Florida State University and Kyiv-Mohyla Academy Sign MOU for Future Research Collaborations

Tallahassee, Fla. – Florida State University Provost Jim Clark and Dr. Serhiy Kvit, President of the National University of Kyiv-Mohyla Academy in Ukraine, have signed a memorandum of understanding signifying the university's commitment to work together on future research projects. The signing came at the end of a one-month-long visit to the United States for Kvit.

Kvit was hosted in Tallahassee by FSU's Ukraine Task Force. It was the final stop for the former minister on education and science of Ukraine and current university president after visiting New York City, Washington D.C. and Toronto.

"It's a really important part of Florida State University's efforts to reach out to the world and be part of our global community in the education sector," said FSU Assistant Provost for International Initiatives Steve McDowell. "Florida State University is investing, and has invested for a long time, in being a global university. We want to use this opportunity, and others like it, to expand our global connections and expand our global outreach."

"We have contacts on the personal level, you know, researchers and managers," said Kvit. "We have some common ideas. We have collaboration and mutual understanding between our university people in different fields of knowledge. So, the relationship is growing up from the bottom to the top."

An international expert on educational issues, Kvit presented to groups from the Florida State University Anne Spencer Daves College of Education, Health, and Human Sciences, where he met with deans, directors, provosts, faculty, staff and students. The intense meeting schedule allowed both sides to explore areas for collaboration.

"I had the opportunity to participate in different meetings and discussions throughout your university," said Kvit. "I believe that we will develop our collaboration in the future in different fields of knowledge. I believe we can develop it in the natural sciences and in communication. It looks very promising."

Other future collaborations could result from visits to the National High Magnetic Field Lab and FSU's Center for the Advancement of Human Rights.

"At Kyiv-Mohyla Academy, we have the best law school in Ukraine and, particularly, you know, in the case of human rights, we can collaborate too because, from the very beginning of the full-scale Russian invasion, our researchers, our lawyers, and at the same time, the teachers, at our school, helped our parliament to create their special appeal, said Kvit.

"I visited your Mag Lab. It has a national impact in the United States. We agreed with some researchers on how we can collaborate with my small university, which has the faculty of natural sciences."

The relationship between Kvit and FSU began in 2018 when he was in Tallahassee as a Fulbright Scholar. Those ties laid the groundwork for the agreement between the two universities seven years later.

"I like your beautiful city and university," said Kvit. "I am here the second time, and it is growing, I think. I mean, our mutual understanding of cooperation. I also think it is very important that your university community has created such a body as the Ukrainian Task Force. I am so grateful for that."

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