Battle for Karazin University: Who Rose Up Against Kushnaryov’s Daughter. Dossier on the Rector Candidates

At Karazin University, voting for a new rector will take place on 24 September. The date was set as part of the competition for the university’s leadership position announced by the Ministry of Education and Science. This was reported by “Glavkom” with reference to the website of V. N. Karazin Kharkiv National University.

Two candidates are running for the position – Doctor of Physical and Mathematical Sciences, Dean of the Faculty of Physics Ruslan Vovk, and the incumbent rector, Doctor of Law, professor and chair of the University Academic Council Tetiana Kahanovska, who is seeking a second term. Kahanovska is the daughter of the well-known Ukrainian politician Yevhen Kushnaryov.

On the eve of the vote, social media discussions expanded not only about the candidates’ programs but also about what a modern rector should be – primarily a manager or a scholar.

One of those who publicly expressed support for Tetiana Kahanovska was Eduard Rubin – assistant to the Karazin University prorector for information technologies (IT).

Screenshot: Eduard Rubin/Facebook

Eduard Rubin publicly supported Tetiana Kahanovska while criticizing the campaign promises of her opponent Ruslan Vovk. Vovk proposes pausing the faculty optimization initiated by Kahanovska for two years, expanding deans’ personnel powers, and abolishing the practice of unpaid leaves for faculty. Members of the rector’s support team called such steps favoring unit autonomy and social protection of staff risky, stating that in conditions of budget shortfall they would allegedly complicate centralized university management.

Appealing to the wartime period, Rubin credited Kahanovska with keeping the university operating in Kharkiv, creating safe spaces, developing international partnerships, and attracting grants.

At the same time, Alina Leheida publicly spoke in support of Ruslan Vovk; she studied at Karazin University in 1995–2000 and worked there as an associate professor from 2000 to 2025. She resigned in March 2025.

Leheida emphasizes that she considers herself part of the Karazin community and disagrees with Rubin’s assessment of what the university’s management model should be.

In her view, the university cannot be treated as a corporation, and the rector should be not only an administrator but also a scholar with authority in their field.

Screenshot: Higher Education News/Facebook

Leheida also believes that the changes proposed by Vovk – in particular a two-year pause in reorganization and potential faculty reductions, returning broader personnel powers to deans, and abolishing unpaid leave – will help prevent cuts among lecturers and researchers.

Among the main arguments in favor of Vovk, Leheida names his scientific authority, preserving the academic staff, developing fundamental science, and attracting international resources through research projects.

Another position on the university’s management model was expressed by Candidate of Economic Sciences, coordinator of the anti-plagiarism initiative “Dissergate” Svitlana Blahodetelieva-Vovk. In her post she rejects the approach of viewing the rector primarily as a manager and emphasizes the difference between a university and an ordinary market structure.

Screenshot: Svitlana Vovk/Facebook

In her view, the university should perform not only an academic but also a social function, so evaluating its work solely by financial indicators is incorrect.

Vovk notes that the university is a community that preserves, transmits, and creates intellectual heritage. Therefore, in her opinion, a university cannot be managed like a commercial organization – its specifics require a different approach.

Separately, Svitlana Blahodetelieva-Vovk raised the issue of Tetiana Kahanovska’s participation in the rector election. In her post she called on the Ministry of Education and Science to cancel the election, claiming that Kahanovska should not have participated in the competition until the complaint about possible academic plagiarism in her doctoral dissertation had been fully considered.

Screenshot: Svitlana Vovk/Facebook

The author also urged the National Agency for Higher Education Quality Assurance to publicly comment on the situation. In addition, she claims that Kahanovska continues to receive an allowance for an academic degree, the validity of which the post’s author questions.

How the candidates’ programs for Karazin’s rector differ

The main difference between the campaign programs of Ruslan Vovk and Tetiana Kahanovska is what they propose to start with in the rector’s work. Vovk emphasizes internal changes within the university, while Kahanovska focuses on continuing and developing already defined strategic directions.

Vovk’s program is built around the need for internal changes. Among its key themes are reducing unnecessary bureaucracy, transparent governance, finding additional funds, and retaining staff. Overall it contains 10 directions: personnel policy, support for young scientists, development of science, changes in the educational process, restoration and security of the university, digitalization, international cooperation, preservation of the scientific community, and leadership accountability. It separately addresses strengthening Karazin’s status as a research university.

At the same time, Vovk describes specific managerial steps in detail, including a work plan for the first 100 days for each of the directions.

Kahanovska’s program has a different starting point. In an address to the university community she states: “We have learned to work in conditions of uncertainty… – and this is no longer enough.” Her program defines eight strategic priorities: human-centeredness, education, science, social mission, international partnerships, digitalization, governance, security, and energy independence.

So, to simplify the difference, Vovk proposes first to review how the university works internally, while Kahanovska proposes to develop the university according to defined strategic directions. The level of detail also differs: Vovk’s program contains more concrete steps and descriptions of how to implement them, whereas Kahanovska’s program is more focused on goals and directions of development.

There are also differences in approaches to funding. Both candidates talk about the need to diversify the university’s income, i.e., not to rely on a single source of funds.

Vovk proposes first to look for additional opportunities within the university itself. This includes auditing expenses, reducing administrative functions, reallocating funds, increasing own revenues, contract research, commercialization of scientific developments, licensing, an endowment, and international grants.

Kahanovska also proposes combining various funding sources. Her program mentions grants, cooperation with business, applied research, commercialization of science, support for alumni and donors. She pays particular attention to asset management, procurement, and energy consumption.

There is another important difference related to the candidates’ experience. Kahanovska has already headed Karazin University, so her new program can be compared with the goals she set during her previous term and the university’s results over that period.

Vovk has not previously been rector of Karazin University. Therefore his program can be considered primarily as a proposal to change certain management approaches – from auditing expenses and reducing bureaucracy to funding science and personnel policy.

Tetiana Kahanovska or Ruslan Vovk: what is known about the candidates

Tetiana Kahanovska is the incumbent rector of Karazin University, Doctor of Law, professor, and chair of the university’s academic council. She graduated from Yaroslav Mudryi National Law Academy in Kharkiv. In 2000 she defended her Candidate (PhD-equivalent) dissertation. Since 2001 she has worked at Karazin University, and in 2005 she headed the Faculty of Law. In 2012 Kahanovska defended her doctoral dissertation, and in 2014 she received the title of professor. In 2021 she was elected rector of the university.

Kahanovska is the daughter of Yevhen Kushnaryov, who at various times served as mayor of Kharkiv, head of the Kharkiv Regional State Administration, and head of the Presidential Administration of Ukraine under Leonid Kuchma.

In 2005 Kahanovska began political activity in the party “New Democracy,” which her father founded. After the party merged with the Party of Regions she joined that political force.

In 2006 Kahanovska was elected a deputy of the Kharkiv City Council from the Party of Regions. She was a city council deputy until 2010. In 2007 she also ran for the Verkhovna Rada on the Party of Regions’ list, but did not become a member of parliament.

In 2021 Kahanovska was dean of the Faculty of Law at Karazin University. At that time, in addition to her, three other candidates ran for rector – Ruslan Vovk, Ihor Hirka, and Serhiy Shulha.

The previous university rector Vil Bakirov, who headed the institution for about 20 years, left the position. On the eve of the elections, candidate Serhiy Shulha wrote that Bakirov was obstructing his campaign. Bakirov called these accusations false and demanded their retraction.

This was not the first case when public disputes arose around Kahanovska. As Dzerkalo Tyzhnia wrote, already in 2005 about two dozen professors of Karazin University in an open letter to the minister of education, among other things, accused Bakirov of lobbying the creation of the Faculty of Law specifically “for Kahanovska.”

During the rectoral campaign at Karazin University in 2021, media reports appeared about possible plagiarism in Tetiana Kahanovska’s dissertation. As Liga.net wrote, materials about possible borrowings were provided to journalists by a group of Ukrainian scholars who did not want to reveal their names.

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Documents indicate that the text on pages 170–192 of Kahanovska’s dissertation was likely copied and translated from the works of professors of Russian universities A. Kh. Shidov, P. P. Vostrikov, and A. B. Khapov.

Source: documents provided to LIGA.net anonymously

In 2023 the National Agency for Higher Education Quality Assurance (NAQA) began reviewing a complaint about possible academic plagiarism in Kahanovska’s doctoral dissertation. She sued NAQA to stop the review of her work for plagiarism. On 5 October 2023 the Kharkiv District Administrative Court prohibited NAQA from continuing consideration of this complaint until a final court decision.

Later the court proceedings resumed. In April 2025 the court appointed an examination to study the materials regarding the dissertation and suspended the proceedings while it was carried out. However, the examination was never conducted: as of 22 July 2025 its cost had not been paid, so the expert institution closed the case without carrying out the research. On 1 August 2025 the court resumed consideration of the case.

Ruslan Vovk is a Doctor of Physical and Mathematical Sciences, professor, and academician of the National Academy of Sciences of Ukraine. His professional activity has been associated with Karazin University for over 30 years.

In 1990 Vovk graduated from the Faculty of Physics of Kharkiv State University and that same year began working at the Department of Low Temperature Physics at Karazin University. He initially worked as an engineer and later as a junior, research, and senior research fellow. In 1998 he defended his Candidate (PhD-equivalent) dissertation, and in 2008 he defended his doctoral dissertation.

Alongside his research work, Vovk held leadership positions at the university. In 2010–2012 he headed the research laboratory of the Department of Low Temperature Physics, and in 2012–2016 he chaired that department. Since 2013 Vovk has been dean of the Faculty of Physics at Karazin University. In 2012 he received the title of professor, and in 2024 he was elected an academician of the National Academy of Sciences of Ukraine.

Vovk specializes in high-pressure physics and extreme states of matter and is the founder of the corresponding scientific school.

In 2026 Ruslan Vovk ranked 33-th in the ranking of 1000 Ukrainian Scopus scientists, formed by Hirsch index (h-index). This metric takes into account the number of a researcher’s publications and their citations. Tetiana Kahanovska is not included in that ranking.

We remind readers that Glavkom previously wrote that acting rector Tetiana Kahanovska explained that the university is not abandoning elections despite martial law and security risks. According to her, the elections give the university community an opportunity to determine the university’s direction for the next five years. She also noted that during the full-scale war the university suffered significant damage, and law enforcement agencies are investigating 39 criminal proceedings related to damage to its infrastructure. Kahanovska estimated the amount of damage at €200 million.