Universities are city-forming centers of the region. These are centers of science, investment, innovation and preservation of spirituality. The rector of Vasyl Stefanyk Precarpathian National University Ihor Tsependa emphasized this during his speech at the 30th session of the Ivano-Frankivsk Regional Council.
During the deputies’ consideration of the issue “The role of national universities in the socio-economic development of the region”, the rector of PNU drew their attention to the budget of the University and the taxes (125 million UAH for 2023) that Prykarpattia pays to the state treasury, to the fact that only the budget of PNU is 18% of the budget of the city of Ivano-Frankivsk, and together with the budgets of the other two national universities, it is at least a third of the city’s budget. In addition, on the example of calculating the minimum monthly and annual expenses of one student studying at the university of Ivano-Frankivsk, Ihor Tsependa demonstrated to the deputy corps the city-forming role of higher education institutions, in which 13 thousand 184 full-time students study at Vasyl Stefanyk Precarpathian National University alone.
Ihor Tsependa also spoke about the unique programs of PNU and the University’s implementation of projects related to preservation of the cultural heritage of Carpathians, development of tourism, cooperation in the field of mountain rescue.
The budgets of the projects implemented by the University in recent years amounted to UAH 600 million. The rector paid special attention to acquainting the deputies with large-scale international grant projects of Vasyl Stefanyk Precarpathian National University.
It is worth noting, and the rector emphasized this in his speech, about the significant support of the University from the regional council and the regional state and military administration. Recently, they provided significant financial support to joint projects with PNU, as well as scholarships to the best students.
After listening to the reports of all the rectors of Ivano-Frankivsk State Higher Education Institutions, the session proposed to develop a regional comprehensive program of involving the scientific potential of the national universities of Prykarpattia in the socio-economic development of the region.