NEWS AND VIEWS: Eurasia Foundation turns to economics (07/14/96)

NEWS AND VIEWS

Eurasia Foundation turns to economics

KYIV - The Economics Education and Research Consortium (EERC) is a special initiative of the Eurasia Foundation that was launched in 1995 to strengthen economics education and research capabilities in Ukraine and Russia. The consortium's founders recognized that one of the keys to successful economic reform in the new independent states (NIS) is greater knowledge and understanding of market-based economic systems, particularly at the policy-making level. Providing this over the longer term requires reform of higher-level economics training and research, and building sustainable, internationally recognized in-country institutions.

The EERC is supported by the Open Society Institute/Soros Foundation, the World Bank, the Ford Foundation, Pew Charitable Trusts and the Eurasia Foundation (also the project's implementing agency). Together, these founders have provided over 60 percent of the projected $7 million budget for the consortium program's first three years of operation. The Ukraine Program's budget is projected at half this amount.

The principal aim of the Ukraine Program is to promote standards of excellence in the discipline of economics by establishing an internationally recognized graduate teaching program at a leading academic institution. At the core of the program will be a two-year M.A. program designed to prepare its graduates to apply successfully to Ph. D. programs in Western countries, and/or to work effectively as economists in policy-making positions in Ukraine.

Enrollment of 50 students per year is expected (35 in the first year). Studies will begin in the fall of 1996. The main language of instruction will be English, and for the most part teaching materials will be in English, although some subjects (such as math) may be taught in Ukrainian.

Initially, the faculty will mostly consist of visiting professors from the West. Since it is expected that within six years full responsibility for the program will be assumed by the Ukrainian host institution, another goal of the program is to recruit, mentor and certify domestic teaching staff to take it over. The Ukraine program also includes a "retention plan" designed to improve the chances of retaining economists with modern training in academic careers in Ukraine.

Graduates of the program will be well-qualified to participate in the formulation of economic policy if they choose to take jobs in the public sector, or to pursue further studies that will enable them to continue advancing the state of the economics discipline in Ukraine through teaching and research. Furthermore, by creating an institution that achieves international standards of excellence in teaching, the EERC Ukraine Program will raise teaching standards for other institutions in Ukraine.

In addition to creating an attractive work environment for Ukrainian scholars, the program will include funds for research which will allow Ukrainian scholars to continue to progress professionally and maintain contact with their academic counterparts abroad. Moreover, the program's research activities will make relevant contemporary economic information available to public and private-sector economists throughout Ukraine.

The Advisory Board of the EERC Ukraine Program includes internationally prominent economists with experience in working with economies in transition, such as Anders Aslund (Carnegie Endowment for International Peace), Daniel Kaufman (World Bank), Georges de Menil (DELTA), Michael Michaely (Hebrew University), Jeffrey Sachs (Harvard University) and Adonis Yatchew (University of Toronto).

The program director is Dr. Robert Campbell, professor of economics at Indiana University. Dr. Campbell has had over 30 years experience in economics education, with a focus on analysis of Soviet and post-Soviet systems, and serves as a trustee of the National Council of Soviet and East European Research. These people will not only provide highly qualified guidance and direction to the program, but will also establish its international profile, help attract outstanding Western faculty, and assist in finding sound Ph.D. study opportunities for program graduates.

The University of Kyiv-Mohyla Academy (UKMA) has been selected as the host institution of the EERC Ukraine Program through a competitive process. UKMA was one of Ukraine's first higher educational institutions, established as an academy in the mid-17th century, but was closed down almost two centuries later by tsarist Russia. It was newly re-established shortly after Ukrainian independence in 1991. Today, UKMA is considered to be in the forefront of liberal arts and sciences education in post-Soviet Ukraine.

The Eurasia Foundation is a privately managed, grant-making organization dedicated to funding programs that build democratic and free market institutions in the 12 new independent states (NIS) of the former Soviet Union. Programs are supported by a major grant from the U.S. Agency for International Development and private contributors.

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