University professor in Odesa dismissed for teaching in Russian

That is according to the press service of the Ukrainian Language Ombudsman's Office, Ukrinform reports.

"At the Odesa National University of Technology, state monitoring confirmed a violation of language legislation by a professor who conducted classes and prepared exam papers in Russian," the statement said.

According to Anna Nerush, a representative of the Language Ombudsman, the inspection was initiated following a student complaint, which included copies of exam papers where the questions were written in Russian.

"We promptly launched state control measures and sent a respective request to the university," she said.

In its response, the university said it had conducted an internal review of the alleged violation, confirming the facts outlined in the complaint.

The professor explained the use of Russian by citing "computer issues" and said that, in order to avoid disrupting the exam session, older exam papers were distributed to students.

He also justified speaking Russian by saying he responded to students in the language they used.

Following the state monitoring, a protocol was drawn up regarding the violation of Article 21 of Ukraine's language law.

As of now, the professor has been dismissed from his position.

"A vice-rector of the university attended the review of the monitoring materials. It was a difficult but constructive discussion. We also addressed the overall language situation at the institution and agreed to hold a joint meeting with students and faculty," the Ombudsman's representative added.

Under Article 21 of the law, the language of the educational process in Ukraine's educational institutions must be the state language.

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