In the autumn semester of the 2022/2023 academic year, 40 students with bachelor’s degrees joined the study of the elective discipline “Local democracy: best European practices for Ukraine.” The course is part of the implementation of the educational project ERASMUS-JMO-2021-HEI-TCH-RSCH -101047645 – “EULOCDEM: Local democracy: best European practices for Ukraine,” directed by the Jean Monnet Module of the Erasmus+ program.
The academic discipline covers a wide range of topics related to the tools of local democracy used in EU countries; it involves the study of European practices of local democracy and comparison with Ukrainian realities.
In addition to traditional types of work organization, interactive learning methods were used (discussions, cases, debates, and project activities).
Also, the electronic version of the course is posted on the platform of the Ministry of Education and Culture of Sumy State University.
The result of studying the course for students was obtaining theoretical knowledge and applying it in practice. In particular, students Elizaveta Govorun and Volodymyr Dzepa became the authors of two local petitions (https://petition.e-dem.ua/sumy).
Following the teaching results, a survey of students was conducted, who positively evaluated the teaching of the discipline and expressed their wishes to the course developers, which will be taken into account in the further education of the profession.
The project team thanks the students for their active participation in studying the course and wants to actively apply the tools of local democracy to improve the life of the community.