The project “Enforcement of European Union Values in Ukraine” is designed to promote excellence in teaching and academic research in the field of European Union studies in Sumy State University (SSU).
Background and rationale of the proposal:
Ukraine’s aspiration for European integration and obligation in accordance with EU-Ukraine Association Agreement make it necessary to bring the national legislation and law enforcement practice in line with European standards. Over the past two decades it has formed a significant body of legal rules based on these standards. However, a positive regulatory effect on practices was minimal, due to several factors, both legal and non-legal. Among other reasons for it is the discrepancy between the challenges facing Ukraine and stereotyped attitudes toward the law and human rights, inappropriate values laid down in the policymaking, existing in-formal rules and in-formal institutions, disrespect for the human dignity, manifestation of intolerance, weak civil society and the lack of solidarity within communities. Insufficient awareness about the EU, misinterpretation of its values, and the lack of pro-European-oriented professionals are also the important obstacles to successful implementation of EU-Ukraine Association Agreement. The complex of activity in the diven project will contribute to solve problems mentioned above. Achievement of the aforesaid mission in this project will bring positive and long-lasting effects to the involved person and will facilitate the eradication of undesirable practice.
The Department of International, European and Environmental Law of Academic and Research Institute of Law SSU consistently focuses its activities on training of pro-European-oriented specialists and promotion of EU values, particularly in Sumy Region neighbouring the Russian Federation. Сommitment to improvement of this activity is also the reason to implement the project.
The objectives of the project are as follows:
- to promote excellence in teaching and research in the sphere of EU law in general and the EU values and their legal protection in particular;
- to improve the quality of professional lawyers training with a focus on the values of respect for human dignity, freedom, democracy, equality, the rule of law and respect for human rights;
- to equip students, graduates, civil society organizations and the public at large with knowledge of EU law, promote understanding and perception of EU values, encourage of their enforcing in national practice;
- to promote innovation in teaching and research, including development of open online courses and using blended learning tools.
Tangible outputs of the project: development of new discipline (Values of European Union); publication of the collective scientific monograph, conducting promotion event, two annual workshops for academic, professional and civil society audience, and the debate on the issues of equality, non-discrimination and tolerance as an inherent elements of Europeanization; development of two open online courses on the virtual platform of SSU OpenCourseWare – for professional lawyers and for all interested persons.
Іnnovativeness of the project lies in the reviewing conventional focus in the EU law studies in Ukraine, training law students value-based approach to law enforcement, improvement of teaching and research methodology. The academic added value is also determined by the development of two open online courses on the virtual platform of SSU OpenCourseWare, accessible for broad public and people in the temporarily occupied territory of Ukraine in particular. It is also to be noted that neither Academic and Research Institute of Law SSU nor staff member of the project personally have been participants of Jean Monnet Programmes.
In order to achieve proposal’s objectives the competency, socio-cultural and transdisciplinary approaches were chosen as the basis of the methodology for the design and implementation of the module.
Competency-based approach focuses on the student’s demonstration of desired learning outcomes as central to the learning process. The general goal of competency-based learning is to ensure that students are acquiring the knowledge and skills that are deemed to be essential to success in higher education, careers, and professional life. Following the results of the implementation of the module students and workshops participants gain the following competencies: knowledge of the EU law values prospects for their enforcement in Ukraine; knowledge of best practices and ideas of the EU in the field of protection of human rights, promoting tolerance, cultural diversity and equality in society and combating discrimination and hate crimes; ability to carry out a comparative analysis of the test data. Competence-based approach also involves the formation of students and workshops participants experience in the field of professional activity. As a result of the module implementation students workshops participants gain experience in the using values-based reasoning and other EU methodology of law enforcement; experience increasing general public’s interest in understanding EU values and building a conviction on the need of their enforcement in Ukraine, leading to a more active civic position; experience spread over a wide audience knowledge on the European integration process.
Sociocultural approach was chosen because it is based on the idea that society and culture shape cognition and social customs, beliefs, values, and language are all part of what shapes a person’s identity and reality. Thus, this approach allow students and workshop participants to realize the challenges each multinational and multicultural society faced with, in particular to understand how important to ensure tolerance and equity in such societies. In other side, this approach is philosophical basis of pedagogical work. Skills, formed as a result of the module, raise public awareness level, create a culture of respect for human rights capable of enabling students and workshop participants to enjoy their rights actively and competently.
Also the implementation of the module include: using of transdisciplinary approach which allows to conduct a research which is carried out among different subjects within communication between different subjects: jurisprudence, culturology, political science, psychology and history and thus to employ a comprehensive analysis of cases and problems, moreover, to find the best way to address them; communication methods (discussions, debates) to ensure the development of the students and workshop participants ability to justify their arguments and defend their own opinions, while respecting the position of colleagues; implementation of the principle of openness of education, in the context of openness to EU studies, openness to peers, openness to students and teachers of high-schools and general public who are interested in promotion the spirit of democracy, solidarity, tolerance and to strengthen their practice.
The EUV work programme is organized around 5 ECTS (150 hours) module on Enforcement of Values of European Union in Ukraine for at least 50 undergraduate students and consisting of 1 cross-referring course on EU values. The first phase of the module development includes research to reflect on the last relevance EU experience, preparation of detailed syllabus and course materials, creation of the project’s e-learning tools on the appropriate SSU online resources and platforms. Once course of the module is delivered (first year), additional research is planned and conducted to follow-up student/faculty feedback, and new developments in the field of studies, in particular new legislation and implementation practices in the EU and Ukraine. The findings will be incorporated into updated syllabus and course materials to deliver as a revised version of the module in the second year. This cycle repeats over again for revising the module for the third year.
The research program will be designed and updated to cover teaching needs and follow-up annual course evaluations, and to serve dissemination purposes through the involvement of all kind of stakeholder, ensuring their participation in the annual promotional events, workshops and debates), and also preparing the research outputs (monograph) for submission to national and international peer-review. The research findings will be reported on the annual workshop to be organised by the end of each academic year (in March), and intended as a discussion platform for a broader community of students, teachers, law professional and researchers from Ukraine, with possible involvement of EU speakers. The research findings will be reported on the two promotional events (second and third year), announcing changes in EU and Ukrainian legislation on the topic and thus, course programme changes. Proceedings and conclusions of all projects events will be available on the EUV webpage on the Department of International, European and Environmental Law of SSU website. EUV researchers will also seek feedback from their EU and Ukrainian peers through workshop for law teachers (at least 3), and publications (monograph) and national or foreign research journals.
The work program organised in the three cycles of project activities is designed to address the project objectives. The key instruments are broad involvement of stakeholders’ representatives into teaching, research, evaluation & dissemination (learning contents are disseminated as Open Online Course available on the virtual platform of SSU OpenCourseWare for free and project’s webpage); continuous monitoring of the quality of project deliverables, including peer-review of syllabus & research papers; possible participation of law teachers from EU educational institutions to help the transfer of teaching, research & dissemination expertise; encouraging PhD students and early stage faculty to participate in teaching & co-design the curricula; and close integration of curriculum and research development. To achieve the objectives under the budget constraints and to ensure project sustainability, we involve additional funding options, including institutional support for developing distance-learning and Open Online courses on the platforms of SSU, publications and workshops, external research funding etc.
