The British Council Ukraine held a meeting for 12 university teams from across Ukraine participating in the Gender Equality Partnerships programme. Among them were those who had already implemented their initiatives in 2024 and those who had started in 2025.
The university was represented by the project “A Career Roadmap for Women's Leadership in Higher Education in Ukraine” by the deputy director of the ERI “Ukrainian Engineering and Pedagogical Academy” of V. N. Karazin Kharkiv National University, Doctor of Pedagogical Sciences, Professor Maryna VASYLIEVA, and Deputy Head of the International Relations Department of V. N. Karazin Kharkiv National University Roman NESTERENKO.
The project ‘A Career Roadmap for Women's Leadership in Higher Education in Ukraine’ was implemented in 2024 by a partnership consisting of the University of Bedfordshire (Luton, United Kingdom), Simon Kuznets Kharkiv National University of Economics, the “Innovation Generation” NGO, and the Education and Research Institute “Ukrainian Engineering and Pedagogical Academy” of V. N. Karazin Kharkiv National University.
The aim of the project was to identify and compare the barriers and challenges faced by women leaders in higher education institutions in Ukraine and the United Kingdom, as well as to contribute to capacity building in higher education institutions in Ukraine and to expand opportunities for women researchers and women leaders in higher education by developing a career roadmap “Women Leaders in Higher Education” taking into account gender aspects, the cultural and socio-political context of Ukraine, and subject areas of research.
The Gender Equality Partnerships initiative was launched in 2021 and has grown from five partnerships between the UK and three other countries to a global network of 70 joint projects covering 120 institutions and 12 countries.
The Kyiv Gender Equality Partnerships Networking Day, held on 24 September 2025 at the Premier Palace Kyiv Hotel, focused on ways to implement gender equality and social inclusion policies in higher education, research findings, experiences from mentoring programmes, and new opportunities for partnership. This meeting was an important step towards strengthening partnerships and intensifying efforts towards gender equality, inclusion and the development of women leaders in higher education in Ukraine.
During the meeting, participants shared changes in their work, as well as their own challenges, sources of inspiration and professional findings in an interactive session with Kateryna Ilikchiieva, an expert on gender equality and non-discrimination. worked in groups on practical steps for the sustainability of gender initiatives, assessment of changes and institutionalisation of projects together with facilitator Oksana Pavlenko (Divoche.media); exchanged experiences and found new opportunities for cooperation in an informal atmosphere; learned about the British Council's upcoming initiatives in the field of gender equality.
Author of photos – Andrii Vashkiv.
