Bribes, million-dollar bonuses and “scoop”: journalists turned to NAPC and the Ministry of Education and Science to check the activities of rector Tolubko

Loud celebrations accompanied by Russian-language songs, the grand opening of a toilet, infringement of the rights of children of military personnel and a sudden “rebranding”: the State University of Information and Communication Technologies in Kyiv is reeling from scandals. And all this - under the long-term leadership of Vladimir Tolubko, who is accused of groundlessly issuing space bonuses to those around him and the Soviet style of management. It seems that the “Tsar-Rector” has set his sights on yet another tenure, but what do the NAPC and the Ministry of Education and Science think about this?

How does the rector of the capital’s IT university, Vladimir Tolubko, manage to stay in office despite numerous scandals and suspicions of corruption? More details about this can be found in the investigation of StopCor journalist Olga Levitskaya.

The State University of Telecommunications in Kyiv, headed by Vladimir Tolubko, recently changed its name, now it is the State University of Information and Communication Technologies. But this year the university announced several more interesting news.

So, on March 8, the university solemnly opened... a women's restroom. The event was presented as a gift to female students from the rector. And everything was like at a real holiday: the ribbon was cut, champagne was savored, and the management personally congratulated the girls, although not in the state language.

But the celebration of New Year 2023 within the walls of the university led to a real scandal. After all, almost a year after the start of the full-scale Russian invasion, the employees of the establishment, together with the administration, happily danced to... Russian-language songs.

Of course, such entertainment requires additional costs. Perhaps that is why this establishment does not hesitate to profit even from the children of Ukrainian defenders, the journalist suggests.

“Children who entered the university and had already become de facto applicants for education, the university management demanded money for their accommodation in a student dormitory,” said Konstantin Adamenko, the former head of the legal department of GUIKT.

We are talking about the so-called “beneficiaries”, that is, students whose parents are ATO veterans or military personnel currently defending the country at the front. But their children, in order to choose their rights, are forced to contact the rector personally and literally beg to provide them with housing, since they are denied free accommodation in a dormitory of a state institution.

But the university management clearly does not need it.

According to Konstantin, the former head of the university’s legal department, almost 120 employees have been fired from the university over the past ten years. Note that this is a record among other universities. And they said goodbye, first of all, to those who were not satisfied with the leadership. But those who are close to the rector, on the contrary, were encouraged in every possible way. As evidenced by salary statements for 2022, bonuses to vice-rectors reached half a million, and in some cases almost 800 thousand hryvnia.

“There is a so-called troika: the rector, the head of the planning department and the accounting staff. No one else was invited there; all these decisions on bonuses were made directly in the rector’s office behind closed doors,” recalls Adamenko.

To find out what was happening at the State University of Computer Science and Technology, the StopCor team went to the university and talked to students.

And indeed, young people confirmed cases of prohibition of check-in into a hostel on benefits. And also the fact that for some reason girls’ toilets are much better and more comfortable than those for boys.

“But when the conversation turned to the rector, the students became worried. It seems this topic is taboo for some here! But we managed to find out something. It turns out that the head of the university collects dachas and cars?” – Olga Levitskaya comments.

And when asked about renaming the university, students answered unanimously: probably the purpose of the rebranding is to allow Rector Tolubko to be re-elected for another term.

And after the film crew’s visit to the university, the editorial office received another interesting message from students. It again mentioned the university management: after the theft of things in the dormitory, its residents were allegedly forced to be on duty on their own instead of allocating funds for security guards.

And the feedback from young people about the university is simply impressive.

Here are some of the messages students left on social media:

“The DUIKT administration is a gathering of people with the mindset of the communist past.”

“People have an ‘I’m the king here’ behavior, and any criticism of their actions leads to a barrage of threats that rarely result in action.”

“You didn’t even do anything for your dead students. You are the worst enemy now, you are the first who will go under the Russian authorities.”

“Well, you can also open one toilet with a ribbon and a speech, make such pathos out of it, as if you fucking restored the university. Do you know who you remind me of? Russians opening bus stops with ribbons.”

Who runs the “Soviet” style educational institution?

Tolubko Vladimir Borisovich has been the constant rector of the university since 2013. And besides this, he is a military man, a colonel general and a doctor of technical sciences.

It was he, according to the students, who decided to be re-elected for another term. And quite legally - by changing the name of the university. This means that he has the right to be the first to occupy the position of rector in a supposedly new university.

“After everything we heard, we went to him, because who else but him should be responsible for dancing to Russian-language songs during the war, extorting money from military children and bonuses on the front line. The conversation turned out to be quite lengthy,” says Olga Levitskaya.

As for bonuses, according to the rector, the law does not seem to prohibit rewarding employees and does not impose restrictions. Regarding the NACP protocols, Vladimir Borisovich stated that he allegedly had not heard anything about them. Just as I have not seen with my own eyes students dissatisfied with the need to pay for a hostel, despite the benefits. And the situation with the corporate event is generally interesting: Tolubko admitted that those in the video are indeed his subordinates. However, he convinced media workers that in fact the teachers seemed to sing exclusively Ukrainian songs.

Having collected all the necessary evidence, StopKor contacted the Ministry of Education.

Journalists ask the Ministry of Education and Science to thoroughly reconsider the candidacy of the head of the State University of Information and Communication Technologies. But we haven't received a response yet.

An appeal was also sent to the NAPC regarding possible abuses of office by Mr. Tolubko. In response, they said that in such cases one should contact the police. But, according to a former university employee who has already filed a lawsuit, the case is not moving forward.

We hope that after the airing of our investigation, the Ministry of Education and other competent authorities will still pay attention to possible abuses at the capital’s university.