Areas of Activity:
- Ensuring the university’s participation in global, European, and national rankings;
- Monitoring of European and global indicators of university performance and analysis using benchmarking methods;
- Development and implementation of software, technical, methodological, and organizational tools for representing the university in the web space;
- Execution of tasks from the development strategy of Sumy State University for 2010-2020 regarding the university’s participation in global, European, and national rankings;
- Creation and development of university systems for self-analysis and comparative analysis (benchmarking) with leading universities in Ukraine and worldwide, including involving international experts;
- Ensuring the important role of web management (university web system management) in supporting and strengthening the positive image and ranking of SumDU;
- Aligning the name and location of the center in the organizational structure of SumDU with the tasks it actually performs.
Main results of work for 2016:
I. Main results regarding SumDU’s participation in rankings and benchmarking procedures:
1. Ensured the complete cycle of SumDU’s participation in major international and national rankings (from data submission and validation to software, technical, and organizational support for the participation of students, graduates, and other experts in surveys from rating agencies). The positions and dynamics of SumDU in the rankings in 2016 are provided in the table of the section.
2. SumDU was included for the first time in the list of candidates for inclusion in the database of world research universities. The audit of compliance with the criteria of world research universities was carried out for the first time.
3. Changes were made to the methodology for calculating webometric indicators P7.1-P7.2 “Methods for determining the ranking of institutes, faculties, and departments of Sumy State University” to take into account the requirements of webometric rankings for calculating the university’s citation in social networks. The software implementation of collecting the relevant webometric data and necessary calculations was provided.
4. New indicators of the representation of SumDU’s faculties in sectoral rankings (P3.1, P5.9) “Methods for determining the ranking of institutes, faculties, and departments of Sumy State University” were developed to stimulate the participation of SumDU units in international and national rankings.
5. A “List of main indicators determining the conformity of the activities of a higher education institution to world-class universities” was developed (approved by the rector’s order dated 07.06.2016 No. 424-I) for the systematic application by the rectorate and structural units, primarily by benchmarking methods, of SumDU’s activities compared to leading universities in Ukraine, Europe, and the world.
6. Modernized electronic forms for submitting statistical information and supporting documents according to the requirements of rating agencies to increase the reliability of the information submitted and the efficiency of the data collection process.
7. To ensure benchmarking procedures and analysis of SumDU indicators in international rankings, individual grants totaling over 200,000 UAH in equivalent were received for the second consecutive year:
– grant for access to the MajestisSEO webometric data;
– grant for access to the Ahrefs webometric data;
– grant for access to the Yandex webometric data;
– grant for access to the statistical data of world universities U-Map.
8. A system for ensuring the analysis of SumDU’s activity quality through ranking, conducting internal and external audits within the overall university system of ensuring the quality of educational activities and higher education quality (implemented by the rector’s order No. 452-I dated 22.06.2016) was developed.
9. The design was developed, content was prepared, and the publication of two advertising and informational pages of SumDU in the international journal QS Rankings by Subject was ensured (March 2016).
10. Participation in the training conference of leading world rating agencies in Lisbon (Portugal), organized by IREG Observatory, held business meetings with representatives of rating agencies.
Organizational and methodical support for SumDU’s membership in the International Association IREG Observatory for Academic Ranking and Quality (participation in voting, preparation, and participation in discussions on proposals for international ranking methodologies) was performed.
11. Necessary actions were taken for the representation of the reorganized UABS within SumDU in international and national rankings (according to the plan of 12.02.2016), namely:
– a series of informational and motivational seminars were conducted with scientific and pedagogical staff of UABS, an interview with the head of the CIBM Filchenko D.V. was published in the UABS newspaper “AkadeMix” (“Standards: University Ranking from the Inside”, p. 13-16, No. 3, 2016);
– together with CTOIS, conditions were prepared for calculating integrated webometric indicators of the domains sumdu.edu.ua and uabs.edu.ua (now – uabs.sumdu.edu.ua) by ratings (Webometrics together with subsidiaries, 4ICU, QS EECA, etc.);
– together with CNTIE and CTOIS, conditions were prepared for calculating international ratings’ integrated bibliometric indicators of the reorganized UABS and SumDU (correct profiles of employees in the Google Scholar, Scopus, Web of Science databases);
– after the preliminary analysis of the statistical indicators of the reorganized UABS and SumDU, integral data were submitted to the UI Greenmetric ranking, the decision to submit integral data for other rankings was made in 2017, according to the schedule of data submission for each ranking;
– for the first time, separate participation of the Institute of Business Technologies “UABS” as a subdivision of SumDU in the sectoral U-Multirank ranking “Business and Management” was ensured, which will be published in 2017 (a survey of students of the Institute of Business Technologies “UABS” was organized, procedures for submitting statistical data and their coordination with SumDU data were established);
– necessary consultations were conducted and the participation of the Institute of Business Technologies “UABS” in the sectoral Eduniversal 2017 ranking was coordinated.
12. Professional development of Sumy State University employees was organized in a series of New University trainings at Kyiv Mohyla Business School by top managers of leading organizations for university leaders (preparation of a competitive application for free participation of Sumy State University in the program was also carried out by the EECMD). Representatives of the CECC conducted trainings on strategic management, leadership, reputation management, marketing, branding, change management, etc.
Communications were established and the participation of Volodymyr Popereshniuk, co-founder of Nova Poshta, as a speaker at the modern motivational conference TEDxUABS in Sumy, co-organized by Sumy State University, was organized.
13. Together with Teset and the Oleh Balatsky Institute of Physics and Mathematics, materials for the future concept of a “green university” (based on UI Greenmetric rating indicators) were prepared.
II. Main results of the development of tools for representing the university in the web space
1. An enhanced new version of the SumDU foreign applicants and students’ website has been developed (interactive information collection forms, integration with other SumDU websites, etc.).
2. The substantive component of the main SumDU website (Ukrainian and Russian versions) has been brought into compliance with the requirements of national legislation (requirements of the Ministry of Education, monitoring results of CEDOS, IRRP, etc.). An online survey of the target audience of the SumDU web system was conducted, identifying the main expectations for further system modernization.
3. A pilot version of the automated personal pages management system among SumDU faculties has been tested. Based on feedback, a second version of the system has been developed, with its launch scheduled for February 2017.
4. The updated version of the virtual open day of SumDU has been put into use. Further development of the project has been transferred to the brand management and media content production group (with methodological and program-technical support from the CBVM).
5. In accordance with the initiative to develop socially significant web projects (Rector’s order No. 234-I dated March 21, 2014), the software implementation and publication of the results of the webometric ranking of preschools, schools, and colleges “SumyWebRank” were carried out within the framework of the VI Competition for the best website of an educational institution held by the Internet Association of Ukraine (InAU) and the Ministry of Education of Ukraine. The results were presented in Kyiv at the award ceremony for the winners at the Ministry of Education of Ukraine.
6. Work has begun on unifying SumDU’s corporate solutions for program-technical platforms that can be used in the SumDU web system. More than 30% of SumDU web resources have been updated.
7. A new information service for accounting and displaying the main SumDU website has been developed, tested, and prepared for implementation. The service will be launched after the modernization of the main SumDU website in 2017.
8. Actions have been taken to integrate the web systems of the reorganized UABS and SumDU (according to the plan dated February 12, 2016), namely:
– Jointly with CTIS, the procedure for transferring the uabs.sumdu.edu.ua domain to the ownership of SumDU has been successfully completed.
– Jointly with CTIS, the websites of the reorganized UABS have been transferred to the SumDU domain.
– Integration of content and platforms of the legal faculty of the reorganized UABS and the legal faculty of SumDU into a single portal of the Law Institute of SumDU has been carried out.
– Integration of content and platforms of other faculties of the reorganized UABS into a single portal of the Institute of Business Technologies “UABS” of SumDU has been carried out.
– A series of informational and motivational seminars on the technical and organizational features of integration into the SumDU web system have been conducted for the scientific and pedagogical staff of the reorganized UABS.
9. Current work has been carried out to support the operation and development of the SumDU web system:
– On the request of the Faculty of ElIT, a new website for the faculty and its mobile version has been developed and implemented.
– On the request of the Faculty of IFCK, new websites for the Center for Socio-Humanitarian Aspects of Regional Studies and the Center for Regional Security Studies at SumDU have been developed and implemented.
– Migration of SumDU Internet Radio to a new virtual server has been carried out (improved signal quality, increased number of simultaneous connections).
– Modernization of the software for more than 20 websites of the Medical Institute, faculties of ElIT, TeSET, FEM.
– Materials for distance learning of SumDU administrators of the web system have been developed, including methodological recommendations for testing SumDU web resources software for security vulnerabilities, indexing, cross-browser compatibility, etc.
Implementation of external IT projects:
1. Until August 2016 – support for the operation, including training of the customer’s representative, within the functioning of the author’s development of CBVM – an automated system “Implementation of the Law of Ukraine ‘On Higher Education'” (customer: Ministry of Education and Science of Ukraine).
2. Provision of IT support for the author’s development of CBVM – the web portal of local executive authorities of Sumy Oblast (customer: Sumy Regional State Administration).
3. Until August 2016 – provision of IT support for the website of the Accreditation Commission of Ukraine (customer: Accreditation Commission of Ukraine, National Agency for Higher Education Quality Assurance).
4. Provision of IT support for the web portal for access to public information on public procurement in Sumy Oblast (customer: Sumy Regional State Administration).
5. Negotiations were held and proposals were prepared for the development of a web portal for the Athletics Federation of Ukraine. The project is scheduled to start in 2017 (customer: Athletics Federation of Ukraine).
6. Ensured the operation of the call center and the program-technical platform for collecting and processing data from an online survey of heads of higher education institutions on the state of quality assurance in higher education in Ukraine. As a result of the online survey, posted on the central website of SumDU, about 250 representatives of Ukrainian HEIs filled out the questionnaire.
Decree – on the creation of the Benchmarking and Web Management Center
