Jaroslav Miller, UP Rector Emeritus and current Deputy Minister of Education, Youth and Sports, received an honorary doctorate from the National Pedagogical Drahomanov University in Kyiv at a ceremony this week. It was personally presented to him by the rector of the Ukrainian university, Viktor Andrushchenko. The meeting was also attended by current UP Rector Martin Procházka, who signed a Memorandum of Cooperation with his Ukrainian counterpart.
Drahomanov University awarded Jaroslav Miller with an honorary doctorate in appreciation for the assistance provided to Ukrainian students since 2017 by Palacký University Olomouc, which he led as rector at the time. “Assistance was provided in three areas. Firstly, through the European university alliance Aurora, which was co-founded by Palacký University under my leadership, we managed to include Ukrainian universities in the Eastern Partnership, which enabled the necessary reforms and participation in European projects. Secondly, we provided direct help to Drahomanov University concerning their management system and quality control and the restructuring of study programmes in accordance with the Bologna reforms. Last but not least, Palacký University provided scholarships for Ukrainian students, and it had done so several years before the start of the Russian invasion,” explained Prof Miller.
“This honorary doctorate is therefore a great honour, not only for me, but especially for the whole of Palacký University and its individual units, which has provided assistance to the Ukrainian side in recent years,” he added.
Jaroslav Miller was notified of the proposal to be awarded with an honorary doctorate in 2020, but due to the Covid pandemic and the subsequent Russian invasion, the ceremony had to be postponed. The ceremony at the Czech Ministry of Education was also attended by Ukrainian Chargé d’Affaires Vitaly Usatyi and UP Rector Martin Procházka.
On this occasion, UP Rector Procházka signed a Memorandum of Cooperation with his Ukrainian counterpart from Drahomanov University, which will facilitate closer collaboration with an emphasis on the development of joint educational and research projects. “I am happy that our university partnerships are expanding with another school from Ukraine; we have been supporting V.N. Karazin Kharkiv National University for some time now as part of the Aurora Alliance. I have invited Rector Viktor Andrushchenko to Olomouc, where we would like to organise a joint meeting with our Ukrainian students,” said Procházka.
