The Higher Courses of Foreign Languages of the Diplomatic Academy of Ukraine under the Ministry of Foreign Affairs of Ukraine are a structural subdivision of Diplomatic Academy of Ukraine.
For the first time the Foreign Languages Courses were established by “the Decree of the Administrative Affairs Department of the People’s Commissariat for Foreign Affairs” #71 dated 6 July 1921.
On 1 January 1945 the 3-year foreign language training courses were established “for the staff of the People’s Commissariat for Foreign Affairs of Ukrainian Soviet Socialist Republic to improve skills and thoroughly study foreign languages.”
Pursuant to the Decree #102 on 7 September 1990 the standing of the Foreign Languages Courses of the Ministry of Foreign Affairs of Ukrainian Soviet Socialist Republic was equated to that of higher education institutions along with lecturers’ teaching service being equated to that of lecturers in higher education institutions.
According to the Decree of the Ministry of Foreign Affairs of Ukraine #187 dated 3 October 2003, since 1 January 2004 the Higher Courses of Foreign Languages have been functioning as a subdivision of the Diplomatic Academy of Ukraine.
Main tasks and duties of the Highest Courses of Foreign Languages are:
-to arrange interviews for evaluating the language skills of candidates to be enrolled to studying, to participate in competitions to fill the vacancies at the Ministry of Foreign Affairs of Ukraine headquarters or diplomatic missions abroad, to be admitted to qualifying examinations at the Highest Courses of Foreign Languages or to be enrolled to the personnel reserve of the Ministry of Foreign Affairs of Ukraine;
-to evaluate through qualifying examinations the language skills of trainees and those being assigned to the posts in Ukraine’s diplomatic missions abroad in order to assign language allowances;
- to arrange and conduct effective and professionally oriented foreign languages in-service trainings and perfection courses for the diplomatic service personnel (financed from the state budget resources) and other trainees (on an agreement basis);
-to provide the trainees engaged into foreign languages self-teaching with teaching assistance.
At the Higher Courses of Foreign Languages the training is conducted according to the programmes specially designed for the general language course (3 training years) and language perfection course (2 training years) taking into account training nuances for the staff of the Ministry of Foreign Affairs of Ukraine headquarters and abroad missions.
As of 01 January 2008 the staff of the Highest Courses of Foreign Languages consists of 21 senior lecturers, including 4 PhD-holders (Philology), an educational supervisor, a laboratory chief and a senior laboratory assistant.
In the course of the Higher Courses of Foreign Languages activity, teaching of these 20 foreign languages to the diplomatic service was provided: English, Arabic, Bulgarian, Spanish, Italian, Chinese, Korean, German, Greek, Persian, Polish, Portuguese, Romanian, Serbian, Slovak, Turkish, French, Croatian, Czech, Swedish.
On average in the course of an academic year 400 trainees study foreign languages at the Highest Courses of Foreign Languages and around 700 get interviewed and obtain a statement on their language skills required for participation in competitions to fill the vacancies at the Ministry of Foreign Affairs of Ukraine headquarters or diplomatic missions abroad, or to be enrolled to the personnel reserve of the Ministry of Foreign Affairs of Ukraine.
For conducting interviews, practical seminars, consultations and grading examinations in the following 25 foreign languages lecturers and professors from other higher education institutions keep being invited by the Highest Courses of Foreign Languages on a temporary agreement basis: Azerbaijani, Byelorussian, Bulgarian, Armenian, Hindi, Georgian, Hebrew, Indonesian, Chinese, Korean, Lithuanian, Macedonian, Flemish, Norwegian, Greek, Persian, Portuguese, Serbian, Slovak, Hungarian, Urdu, Croatian, Czech, Swedish, Japanese.
The training process at the Highest Courses of Foreign Languages is provided through the availability of well-organized learning programmes, textbooks, audiovisual materials, manuals along with use of modern technical devices for learning. The lecturers of the Highest Courses of Foreign Languages bring to active use the most up-to-date methods of foreign languages teaching with consideration for both domestic and foreign experience.
On March 31, 2010 a meeting of the teaching staff and students of the Diplomatic Academy, as well as representatives of research and analytical centers, professors and students from renowned universities in Ukraine was held with leading experts in the field of foreign policy and security Strobe Talbott - a former Deputy of State Secretary in the Clinton administration, the President of the most authoritative American "think tank" Brookings Institution, and Xavier Solana, the former EU High Representative for Common Foreign and Security Policy (1999-2009), former NATO Secretary General (1995-1999). Honourable guests visited the Diplomatic Academy on the invitation and due to support of the Victor Pinchuk Foundation and “Yalta European Strategy”. The moderator of the meeting was a well-known Ukrainian journalist Andriy Kulykov.
On March 22, 2010 Diplomatic Academy of Ukraine, MFA of Ukraine and Kyiv National Taras Shevchenko University signed the Memorandum of Cooperation for the period of five years.
On May 22, 2010 the Diplomatic Academy of Ukraine holds an Open door day. Future applicants, their parents and dear guests are welcome to participate in the event.
On 23-24 February 2010 Professional Development Center for Diplomats held a thematic short-term workshop on diplomatic protocol and etiquette for diplomatic staff.
On February 17-21, 2010 Rector of the Diplomatic Academy, Ambassador Extraordinary and Plenipotentiary of Ukraine prof. B. Humeniuk and the Head of Global and Regional Systems Department prof. S. Shergin participated in the international conference «"Yalta system" and the current world order: the problems of global and regional security». The conference was devoted to the 65-th anniversary of the Crimean (Yalta) conference and was held at the Livadia Palace-Museum (Yalta, Autonomous Republic of Crimea) with the participation of leading scientists, scholars, researchers, experts and practitioners from Ukraine and Russia, MPs of ARC, as well as representatives of the diplomatic corps of Russia, USA, the United Kingdom and the European Commission to Ukraine.
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