SCM Identified Best Ukrainian Universities

OREANDA-NEWS. June 01, 2010. Compass University Ranking-2010 is realized by SCM with support of Rinat Akhmetov's Foundation for Development of Ukraine. Segodnya daily newspaper is the media partner and Internet-portal tochka.net is the information partner of the project.

Compass Higher Education Institutions Ranking is realized by SCM within the framework of the Contemporary Education Programme, which is an integral part of the corporate social responsibility of SCM Group. Compass-2010 is the third annual ranking (pilot project was launched in 2008) with the budget amounting to USD 140,000.

"Our ranking is a real navigator through Ukrainian universities. We hope the third issue of Compass which contains even more valuable information will help university entrants in 2010 make an informed choice of the university as well as let employers see which university graduates acquired the necessary knowledge and skills in a greater degree", commented SCM Director of Public Relations and Communications Natalya Yemchenko on the issue of the third Compass ranking.

As the result of the research we have the national ranking as well as 5 sectoral and 4 regional rankings. The leaders of the national ranking include higher education institutions of Kyiv, Donetsk, Lvov and Kharkov.

Compass-2010 will be implemented with support of the leading experts representing the Academy of Education of Ukraine, the Ministry of Education and Science of Ukraine, BEST Research Centre as well as the Foundation for Effective Governance. The ranking was developed by Kyiv International Institute of Sociology (KIIS).

Compass-2010 does not only assess today's results, it aims to favour rapid integration of Ukrainian universities and Ukrainian education in the international education space. Therefore the Expert Board was reinforced with leading Ukrainian and international education specialists. This year the Expert Board comprises  

Waldemar Sivinski, Vice-president of IREG, the founder and president of the Polish Education Foundation "Perspektywy",

Zoya Zaitseva, CEE Zone Marketing Director of QS (UK) -  an information platform in the area of education and career growth that publishes the annual ranking QS World University Rankings, 

and Lesya Orobets, MP of Ukraine, Head of the Basic Education Subcommittee of the Science and Education Committee of the Verkhovna Rada of Ukraine.

"High assessment of Compass-2008 and Compass-2009 showed its relevance and importance for all stakeholders. For this very reason SCM made the decision to continue realizing the project. Moreover, we are committed to improve its quality. Therefore we decided to expand the Expert Board composition", explained Natalya Krivulina, Compass Ranking Project Manager and SCM Project Manager. "Besides, Compass-2010 compares last year's positions of participating universities with the positions they have taken this year. This information makes it possible to see which universities develop dynamically and improve the quality of education".

Compass-2010 Ranking methods remain unchanged and include the information delivered by comprehensive polls. As a rule, such researches assess whether education services meet demands of the labour market and give the general evaluation of universities by target audiences: employers (big and medium-size businesses), graduates (graduates of Ukrainian universities in 2004-2009), employers - experts (representatives of companies whose operations involve specialists in the mentioned areas). The research polled 1,350 employers and 1,150 Ukrainian university graduates. Participants of the Compass-2009 include 234 higher education institutions of the third and fourth level of accreditation, which train bachelors, specialists and masters in five major areas mostly demanded by the real economy sector: business/economy, law, engineering/technical professions, information technologies (IT) and architecture/construction.