Kyiv Polytechnic delegation attends UK–Ukraine 100 Year Partnership Forum
Rector Аnatolii Melnychenko and Andrii Shysholin, Vice-Rector for International Relations of the Igor Sikorsky Kyiv Polytechnic Institute, took part in the UK–Ukraine 100 Year Partnership Forum, which framed the long-term character of cooperation between Ukraine and the United Kingdom.
The discussions focused on what partnership sustained over decades truly means in practice. Security, economy, energy, science, culture, and innovation were not treated as separate tracks, but as interconnected pillars of long-term stability. A shared understanding emerged that Ukraine’s security is inseparable from European security, therefore it demands more than political declarations. It requires institutions prepared to work consistently and predictably.
Among the speakers were Oleksandr Korniienko, Chair of Kyiv Polytechnic’s Supervisory Board, and Oleksandr Kamyshin, a Member of the Supervisory Board. Their participation reflected the role of university governance in linking national priorities with international cooperation and in ensuring that strategic decisions would be translated into institutional development rather than remain abstract, hollow commitments.
Such forums matter a good deal to universities only if they deliver concrete outcomes. Much of the discussion pointed to the need to advance cooperation “on the ground” through joint education, research, and applied work in the fields of security, technology, reconstruction, and resilience. At the same time, the potential of UK–Ukraine academic cooperation still leaves much to be realised. Moving from goodwill to sustained joint effort needs a more proactive and structured engagement by academic institutions.
For Igor Sikorsky Kyiv Polytechnic Institute and Ukrainian technical universities at large, cooperation with British universities is not a token gesture. It is a practical instrument for long-term development in engineering, science, innovation, and defence-oriented research. Ukrainian universities are ready for this work and open to building partnerships that produce tangible results over time, rather than a mere semblance of cooperation.
Special thanks are due to the British Embassy in Ukraine for the invitation and for creating a space in which strategic, meaningful dialogue between governments, universities, and partners unfolded in a cooperative, proactive, and substantive manner.
