Partnership programme with Karazin Kharkiv National University

Partnership programme

As part of a partnership programme between the University of York and the Karazin Kharkiv National University from Kharik (Ukraine), Dr Slobodan Tomić from the School for Business and Society delivered a course entitled 'Modern Public Governance and Public Management in Transitional Settings' to a group of academic and research staff and students from the University between 3 March and 7 April 2023.

Public management issues

The goal of the course was to enable the participants to develop a solid understanding of some of the key public management issues and contextualise them against a post-conflict transitional setting, one that Ukraine will find itself.

The course comprised six seminars covering the following topics:

• The Present and Future of Public Management
• Control and Incentivisation of Public Officials
• Institutional and Bureaucratic Autonomy
• Good Governance Promoted from Abroad: Policy Transfer, Policy Lesson Drawing, and Conditionality
• Representative Bureaucracy
• Integrity Policy

The course saw excellent attendance rates, with 78 participants from the University receiving certificates of attendance following completion of the course. The course convenor, Dr Slobodan Tomić, thanked the staff from the host University and the course attendees. He commented:

"I enjoyed immensely teaching the course and discussing with students, research, and academic staff from the Karazin University some of the key challenges in modern public management and how they might be addressed in a post-war Ukraine. Their level of engagement and the quality of the intellectual exchange that they have developed and contributed to were exceptional, despite the difficulty of the moment, with war raging across the country.

With wishes that the war ends as soon as possible, I hope that the lessons and exchanges from the course will help participants better understand the challenges and possible solutions to future public sector reform in the country and motivate them to contribute to the post-war recovery of the country."

Future partnership initiatives

The School for Business and Society looks forward to continuing to support and contribute to future partnership initiatives with the Karazin Kharkiv National University.