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. ​

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.      ​

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.

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).

More information about the event can be found here: https://www.nord.no/en/about/faculties-and-centres/business-school/research-centres/highnorthcenter/nyheter/Pages/the-digital-signing-of-a-contract.aspx

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). 

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.​

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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.

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​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. For more information, please visit the information: https://www.nord.no/no/om-oss/fakulteter-og-avdelinger/handelshogskolen/senter/nordomradesenteret/nyheter/Sider/Are-PhDs-for-Westerners-only.aspx

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​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.

PhD students during their internships. To the left Rovshan Camalov (Baku, Azerbaijan), to the right Valeriia Melnyk (Kyiv, Ukraine).

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.