Department of Finance, Banking, Insurance and Stock Market

General Information

In 2023, as a result of the reorganisation through the division of the Department of Management, Finance, Banking and Insurance, the Department of Finance, Banking, Insurance and Stock Market was established. The staff of the Department of Finance, Banking, Insurance and Stock Market consists of highly qualified academic staff and ensures high-quality educational and research activities. The department employs 14 members of the academic staff, including 3 Doctors of Sciences, Professors, and 10 Candidates of Sciences, of whom 9 are Associate Professors and 1 is a Lecturer. In addition, 11 practising specialists are involved in the educational process on an hourly-payment basis.
Throughout its activity, the department has consistently demonstrated high results in research, educational and organisational work. The department is actively developing research and publication activities in Ukrainian and international professional journals, strengthening international cooperation, in particular with higher education institutions of Poland, and taking part in academic mobility programmes and international educational initiatives. In the 2023–2024 and 2024–2025 academic years, the Department of Finance, Banking, Insurance and Stock Market twice took 1st place in the rating of departments. According to the rating of academic staff, in recent years the department’s lecturers have consistently been among the TOP 10 of the University. Thus, Professor V. P. Synchak, Head of the Department A. V. Krushynska, and Associate Professors N. M. Tkachuk and V. V. Pukhalskyi took first places in research, methodological and organisational work and were among the TOP 3 of the overall rating, which confirms the high-quality selection of the department’s staff. Following the results of the assessment, members of the academic staff have repeatedly been awarded certificates of merit.
In 2024 and 2025, the academic staff of the Department of Finance, Banking, Insurance and Stock Market won the competition for the most active higher education institutions participating in Global Money Week, held by the National Bank of Ukraine, which confirms the systematic and active curricular and extracurricular work with students of the speciality Finance, Banking, Insurance and Stock Market. Modern practice-oriented and digital learning tools were systematically introduced into the educational process, cooperation with banking institutions, insurance companies, public authorities and business was expanded, and guest lectures, workshops, study visits and business simulations were held. The department launched and developed new educational programmes; with the department’s support, a Financial Hub was developed on the basis of the Student Business Centre; and career guidance, social and volunteer projects were actively implemented. Students of the department successfully represented the university at all-Ukrainian and international competitions, olympiads and hackathons, completed internships and received their first professional offers, which confirms the high quality of specialist training and the department’s standing in the academic and professional environment.
Oleksandr Rudenko — 2nd place in the All-Ukrainian competition “Money and Well-Being in My Country” (project “How to Raise the Level of Financial Literacy among the Youth of Ukraine”), internship at the National Bank of Ukraine;
Vitalina Yaroshchuk — 4th place in the All-Ukrainian information campaign against payment fraud “Shakhrai Hudbai”;
A team of students of speciality 072 — 2nd place in the hackathon “Financial Surfers” (Auditsoft);
Viktoriia Handziuk, Vitalina Yaroshchuk — awarded certificates and gifts by the National Bank of Ukraine for active participation in events on combating payment fraud;
Viktoriia Veselovska, Oleksandr Rudenko — received job offers from the economy department following the internship for young people in the structural units of the city council;
Anna Kubina — 1st place in the 7th International Competition of Student Research Papers in Economics (Republic of Moldova);
Viktoriia Handziuk — 1st place in the 7th International Competition of Student Research Papers in Economics (Republic of Moldova);
Vitalina Yaroshchuk — 1st place in the 7th International Competition of Student Research Papers in Economics (Republic of Moldova);
Krystyna Vasylenko — winner in the category “Consistent Academic Position” in the All-Ukrainian Competition of Student Research Papers in Finance (West Ukrainian National University, Ternopil);
Viktoriia Handziuk — winner in the category “Originality, Creativity, Individuality” in the All-Ukrainian Competition of Student Academic Essays (West Ukrainian National University, Ternopil);
Karina Kutsepalova — 3rd place in the All-Ukrainian Competition of Student Research Papers in Finance.

HISTORY OF THE DEPARTMENT OF FINANCE,
BANKING, INSURANCE AND STOCK MARKET

WITH MANAGEMENT TO FINANCE

Without the development of departments, higher
education institutions have no future (Synchak V.P.)

One of the basic structural units operating within the Leonid Yuzkov Khmelnytskyi University of Management and Law is the Department of Finance, Banking, Insurance and Stock Market, which was founded in 1999 as the Department of General Management and Management of Organisations. Over the 23 years of the department’s existence, its names have changed, the number and quality of its academic staff have been built up, the list of assigned academic disciplines has been expanded, and new specialities and specialisations have been opened. The first head of the department, appointed in 1999, was Yurii KOMAR, Candidate of Economic Sciences, Senior Research Fellow (now Doctor of Science in Public Administration, Professor), who headed the department until September 2000. For 20 years (2001–2021), the department was under the skilful leadership of Viktor SYNCHAK, Doctor of Economic Sciences, Professor, who made a powerful contribution to its development. In September 2021, Nataliia ZAKHARKEVYCH, Candidate of Economic Sciences, Associate Professor, was elected head of the department.

Viktor SYNCHAK, 2022

In the first years of its formation, the department was strengthened by experienced academic staff. Thus, during 1999–2012 the department was supported by academic staff of other educational institutions, in particular Doctors of Economic Sciences, Professors Valentyna STADNYK, Olha HONCHAR, Dmytro DOMANCHUK, Yevheniia RIASNYKH; Candidates of Sciences, Associate Professors Liudmyla SHVETS, Ruslan BOIKO, Svitlana TARANENKO, Volodymyr VELBOI; Senior Lecturer Nataliia MAIOROVA – who worked at the department on a part-time basis. A significant step towards the growth of the department’s research potential was its merger in 2010 with the Department of Economic Theory and Entrepreneurship, which led to its subsequent renaming to the Department of Management, Economic Theory and Finance (the department functioned under this name until 2016). At that time, the department’s team was joined by the experienced Candidates of Sciences, Associate Professors Vira HAVRYSH, Stanislava PIDHORODETSKA and Liudmyla KACHAROVSKA. In the following years, the department gradually grew in numbers and in quality. Thus, significant contributions to the formation of the student body during their years of work at the department were made by Nataliia KORZHENIVSKA, Candidate of Economic Sciences, Associate Professor; Tetiana PLISHKA, Candidate of Economic Sciences, Senior Research Fellow; Candidates of Economic Sciences Viktoriia KOVALCHUK, Tetiana RYZHA, Olha MALYK and Yana BUCHKOVSKA; and Senior Lecturer Olha MAZUR. Over the years of its functioning, the department has been staffed not only with external academic employees, but also with talented young people from among the university’s graduates. Thus, in 2000, Andrii KORIUHIN and Artur NOVERSALIUK, graduates of the first cohort of the Faculty of Management and Economics, began their academic and teaching careers at the department. Later they were joined by graduates of subsequent years: Nataliia ZAKHARKEVYCH, Dariia ARZIANTSEVA, Alla KRUSHYNSKA, Tetiana SAMARICHEVA and Yuliia HRAMATOVYCH – who continue their work at the department to this day.

Active leisure of the Department of Management, Finance, Banking and Insurance 2021

Team management event dedicated to the celebration of the Day of Defenders of Ukraine, 14 October 2021

Over the past eight years, the department’s team has been joined by, and its integral part has become, Doctors of Economic Sciences, Associate Professors Pavlo IZHEVSKYI and Stepan MELNYK; Candidates of Economic Sciences, Associate Professors Nataliia TKACHUK and Iryna KRAVETS; and Candidates of Economic Sciences Vitalii KUDELSKYI, Halyna BULAT and Tetiana PIKHNIAK.

The department’s team climbed Mount Hoverla, 2021

Changes occurred not only in the quantitative but also in the qualitative composition of the department’s academic staff thanks to the defence of doctoral and candidate dissertations by Viktor SYNCHAK, Andrii KORIUHIN, Nataliia ZAKHARKEVYCH, Tetiana SAMARICHEVA and Alla KRUSHYNSKA. In connection with the launch of bachelor’s degree training in speciality 072 Finance, Banking and Insurance, the department was renamed once again, and from 1 December 2016 the structural unit received its current name – the Department of Management, Finance, Banking and Insurance.

Business game “Joint Stock Companies” in the academic discipline “Finance, Money and Credit” 2015

Significant steps in the growth of the department’s potential were:
-   in 2017 – the launch of bachelor’s degree training in speciality 072 Finance, Banking and Insurance;
-   in 2018 – the start of master’s degree training in speciality 072 Finance, Banking and Insurance;
-   in 2019 – the opening of the specialisation “Organisation and Management of Health Care” in speciality 073 Management.
The department also trains candidates for the educational and scientific degree of Doctor of Philosophy in speciality 072 Finance, Banking and Insurance.
Thus, having gone through the path of its formation, as of 2022 the Department of Management, Finance, Banking and Insurance is represented by 15 members of the academic staff, including 3 Doctors of Economic Sciences, among them 1 Professor, and 11 Candidates of Economic Sciences, among them 6 Associate Professors, who are responsible for organising educational activities in specialities 072 Finance, Banking and Insurance and 073 Management.

The team of the Department of Management, Finance, Banking and Insurance with Vasyl PYLA, Doctor of Economic Sciences, Professor, 2022

The department is responsible for 224 academic disciplines, therefore the priority area of the structural unit’s activity is educational work. Members of the academic staff are authors and co-authors of textbooks, in particular “Marketing” (2010), “Financial Management” (2013), “Formation of a Regional Leader: Lifelong Learning” (2013), “Advertising Management” (2017), “Information and Methodological Support for Scientific Research” (2018), and “Monitoring and Control in the Activities of the Head of an Amalgamated Territorial Community” (2019). Employers and practising specialists are systematically invited to take part in classes, and study excursions to enterprises, institutions and organisations are arranged for students. Classes are conducted using innovative forms and methods of teaching, with workshops, business games, practical case studies and software products being actively used.

Interactive teaching methods in class, 2015

The increase in the number of academic staff and the improvement of their qualifications made it possible to cover new areas in the department’s research work. The range of research topics has been significantly expanded. Three research topics have been approved within it:
1) “Mechanisms for managing enterprises and institutions in the system of state regulation of the national economy” (head – Viktor SYNCHAK, Doctor of Economic Sciences, Professor);
2) “Financial mechanisms for regulating the activities of legal entities and individuals in the economic and social environment” (head – Viktor SYNCHAK, Doctor of Economic Sciences, Professor). Four candidate dissertations were defended within this topic in 2016, 2019 and 2021;
3) “Problems of the transition to an innovation and investment model of economic growth under a market economy” (head – Dariia ARZIANTSEVA, Candidate of Economic Sciences, Associate Professor).
The achievements of the research work on the department’s research topics were published in 2017 in the collective monograph “Financial and Management Aspects of the Innovation and Investment Development of Entrepreneurship in the National Economy” under the scientific editorship of Viktor SYNCHAK, Doctor of Economic Sciences, Professor. In total, based on the results of their research work, the academic staff and postgraduate students of the department have published about 600 scientific works in foreign and Ukrainian publications, including 20 monographs. The results of the research work have been presented at more than 250 international and all-Ukrainian scientific and practical conferences and seminars. The International Scientific and Practical Conference “Strategic Directions of the Socio-Economic Development of the State under Globalisation”, which is organised once every two years and has been held since 2013 (five collections of participants’ conference abstracts were published in 2013–2021), has become the brand of the Department of Management, Finance, Banking and Insurance.

Plenary session of the International Scientific and Practical Conference “Strategic Directions of the Socio-Economic Development of the State under Globalisation” 2022

A rather important area of the department’s activity is organisational and educational work. Since 2012, as part of the celebration of the Week of the Faculty of Management and Economics, the department has held an Economics Tournament among third- and fourth-year students. In 2012, a team prepared by the department’s academic staff took part in an event of the same name, held at Podilskyi State Agrarian and Technical University between students of higher education institutions of the Khmelnytskyi region and other regions of Ukraine, and became its winner and the holder of the honorary cup.

Debates at the Economics Tournament among third- and fourth-year students of the Faculty of Management and Economics, 2016

On the basis of the academic discipline “Economic Justification of Management Decisions”, Alla KRUSHYNSKA, Candidate of Economic Sciences, initiated the annual holding of a tournament on Business Process Modelling and Management Decision-Making. Subsequently, this tournament became international. Since 2009, the research work of students under the guidance of the department’s academic staff has become considerably more active. Their participation in all-Ukrainian scientific and practical conferences, student olympiads in the department’s academic disciplines and competitions of student research papers has become regular. The department’s academic staff have repeatedly trained prize winners and nominees of all-Ukrainian olympiads and competitions of student research papers. In 2014 and 2016, students Anastasiia MOTUZIUK and Maryna SHCHAVINSKA respectively became prize winners and were awarded third-degree diplomas of the second stage of the All-Ukrainian Olympiad in the academic discipline “Tax System” (the training was provided by Viktor SYNCHAK, Doctor of Economic Sciences, Professor, and Tetiana RYZHA, Candidate of Economic Sciences).

Educational practice “Introduction to the Speciality”, 2022

In 2017, students Diana HUMENIUK and Anastasiia HRYTSKOVA, and in 2019 student Anastasiia HRYTSKOVA became prize winners in the nomination of the second stage of the All-Ukrainian Olympiad in the academic disciplines “Regional Economics” and “Strategic Management” respectively (the training was provided by Andrii KORIUHIN, Candidate of Economic Sciences, Associate Professor). In 2019, student Oksana YAREMA became a prize winner and received a third-degree diploma for her victory in the second round of the All-Ukrainian Competition of Student Research Papers in Natural, Technical and Humanitarian Sciences in the field of “Management of Organisations” (the training was provided by Dariia ARZIANTSEVA, Candidate of Economic Sciences, Associate Professor).

Oksana YAREMA and Dariia ARZIANTSEVA at the All-Ukrainian Competition of Student Research Papers. 2019

In 2020, master’s student Anna HERASYMCHUK received a third-degree diploma for her victory in the second round of the All-Ukrainian Competition of Student Research Papers in Natural, Technical and Humanitarian Sciences in the field of “Management of Organisations” (research supervisor – Nataliia ZAKHARKEVYCH, Candidate of Economic Sciences, Associate Professor). The team “Enactus HUUP” took 2nd places at the National Competition “Enactus Ukraine” two years in a row (2013 and 2014) (supervisor – Viktoriia KOVALCHUK, Candidate of Economic Sciences).

The team “Enactus HUUP”, prize winners of the National Competition “Enactus Ukraine”, 2014

In 2018, the team V.I.P.HUUP took 4th place in the final of the All-Ukrainian competition LoNG (Look of New Generation) (supervisor – Alla KRUSHYNSKA, Candidate of Economic Sciences).

The winners’ cup of the team “Enactus HUUP”, 2014

In 2019, a team of master’s students in the speciality Finance, Banking and Insurance won a second-degree diploma in the final of the All-Ukrainian Student Business Project Competition “Business Springboard” (supervisors – Alla KRUSHYNSKA, Candidate of Economic Sciences, and Dariia ARZIANTSEVA, Candidate of Economic Sciences, Associate Professor).

Finalists of the All-Ukrainian Student Business Project Competition “Business Springboard”, 2019

On the initiative and under the guidance of the Department of Management, Finance, Banking and Insurance, a pilot project was implemented to introduce elements of the dual form of education in partnership with the insurance company “GARDIAN” on the basis of a model of integrated practical training. The participants of the project were fourth-year students of speciality 072 Finance, Banking and Insurance Roman HUMENIUK, Anastasiia HORODETSKA and Kateryna SOROKHAN; the project coordinator was Alla KRUSHYNSKA, Candidate of Economic Sciences. Also, over the years the department has acted as the organiser / co-organiser of various scientific events and competitions, among which are the round table “Prospects for the Development of Youth Entrepreneurship in the Khmelnytskyi Region”; the round table “Problems and Prospects for the Development of the Dual Form of Higher Education in Ukraine”; the International Business Forum “Business in Poland: Advantages and Prospects”; a business ideas competition; the series of workshops “HR Marathon”; and many others.

Study visit of first-year students of speciality 072 Finance, Banking and Insurance to JSC “State Savings Bank of Ukraine”, 2022

The department works actively in the area of career guidance. Since 2005, cooperation with Shepetivka Educational Complex No. 1 has been maintained, a Scientific Essay Competition among senior pupils of secondary schools of the Khmelnytskyi region has been established, the project “School of the Future Leader” for pupils of years 10–11 of the city’s schools has been implemented, and financial literacy quests, university tours, online events, workshops and business games are held, with the department’s academic staff being their regular participants.