On December 19, 2020, the meeting of the representatives of the Eurasian Association of Trade Union Organizations of the Universities (EATUOU) was held. It was held online via Zoom program.
President of the organization I. Kotlobovsky opened the meeting by welcoming the participants. He noted that, unfortunately, for objective reasons, it was not possible to hold the EATUOU congress in 2020, however, the EATUOU representatives have met in current year in the framework of various events: at the anniversary of the Southern Federal University, at the VII congress of the All-Russian Trade Union of the Education, events held in the online mode, etc.
Kotlobovsky made a presentation on the work of the Trade Union Organization of Moscow State University in the context of the coronavirus pandemic. This year, special attention was paid to the celebration of the 75th anniversary of Victory in the Great Patriotic War of 1941-1945 (this holiday unites all our countries), assistance to older employees of the universities, families of the employees with children, work with young specialists, financial assistance to the members of the trade union who have appeared in difficult living conditions. Financial assistance in the remote work mode was provided without bureaucratic procedures on the basis of the electronic applications and bank card account numbers. An important direction of work was to organize traditional events in a new format, as well as to promote the development of the IT technologies by the trade union activists.
Concluding his speech, I. Kotlobovsky, outlined the tasks of the EATUOU for the near future and congratulated everyone on the upcoming new year holidays.
Vice-President of EATUOU I. Kerget made a report on the work on conducting a survey on the quality of the education at the universities in the remote mode of work. The study concerns the assessment of the quality of distance learning and the situation around the education system as a whole. The participants highly appreciated the importance of such a study and agreed to expand the scales of the survey to increase the representativeness of the sample.
The online conference was attended by about 30 trade union leaders representing 18 universities, 7 countries. 19 participants made speeches.
In the overwhelming majority of the universities, work in 2020 was carried out according to one scenario – it was a partial or complete transition to remote work in the context of the introduction of restrictive measures. For this, various online platforms were used: Zoom, Microsoft Teams, Moodle, Google Meet. Some universities already had their own best practices and experience of working online, which allowed them to make a qualitative leap in the education process, and some experienced problems in providing the employees with the devices for working in the remote mode. Some universities are cutting funding for their development programs. In the context of the pandemic, a socially significant sphere at the universities appeared in a difficult situation: canteens, pharmacies and health centers.
Despite the difficult times, all participants of the event were happy to meet and share their experience. Chairman of the Trade Union Organization of the Dagestan State University N. Rabazanov invited everyone to meet next year in October in traditional format and hold the 33rd EATUOU Congress at Dagestan State University.
