‘What impressed me most of all about the Brits is their respect for human freedom’, says Gennadiy Druzenko, Vice-President for the European Integration Institute (Poland), LL.M. in European Law.
He is a Chevening returnee of 2008 and his memories of a year spent in Scotland, UK are still bright and vivid. He obtained his degree with commendation in European Law at the University of Aberdeen, one of UK’s top research universities, according to the latest RAE.
Gennadiy shares his experience of a British Council scholar: ‘The Chevening – unlike similar scholarships, for example, Fulbright or Kirkland – doesn’t make a choice instead of you, it doesn’t make up your mind at which University you should do your MA Course or what accommodation you need to look for. You have to make your own choice!’ And he adds: ‘The Chevening has been a lesson on inseparability of one’s inner freedom and responsibility.’
He regrets that none of the Ukrainian Universities has either ambitions or capability to ever enter the top 500 universities in the world. In one of his articles for the Dzerkalo tyzhnya national weekly he argues that intellectual provinciality is a formidable trouble of Ukraine’s political and academic élites. Due to this the Ukrainian society has become a hostage of the obsolete mentality and second-handed concepts, and the country may never ‘grope’ its right place on a modern map.
A skilful trainer and a practitioner with a personal involvement into a hard work on approximation of Ukrainian laws to the European legislation, Gennadiy believes that a wider and meaningful public debate on Ukraine’s European choice is badly needed. The public sphere has been an area of his long-time professional interests and personal endeavours.
‘Unfortunately, this space where Ukrainians could freely discuss common concerns and influence political action, has been just an illusive, behind the looking glass, world. Therefore, the Chevening will hardly enhance my career prospects in the Ukrainian public sphere.
‘But the scholarship did contribute to my world perception and my ability to view things soberly and in a global context. The Chevening has become a gateway to a global world for me, without any exaggeration,’ – says Gennadiy.
Gennadiy can be reached at: gennadiy.druzenko@gmail.com
To read more Gennadiy’s articles please go to:
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