On April 24–25, the NGO “Ukrainian Liberty and Law Community” organized the Integrity Forum within the walls of the Ukrainian Catholic University. The event, organized with the support of the EU Anti-Corruption Initiative (EUACI), became a platform for finding answers to the question: how to make integrity an effective system in higher education. About 100 students from all over Ukraine joined the work on answering this question.
The first day began with a speech by serviceman and theologian Andriy Andrushkiv. He emphasized that integrity is impossible without justice:
“We cannot build state policy, rules, exclusively on idealism, expecting sacrificial love from everyone, and we cannot expect holiness on demand. We must build rules that limit human egoism. There must be societal tools that ensure justice. The integrity of one person cannot live long without justice, which is the basic setting of the system,”
said Andrushkiv.
Discussion panels featuring representatives of the EUACI, UCU, the Ministry of Education and Science of Ukraine, student self-government.
The EUACI Head Allan Pagh Kristensen focused on the role of youth as the main driver of change:
“You are the future decision-makers of this country. We see great potential in young people who believe that things could be different and are ready to create a better society with less corruption”.
NABU Open Office conducted an anti-corruption quiz for the students to find out more about integrity and anticorruption practices through interactive game. Additionally, the participants learned about practical integrity monitoring tools using OSINT solutions during a workshop from a NABU detective and an investigative journalist from NGL.media.
The festival concluded with a facilitated session where students developed specific steps regarding their influence on the transparency of the educational process. Based on the results of the session, a document will be formed with the students’ vision of how their educational environment can be made honest.
The festival was held within the grant project of the NGO “Ukrainian Liberty and Law Community,” which was selected during a competition to support initiatives for the development of integrity in education.
“For us as organizers, this event has become a direct investment in the resilience and transparency of state institutions in the future, when such specialists with their own unshakable principles join the workforce and begin changing the system from within,”
said Roman Kosyuk, one of the forum organizers.
We thank the participants and partners for these two days of intensive work!
