V. N. Karazin Kharkiv National University has held its regular meeting with the participation of the University Administration, deans, directors of centers and institutes, and student self-government representatives. The Academician of the National Academy of Sciences of Ukraine, laureate of the USSR State Prize in Science and Technology, Leonid Pastur, also participated in the meeting.

The meeting began with a minute’s silence to honor the memory of the victims shot in Drobytsky Yar, among which there were representatives of Karazin University.

During the meeting, the Academic Board approved appointments of faculty members of departments and awarded academic titles to the University scholars and scientists. Besides, the members of the Board endorsed the initiative to recommend the faculty members of the Minor Karazin University for the State Prize of Ukraine in education.

Within the framework of the meeting, the Dean of the School of Physics, Ruslan Vovk, delivered a report dedicated to the centenary of the famous theoretical physicist, academician Ilya Lifshitz's birthday. Mr. Vovk acquainted those present with the key milestones of his life, scientific achievements and contribution to the development of Karazin University. “V. N. Karazin Kharkiv National University is associated with the names of the prominent physicists; one of them is Ilya Lifshitz, who is a world-class scientist famous for a number of discoveries in solid state physics. He pioneered scientific research of new areas in theoretical physics that are still relevant today”, stressed Mr. Pastur.

The Vice-President Viktor Katrych reported on the Thesis Committees’ work, “In 2016 there were  25 thesis committees at Karazin University working in 49 specialities, 16 of which have passed re-registration. The number of PhD and doctoral theses defended remained at the level of the previous years: Karazin University held 113 vivas for PhD theses and 11 ― for doctoral ones.” The Vice-President also pointed out that it is still a challenge to maintain and ensure that the degree-seekers' documents be checked for plagiarism.

The First Vice-President Yuriy Kholin acquainted those present with the new guidelines for assigning and paying scholarships, which had gone through extensive public discussion. The matters of particular interest were the limit number of students eligible for a scholarship and the ranking procedure based on the students’ performance. Having discussed the matter, the Academic Board approved the new Guidelines for assigning and paying academic scholarships to students of V. N. Karazin Kharkiv National University.

The Board approved the decision to extend the employment contract to the Vice-President for Administrative Affairs Volodymyr Pakharenko. In his report, Mr. Pakharenko described the state of infrastructure and facilities owned by the University.

The Board also approved the decision to donate 2,500 books to the library holdings of Vasyl Stus Donetsk National University evacuated to Vinnytsia.

Moreover, the Academic Board endorsed the initiative to erect a monument to the outstanding Ukrainian poet, writer of fables, President of Kharkiv University (1841–1849), Petro Hulak-Artemovskyi, near the University Main Building. “The project of the monument has already been approved and the place has been selected, what remains to be dealt with is the funding. It seems apropriate to create a public committee for the pupose of fundraising”, pointed out the University President, Vil Bakirov.

The documents approved by the Board will be available shortly on the University Academic Board’s website.