Four candidates are vying for the position of rector at Taras Shevchenko National University of Kyiv – Ministry of Education
The Ministry of Education and Science of Ukraine has approved the official list of candidates for the position of rector at Taras Shevchenko National University of Kyiv. Of the five candidates who submitted their applications for the competition, four have been selected to participate in the voting.
The ministry announced this in response to an official inquiry from the Interfax-Ukraine news agency.
The final list of candidates includes:
Valerii Kopiika — current acting rector of KNU;
Ksenia Smirnova — former vice rector for international cooperation at KNU;
Anna Tolstanova — former Vice Rector for Research at KNU;
Oleksandr Korchenko — First Vice Rector of the State University of Information and Communication Technologies.
The Ministry of Education and Science announced the official competition to fill the position of head of the country’s leading university on March 2 of this year, setting a two-month deadline for accepting applications from potential candidates.
Initially, the vote by faculty and students was scheduled for May 27, 2026. However, on May 11, the Ministry of Education and Science decided to significantly postpone the election date. The new date for the vote on the future rector of KNU has been set for October 27. Throughout the transition period, Valerii Kopiika will serve as acting rector.
The Ministry of Education and Science barred Volodymyr Bugrov from running in the KNU rector election, citing a court ruling regarding a corruption offense and applicable legal restrictions.
On April 29, the Ministry of Education and Science of Ukraine dismissed Volodymyr Bugrov, rector of Taras Shevchenko National University of Kyiv, due to the expiration of his contract.
The day before, the Sixth Kyiv City Court of Appeal upheld the decision of the court of first instance in the case of Volodymyr Bugrov, rector of Taras Shevchenko National University of Kyiv, regarding false declarations.
Thus, the court upheld the decision of the court of first instance. On March 4, 2026, the Shevchenkivskyi District Court of Kyiv found Rector Volodymyr Bugrov guilty of committing an administrative offense related to corruption, fining him for failing to declare a car.
Journalists from “Slidstvo.Info” established that Volodymyr Bugrov, rector of Taras Shevchenko National University of Kyiv, became the owner of an apartment in a luxury new building in Kyiv, which he could not have afforded with the funds he had declared. The KNU rector registered a two-bedroom apartment with an area of 74.7 m² in his name in the newly built White Lines residential complex near Holosiivskyi Park. Currently, such apartments cost over $200,000.
