The Ministry of Education and Science plans to dismiss about 50 rectors across Ukraine. The dismissals will take place gradually, after which new rectors will be elected in universities in batches. Will the fugitive bribe-taker, former MP Andriy Odarchenko, whose rector's contract with the Ministry of Education and Science has not yet been terminated despite the court's verdict, be on the list of "dismissed"? Read more in the UNN material.
Ministry of Education and Science prepares mass dismissals of rectors
Personnel purges are planned in Ukrainian universities. About 50 rectors across the country will be gradually dismissed, stated Deputy Minister of Education and Science for Higher Education Mykola Trofymenko. According to him, the reason for this decision is the theory of management, which states that leadership needs to be updated from time to time, even if it has been working effectively for the last 10 years and ensuring the growth of the organization. After all, for the development of a university, it is necessary to change approaches to work. Lisovyi's deputy also added that Ukraine is moving away from times when a rector could hold office for 40 years.
We are moving away from those times when a rector could be in office for 40 years without change and was a factor of influence, when there were no discussions about possible reorganizations, because they clung to their seats. Now we are at a moment when a large number of rectors will be replaced. We will also have an update in the quality of administrations through training in the academic managers development program.
Why doesn't the Ministry of Education and Science terminate the contract with the fugitive bribe-taker Odarchenko, who maintains his influence over the SBITU?
While planning personnel changes to improve the quality of higher education, the department has been delaying the termination of the contract with the fugitive bribe-taker Odarchenko for more than a month.
In 2021, Odarchenko became the rector of the State Biotechnological University, but could not perform his duties because he had a parliamentary mandate. Therefore, the contract with the Ministry of Education and Science was suspended, and an acting rector was appointed in his place. The first acting rector of SBITU was Ruslan Tikhonchenko, about whose corruption schemes UNN wrote earlier. After him, Andriy Kudryashov took the same position with the prefix acting, whose declaration contains signs of violations, including the official's failure to include information about his cohabitant and expenses that do not correspond to official income in the declaration. Based on the results of the investigation by UNN, the editorial office appealed to the NACP to verify the facts presented and provide them with an appropriate legal assessment.
In addition, immediately after the investigation into Kudryashov, the UNN editorial office sent an official request to the Ministry of Education and Science to clarify whether they were aware of possible corruption schemes in which the state university was mired. These included, in particular, illegal enrichment on university lands (approximately 4.2 thousand hectares and about 8 thousand hectares of forest land), which were supposed to be used for educational and research purposes, but instead are leased out secretly. A significant part of the land fund was transferred for cultivation or "joint activities" to private LLCs (for example, LLC "RV Agro", "Agrozoovet", PE "Zori Derhachivshchyny").
Through fictitious underestimation of wheat yields and double accounting, over $200,000 was withdrawn from SBITU, and in subsequent years, during martial law, the university lost about UAH 80 million due to illegal use of fields. Part of the harvest was stored in elevators of related companies, where the grain simply "disappeared"; several versions of accounting and "black accounting" were simultaneously maintained, indicating probable official forgery and systemic embezzlement of property. The UNN editorial office calls on law enforcement agencies to initiate an audit of the SBITU administration's top brass and bring those responsible for embezzlement to justice.
It should be noted that both Tikhonchenko and Kudryashov are called people from Odarchenko's orbit. UNN sources say that both are Odarchenko's puppets, who, as a professional bribe-taker and puppeteer, gives clear instructions for execution. And the proceeds from corrupt management, presumably, settle in the pockets of the puppeteer himself and his puppets.
Despite this, on November 8, the Ministry of Education and Science extended Kudryashov's powers as acting rector of SBITU until May 2026.
What is Odarchenko's current status?
It should be noted that Andriy Odarchenko automatically lost his parliamentary mandate on October 10, 2025, after the Appeals Chamber of the High Anti-Corruption Court upheld the HACC verdict of November 14, 2024. According to which Odarchenko was sentenced to 8 years in prison with confiscation of property and a ban on holding leadership positions for 3 years, for attempting to bribe the former head of the State Agency for Restoration, Mustafa Nayyem, with $50,000. Odarchenko offered Nayyem a bribe in cryptocurrency so that he would ensure the Interdepartmental Working Group's decision to allocate funds from the fund for eliminating the consequences of armed aggression for the repair of SBITU buildings.
After the change of the Constitution in 2016, on the day the court's guilty verdict against a deputy came into legal force, the deputy loses his mandate. That is, no parliamentary decisions on this issue are needed, the deputy's powers are terminated automatically prematurely.
According to the court decision, the Ministry of Education and Science should have terminated employment relations with Odarchenko as soon as possible. He still officially has a contract for the position of rector of SBITU, despite losing his parliamentary mandate, the court verdict, and his escape abroad from Ukrainian justice. Journalists and society are asking why the Ministry of Education and Science is delaying this decision and why it is reappointing Kudryashov, a person who may be completely controlled by the fugitive bribe-taker?
Why does Hryshyna, head of the SBITU Supervisory Board, ignore the facts of embezzlement at the university?
Not only the Ministry of Education and Science but also the university's Supervisory Board, chaired by People's Deputy Yulia Hryshyna, pretend not to notice the contract with Odarchenko. According to the regulation on the SBITU Supervisory Board, it has the authority to initiate the dismissal of the university's rector, Andriy Odarchenko. However, it does not do so.
In addition, she is also supposed to control the management of university property and the use of its financial and material resources. However, given that SBITU is systematically embezzled through corruption schemes and has salary arrears to the teaching staff of over UAH 20 million, we can assume that Hryshyna probably has a personal benefit from the corruption schemes at the university, organized by Odarchenko and implemented by his puppets.
What connects Hryshyna and Odarchenko?
As claimed by sources close to Hryshyna, she herself has a close connection with the fugitive bribe-taker Odarchenko. And she could have met him personally during foreign trips. One such meeting could have taken place in the capital of Hungary - Budapest - in September 2025. At that time, Hryshyna went to Budapest allegedly for the opening of a Ukrainian school. However, according to the editorial office, the primary task was a personal meeting with Odarchenko, who is hiding from Ukrainian justice in this country.
Thus, it becomes obvious why the Supervisory Board of the State Biotechnological University, chaired by Hryshyna, a possible accomplice of the fugitive bribe-taker, has not yet initiated the recall of Andriy Odarchenko from the post of rector. The UNN editorial office contacted Yulia Hryshyna for comments on the situation around the university, but received no response. Despite Yulia Hryshyna's official duties as the head of the SBITU Supervisory Board, "to represent the board in relations with the Ministry of Education and Science, authorities, the public, and the media," the deputy ignores journalists' questions and does not respond.
Minister Lisovyi is responsible for terminating the contract with Odarchenko
Ukrainian society and journalists still hope that the Minister of Education and Science, Oksen Lisovyi, will fulfill his promise made a year ago to terminate the contract with the fugitive bribe-taker Odarchenko and hold fair elections at the State Biotechnological University.
The Kharkiv Oblast Defense Council decided to allow elections in the Kharkiv region (in universities - ed.), and all those universities that need it will gradually, step by step, enter the election process, including the Biotechnological University.
Thus, Oksen Lisovyi will not only fulfill the decision of the Appeals Chamber of the HACC that Odarchenko is prohibited from holding leadership positions for 3 years, but will also preserve what is left of one of the largest agricultural universities in Ukraine, which SBITU was before the fugitive bribe-taker Odarchenko began successfully implementing his corruption schemes there.
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