FACES AND PLACES: It's back to the future in Ukraine (06/28/98)

FACES AND PLACES

by Myron B. Kuropas

It's back to the future in Ukraine

While Ukraine's Parliament remains in a circus mode and President Leonid Kuchma describes the country's financial situation as critical, Ukraine is slowly drifting back to the future.

Visiting Ukraine for the fifth time in four years, I am convinced Soviet thinking and behavior is slowly creeping back.

The Lviv airport is still as grimy, musty and uninviting as it was last year. The windows are filthy and the Soviet-era murals are still proclaiming the glorious Communist future. And the old bureaucracy is back in place. Different uniforms, same people. Blue and yellow on the outside, red on the inside.

As in Soviet times, one now has to openly declare the exact amount of money that one is bringing into the country. One also has to produce it and count it in front of a customs official - and anyone else who may be watching.

Lesia and I were also asked if we had any letters for family and if they contained money. The customs officer wanted to see the letter and the money. He stopped short of reading the letter. A bow to civilized behavior.

We exited Ukraine two weeks later and were subjected to the same procedure. We had to declare all our money and to show it. I hadn't had time to count our cash and declared less than I actually had. Big mistake. The very officious customs official found more money than I had disclosed and threatened to confiscate the difference. She informed us that we had broken the law of the land and proceeded to lecture us on the importance of being law-abiding while in Ukraine. I wanted to ask if she meant as law-abiding as Ukrainian government officials, but Lesia kicked me before I could open my mouth.

Another Soviet-era procedure has been recently re-instituted: all foreigners need to register with the department of immigration within three days of arriving in Ukraine. At no time were we informed of this, either when we received our visas or during the arrival process. We learned of this from our hosts at Ostroh Academy, who were very apologetic. They had learned about the new law two weeks earlier when two security officers had driven from Rivne to inquire about another professor from Northern Illinois University who had preceded our arrival. The Ostroh officials simply took care of the matter without the NIU professor's knowledge.

Ostroh wanted to take care of the matter for us as well, but I insisted on going to Rivne to register personally. Lesia and I took the 40-mile trip and presented ourselves to the immigration officials as ordered. Our passports were duly stamped with the proper "pechatka" and we were informed that the fine for being a day late would be waived. Had it not been waived, the personal cost to us would have been 1,700 hrv or $850 (U.S).

The drift back to the future is also evident in Ukraine's schools. A law was passed in 1996 re-establishing some of the Soviet-style degrees of the past. Today, Ukraine has the following academic degrees: bachelor, specialist/master, kandydat nauk ("aspirant") and doctor. Only aspirants' and doctors' degrees are considered worthy of scientific/research status. Some Ukrainian academicians consider the kandydat nauk degree equivalent to an American Ph.D. If you've wondered why so many educators from Ukraine are suddenly claiming the title "doctor," that's why. Some are kandydat nauk who have simply written Ph.D. after their names.

In return, it is my understanding that at present, Ukraine recognizes neither an American master's degree nor a Ph.D. A professor with an American Ph.D. is simply considered to be a kandydat nauk. Under no circumstances is a Western Ph.D. to be addressed as "doctor."

It is interesting to note that in his 1980 book "Soviet Education," Australian professor Joseph I. Zajda rates the kandydat nauk degree as "equivalent to a good M.A. (by research only) from a British university."

I've investigated the manner in which degrees were and are awarded in Ukraine and have discovered some remarkable things. During Soviet times, most degrees, especially in the physical sciences, were legitimate. Others, however, were not. Degrees were often awarded on the basis of who "needed" one to advance in the Soviet hierarchy. A degree could literally be obtained for a price. If a thesis was required, someone could be found to write it. More than one reliable authority has assured me that similar practices are in vogue in certain institutions of higher learning today. It's who you know, rather than what you know, that matters.

Another interesting aspect of the picture in higher education is the fact that every time the educational bureaucracy changes in Ukraine, the requirements for higher degrees also seem to change. In the United States, the situation is fairly stable. Most degree-granting institutions of higher education in America demand a thesis and 30 hours of graduate credit for the master's degree and for a Ph.D., a dissertation and 60 additional hours, as well as certain language proficiency requirements. When a change occurs in the United States - and this is rare - those who began their degree program under earlier requirements are "grandfathered" in and allowed to complete their program as originally planned. This apparently is not the case in Ukraine.

Given the fact that more and more students from Ukraine are completing degree programs in the United States, what future do they have in Ukraine? Why would they ever want to return if their academic achievements are not recognized? I posed this question to Prof. Viacheslav Briukhovetsky, president of the National University of Kyiv-Mohyla Academy. He admitted that the problem of reciprocal recognition of degrees was one that wouldn't be solved soon. I reminded Mr. Briukhovetsky that his institution is now producing M.B.A.'s.-where do they find employment I asked? He informed me that most find jobs with American firms in Ukraine.

The old Soviet nomenklatura is still in charge of Ukraine's schools. They want to believe that their system of authoritarian education is superior. There's no use bringing them to the West to observe Western institutions because they do not feel at home with Western educators and government leaders who speak and behave differently. The drift back to the future in Ukraine has to do with comfort and familiarity. Leaders in Russia and other nations of the former Soviet Union think and behave like Ukraine's nomenklaturchyks and that is why so many are anxious to return to what they consider the "good old days" when sausage was plentiful and the vodka flowed.

Myron Kuropas' e-mail address is: mbkuropas@compuserve.com