The focus of this cooperation is on establishment and development of joint academic supervision and collaboration on the education on PhD level. The main idea is to allow qualified PhD candidates from Ukraine to be also enrolled at Nord University Business School and upon successful completion, receive PhD diplomas from both partner institutions.
In 2018, Nord University Business School was granted funding from the Norwegian Agency for International Cooperation and Quality Enhancement in Higher Education to implement project CPEA-LT-2017/10004 titled "Norwegian-Ukrainian cooperation in a field of Public sector accounting, budgeting and finance Research Education" (NUPRE).
NUPRE project sets an ambitious goal to harmonize research training education in the field of public sector accounting, budgeting and finance. In this way, the project aims to contribute to the development of Ukrainian higher education by:
1) harmonizing the content of Ukrainian educational postgraduate programmes;
2) developing deeper knowledge, competences and skills to conduct high-level international research in the field of public sector budgeting, accounting and finance;
3) reinforcing the long-term partnership between higher educational institutions in Ukraine, Norway and international partners.
Built on a close and lasting cooperation and partnership between Nord University and Taras Shevchenko National University of Kyiv (KNU), the project participants have committed themselves to establishing the PhD programme, which would enable joint academic supervision and collaboration on the education of a PhD candidates.
The joint efforts of partner institutions are inspired by the "cotutelle" philosophy. The term "cotutelle" originates from France and has the meaning of "co-tutoring". Generally cotutelle is structured as an individual agreement on joint supervision on the doctoral degree level signed by two cooperating institutions, the PhD candidate and the candidate's supervisors. The cotutelle agreement regulates enrolment, supervision and evaluation of the candidate's doctoral degree dissertation. In the end, the candidate receives diplomas from both partner institutions.
In 2019, the partners have established "Financial management" programme on PhD level at the Faculty of Economics, KNU. The main aim of the programme is to provide opportunity for Ukrainian PhD students to sign cotutelle agreements with partner institutions.
The candidates for joint PhD education should apply at both institutions.
In case a candidate submits his/her application to the Faculty of Economics (Taras Shevchenko National University of Kyiv), they first must provide the required documentation to Ukrainian institution. After reviewing the application and in case of positive evaluation by Ukrainian partner institution, the documents, those additionally required by Nord University Business School, should be sent electronically to the Norwegian partner institution.
The coursework component comprises courses relevant to the thesis topic corresponding to at least 40 ECTS. The candidate is required to take courses in scientific theory and ethics and scientific methods. In order for coursework to be approved, the chosen courses must include a form of assessment/examination, usually a written paper. The courses must be completed and approved prior to submission of the doctoral thesis.
The following courses are compulsory at Nord University Business School and the Faculty of Economics, KNU (specifically for Financial management specialization):
- Philosophy of science - 7,5 ECTS
- Advanced Academic Writing - 7,5 ECTS
The following courses are compulsory at Nord University Business School:
- Research Design and Scientific Methods in Business Research, 7,5 ECTS - 7,5 ECTS
- Theoretical foundations and current topics in business administration - 2,5 ECTS
The following courses are compulsory at the Faculty of Economics, KNU (specifically for Financial management specialization):
- Assistance practice - 10 ECTS
- Course specifically related to the field of study - 4 ECTS
- Transformations of public sector and its financial systemin Ukraine Volume 2 Public finances and financial markets: international trends and Ukrainian experience Download
You can read Volume 1 by following this link.
Vakulenko, V., Bourmistrov, A. and Grossi, G.(2020), "Reverse decoupling: Ukrainian case of healthcare financing system reform", International Journal of Public Sector Management, Vol. 33 No. 5, pp. 519-534. https://doi.org/10.1108/IJPSM-10-2019-0262
Veronika Vakulenko, Anatoli Bourmistrov & Giuseppe Grossi (2022) Through the prism of cognition: exploration of local political leaders' behaviour during incented voluntary municipal amalgamation, Local Government Studies, DOI: 10.1080/03003930.2022.2106222
Kuruppu, C., Maksymchuk, O. and Adhikari, P.(2022), "Exploring elitisation of participatory budgeting in a post-Soviet democracy: evidence from a Ukrainian municipality", Journal of Accounting in Emerging Economies, Vol. ahead-of-print No. ahead-of-print. https://doi.org/10.1108/JAEE-10-2018-0118
Iermolenko, O., Aleksandrov, E., Nazarova, N. and Bourmistrov, A. (2021) The “Bermuda triangle" of academic writing, The International Journal of Management Education, 19(2), https://doi.org/10.1016/j.ijme.2021.100511.
Comparative analysis of Norwegian and Ukrainian doctoral education for collaboration on joint PhD supervision Veronika Vakulenko Mariya Knir
Link "Since September 2021, I am staying in Bodø to complete my research stay at Nord University. This gave me an amazing opportunity to study in the Norwegian university and opened a door to the world of international academia", writes PhD student Valeriya Melnyk.
Currently, I am a PhD student on my final year, studying under a cotutelle agreement between Taras Shevchenko National University of Kyiv and Nord University Business School. Since September 2021, I am staying in Bodø to complete my research stay at Nord University. This gave me an amazing opportunity to study in the Norwegian university and opened a door to the world of international academia.
During my stay in Bodø, I completed obligatory PhD courses, in this way fulfilling course component for my PhD. Working on my thesis was intense to meet set deadlines and work a lot of my thesis, but also was very informative and full of new knowledge.
My first experience was in grasping the differences between doing PhD in Ukraine and in Norway. I understood that PhD in Norway is about learning how to produce research in the international scientific environment. Here, PhD students have a choice of writing thesis as a monograph or as article-based dissertation. I decided to go for four articles and kappa (an introductory chapter, which summarize all articles).
The topic of my PhD work has also changed. In the beginning, I planned to write about the investing aspect of personal finance and study the behavior of individual investors. However, the vector of my research transformed to a more general one. Now, I study different factors which influence people’s financial decisions and behavior.
After becoming a cotutelle student, I received two more supervisors (main and co-supervisor) from Nord University Business School, so now I am being guided by three amazing professionals from Ukrainian and Norwegian universities. I am very lucky to have an opportunity to receive useful advice and suggestions from all of my supervisors. Each time they help me to improve my work and, therefore, my research skills.
In February 2022 the war started in my country. This affected the possibility of data collection as I use a Ukrainian context for my empirical papers. Nevertheless, I managed to finish two of three empirical papers on trust and financial literacy among young Ukrainians. This was possible since I managed to gather enough empirical data before the beginning of the war.
In June I had my midterm seminar at Nord University Business School and presented main findings and progress that I achieved by that moment. After my presentation, I received very useful comments from my discussants, which helped me to plan how to improve my future work.
Now I am continuing working on my last empirical paper, improving other articles, and hoping to finish in time. My home country is now passing through terrible times, which affects me a lot. However, I hope that I will use my internationally recognized PhD degree and experience gained here in Norway for the future rebuilding of Ukraine.
News
2022
During March-April 2022, Nord University Business School hosted a cotutelle PhD student (Olena Danylenko), and 2 guest researchers (Anna Karpych and Mariya Onopko) from Taras Shevchenko National University of Kyiv. Understanding the situation in Ukraine defined by a full-scale invasion of Russia in February 2022, we allowed flexibility for colleagues to select the durability of their stay. During the stay at Nord University, the researchers receive a scholarship to cover expenses associated with living in Norway and perform thier regular working activities and participate at research seminars and other events organized at Nord University Business School / High North Center for Business and Governance.
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During 12-16 June 2022, our partners from Taras Shevchenko National University of Kyiv, Professor, Igor Lyutyy, and Associate Professor, Yevheniya Nosova, travelled to Norway in order to participate in several project arrangements.
The first event was the research seminar related to cooperation on joint PhD supervision (cotutelle) organized in Bodø, Nord University. The seminar was linked to the presentation by a PhD candidate, Valeriya Melnyk, of her PhD thesis draft. The second event was the Eurasia Final Conference held in Bergen and organized by the Norwegian Directorate for Higher Education and Skills.
Read more details about both events below.
In addition to this, we also organized internal project meeting connected to the project CPEA-LT-2017/10004 titled “Norwegian-Ukrainian cooperation in a field of Public sector accounting, budgeting and finance Research Education" (NUPRE) to discuss the status of current activities and plan future cooperation. Finally, representatives of Ukrainian university met with master students from Taras Shevchenko National University of Kyiv, who are currently completing their exchange semester in Norway.
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On June 13, 2022, the midterm seminar for Valeriya Melnyk, a PhD student studying under cotutelle agreement between Taras Shevchenko National University of Kyiv, Ukraine, and Nord University Business School, Norway was organized. The purpose of the seminar was to evaluate the scientific status and progress of the research project and provide feedback to the candidate and supervisors.
Invited opponents commenting on the thesis were Thomas Haldma, Professor, PhD, University of Tartu, Estonia, and Bohdan Adamyk, PhD, researcher, Loughborough University, the UK.
At the seminar, Valeriya presented the main results of the scientific research and the plan for completing the dissertation. The thesis focuses on management of personal finance among Ukrainian youth. The team of supervisors, including Igor Lyutyy, Professor, Doctor of Economics, Head of the Finance Department, Anatoli Bourmistrov, Professor, PhD, Olga Iermolenko, Associate Professor, PhD, attended the seminar and took part in the discussion of the work done and ways to improve.
We wish Valeriya good luck on her final stage of PhD and look forward to her soon approaching defence.
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On June 14-16, 2022, representatives of Norwegian and Ukrainian institutions – Igor Lyutyy, Anatoli Bourmistrov, Yevheniya Nosova, and Valeriya Melnyk, participated at the international conference “Eurasia Final Conference".
This conference aimed to summarize results of international cooperation under the long-term Eurasia programme, during which our universities have been cooperating in several educational projects. In addition, the following issues were discussed: ways for ensuring projects' success, key lessons learned from international cooperation; impact of projects on students, teachers, higher education institutions and society.
During the conference, a video about NUPRE project was presented outlining key results achieved. We invite everyone to have a look.
The video about our cooperation on master level (NUPSEE project) can be found here.
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On June 28-30, 2022, Mariya Knir, Associate Professor (Taras Shevchenko National University of Kyiv) and Veronika Vakulenko, Associate Professor (Nord University Business School), participated at the International Workshop on Public Policy, which took place at the Corvinus University of Budapest.
Mariya and Veronika presented their joint paper titled “Navigating through mixed emotions under conditions of institutional complexity" on the “Emotional policies and politics of emotions in times of crisis" panel, which gathered scholars around the world specializing in studies on emotions. This unique scientific environment provided unique opportunities for the researchers to gather comments for further development of the paper.
2021
On 1 December 2021, the seminar for PhD students titled “Publishing for young researchers" was organized in Kyiv. After almost 2 years of digital communication, it was very pleasant to meet physically and have face-to-face discussions.
The seminar aimed to improve the understanding of western-style publications by young researchers from Eastern research tradition, deepen understanding of academic publishing in international journals, the peer-review process and how to address reviewers' comments.
The seminar consisted of educational part, during which Anatoli Bourmistrov, Dr., Professor, Nord University Business School / High North Center discussed basis of academic writing and Veronika Vakulenko, Dr., Associate Professor, Nord University Business School / High North Center presented the nuances and useful tips for publishing in peer-reviewed international journals. With technical support of our patterns – IFSA – the educational part of the seminar was streamed online allowing PhD students from Norwegian-Ukrainian University alliance interested in the seminar to attend digitally.
The second part of the seminar was dedicated to presentations of the PhD students' work-in-progress. The PhD students from three universities participated physically. From Taras Shevchenko National University of Kyiv - Olena Danylenko (cotutelle student), Viktor Golovii (cotutelle student), and Natalia Konovalenko. From Lesia Ukrainka Volyn National University (Lutsk) - Daryna Novosad and Rostyslav Martyniuk. From West Ukrainian National University (Ternopil) - Mykhailo Oleksiyiv. Exceptionally interesting topics were presented and varied from financing of social adaptation programmes to introduction of integrated financial information system in the public sector. Thanks to active engagement of partners from Kyiv - Assoc. prof., Maria Knir, Assoc. prof., Nataliia Miedviedkova, Assoc. prof., Natalia Pogribna, and Tartu – Prof. Thomas Haldma, the students received extensive feedback on their papers, which will hopefully help them in publishing in recognized international journals.
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On 25 June 2021, the digital signing ceremony was organized in relation to the renewal of Framework cooperation agreement for joint supervision of PhD candidates between Nord University, Bodø, Norway, and Taras Shevchenko National University of Kyiv, Ukraine, for the period of 2021-2026.
By signing this agreement, the partner institutions expressed their commitment towards extension and contribution to institutionalization of the cooperation on PhD level in order to enable PhD candidates entering the doctoral programme at partner institutions to carry out doctoral education under a system of joint supervision (so-called cotutelle).
On 24-25 June 2021, CIGAR virtual biennial conference 2021 united numerous researchers worldwide. The title of this year conference was “Public Sector Accounting for a Sustainable Future". Several papers were presented focusing on Ukrainian context, for example on the role of emotions during changes of accounting practices (Mariya Knir, Veronika Vakulenko and Igor Lyutyy), hybridity of universities in relation with accountability, transparency and efficiency (Yulia Petlenko and Nataliia Pohribna) and on status of accounting reforms in Ukraine (Bohdan Zasadnyi and Natalia Konovalenko). On 23 June, the doctoral colloquium was organized in correction to the CIGAR conference. Tamara Volodina presented the proposal on “Dynamic capabilities and Institutional Logics of Nordic SAIs" and a cotutelle PhD student Olena Danylenko spoke about “Hybridity in Sustainable Development of Energy Sector".
On 22 June 2021, the seminar on General Data Protection Regulation (GDPR) was organized for PhD students and faculty members. The topic of GDPR introduced by the EU is getting more attention among researchers on master and doctoral levels due to changes in procedures for protecting and transferring personal data. The knowledge on these changes becomes of great importance for researchers on different stages of their careers. During the seminar the topic of “The use of personal data" was explained by Toril Irene Kringen (Senior Advisor - Lawyer // Finance and HR, Nord University) and the issue of “Data management plan" was discussed by Anatoli Bourmistrov (Professor, PhD // Nord University Business School).
2020
On 6 February 2020, a research seminar was organized at the Faculty of Economics of Taras Shevchenko National University of Kyiv, where Roman Vakulchuk (Senior Researcher at NUPI) held a speech “Publish or Perish: how to become successful in publishing at international academic journals". During his visit, Roman was also involved in such activities as supervision of students and guest lectures.
On February 24,the research seminar “Transformation of the public sector: Norwegian and Ukrainian experience" was held in Bodø. Several interesting research papers were presented during the seminar, such topics as digitalization in reshaping organizations; debt management in Ukraine; financial mechanisms of renewable energy policy in Ukraine from stakeholder perspective; participatory budgeting in Ukraine and other topics were discussed.
16-17 June 2020, Norwegian and Ukrainian partners participated at online CIGAR workshop “The Quality of Public Sector Audit: Profession, Institutions and Standards". Several interesting studies were presented there, including the paper “the Changing Roles of Auditors in Monitoring Performance and Reducing Corruption in the Ukrainian Public Sector" developed by Tamara Volodina (MSc student), Giuseppe Grossi (PhD, Professor), Veronika Vakulenko (PhD, Researcher) and Igor Lyutyy (Doctor of Sciences (Economics), Professor) was presented.
In October 2020, an internal research seminar was organized in Bodø/Saltstraumen. The aim of the seminar was to gather experiences of PhD students, who received their initial education (bachelor or master education in Eastern Europe) and completed their PhD in Norway. These narratives would provide an in-depth understanding of motivation as well as challenges faced by students with international backgrounds. 
2019
During March – May 2019, 2 PhD students: Valeriia Melnyk from Taras Shevchenko National University of Kyiv and Rovshan Jamalov from Azerbaijan State University of Economics completed their 3-month internships in Bodø. During their internships PhD students were working with library sources, taking courses and participating in research seminars and workshops. In particular, the students attended PhD course "Governance in the High North implications for Arctic private and public sector" together with group of other international students. In order to enhance skills and knowledge on how to write scientific papers, a PhD student, Valeriia Melnyk attended Advanced Academic Writing PhD course. Also KNU faculty member, Mariya Knir, took this course in order to develop her skills and learn how such courses can be jointly delivered by NU and KNU.
6 May 2019, "Performance Measure for the Hybrid Public Governance" workshop was organized in Siena, Italy. During this workshop, Valeriia Melnyk (PhD student from KNU) and Olga Iermolenko (PhD, Associate Professor from NU) presented the draft of their joint paper titled "How the development of smart city influences finances of ordinary households and their well-being?". The draft was developed during Valeriia's internship at Nord University.
21-24 May 2019 in Kyiv we had a joint research seminar titled "World trends and prospects for the development of the Ukrainian financial system" was organized in Kyiv, in which PhD students from KNU and NU as well as faculty members form NU, KNU and NUUA participated. Among Norwegian colleagues, who held their speeches during the seminar, were: Anatoli Bourmistrov, Veronika Vakulenko, Olga Iermolenko, Elena Dybtsyna, Roman Vakulchuk and Chamara Kuruppu. From the Ukrainian side, Valeriia Melnyk, Natalia Miedviedkova, Liudmila Podchesa from KNU and several representatives from NUUA members held their speeches. By presenting drafts of their papers, young researchers and PhD students were able to increase their awareness of relevant scientific topics and to have fruitful discussions with local and international researchers. Besides, an additional presentations on how to publish in international peer-reviewed journals and how to work with the reviewer's comments were conducted encouraging young researchers to submit their papers to international ranked journals.
12-14 June 2019, another joint seminar was organized in Amsterdam for PhD students and staff from NU and KNU in connection to CIGAR conference "Alternative views on Public Sector Accounting and Financial Management", which was very relevant for the representatives from both institutions. The participants included Anatoli Bourmistrov, Giuseppe Grossi, and Veronika Vakulenko from NU and Igor Lyutyy, Mariia Onopko, Olena Liubkina, Mariya Knir, Valeriya Melnyk form KNU. The participants attended the seminar on "Academic Writing: a Perspective of a Journal Editor in Chief" by Giuseppe Grossi (editor-in-chief of Journal of Public Budgeting, Accounting and Financial Management)[NV4] , presented their work-in-progress on the conference and received comprehensive feedback from international scholars. An additional result of these joint workshops was networking. This allowed PhD students and staff to become more integrated into international academic community.
Project coordinator (Ukraine)
Igor Lyutiy
Email: univ.finance.pr@gmail.com
Phone number: +380442393645
Project assistant (Ukraine)
Mariya Knir
Email: mariya.knir@gmail.com
