitions. We participate in the implementation of the projects on the development of innovative activities, innovative entrepreneurship and increasing investment attractiveness.

Yanka Kupala State University of Grodno Technology Transfer Center

230023, Grodno, Ozheshko str., 22 – 404

Tel.  772477

E-mail: %This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it.">This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it. , This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it.

Head: Alena Opekoun

22 representatives of 8 university faculties applied for participation in the trainings on innovative methods of teaching and training

22 representatives of 8 university faculties applied for participation in the trainings on innovative methods of teaching and training.

The trainings will take place in five partner institutions: Catholic University of Leuven (Belgium), University of Barcelona (Spain), University of Porto (Portugal), Linköping University (Sweden), FH Joanneum University of Applied Science in Graz (Austria).

The criteria for the participation were the age below 50, the English language proficiency corresponding to B2 level and the experience of teaching courses in English with the application of modern teaching technologies. The university officials basing on the recommendations of PRINTeL project team confirmed the participation of the following YKSUG representatives in the trainings:

	Iryna Korlyukova, PhD (Physics and Mathematics), Associate Professor, Head of the Department for Modern Technologies of Pre-University Training		FH Joanneum University of Applied Science in Graz (Austria) November 5-9, 2018 Training Hybrid / Blended Teaching and Learning
	Andrei Pranevich, PhD (Physics and Mathematics), Associate Professor, Associate Professor at the Department for Mathematical and Information Provision of Economic Systems		Catholic University of Leuven (Belgium) November 12-16, 2018 Training Active Learning, with special focus on Technology Enhanced Collaborative Learning
	Sviatlana Hanchar, PhD (Philology), Associate Professor, Head of the Department for Foreign Languages		University of Porto (Portugal) November 12-16, 2018 Training Video as a Learning Tool for Teachers and Students: Video Lecturing and Promoting Interaction in the Classroom
	Kanstantsin Smatrytsky, PhD (Physics and Mathematics), Associate Professor, Associate Professor at the Department for Fundamental and Applied Mathematics		Linköping University (Sweden) December 3-7, 2018 Training Active Learning in the Flipped Classroom
	Darya Shpak, PhD (Physics and Mathematics), Associate Professor, Head of Academic Affairs Department on Educational Quality Management		Linköping University (Sweden) December 3-7, 2018 Training Active Learning in the Flipped Classroom
	Natalia Valko, PhD (Physics and Mathematics), Associate Professor, Associate Professor at the Department for General Physics		University of Barcelona (Spain) December 10-14, 2018 Training Active Learning and ICT-enhanced Teaching: M-Learning and Gamification

After the trainings in the partner universities each participant will hold workshops at Yanka Kupala State University of Grodno on the technology studied.