The National Bank of Ukraine (the NBU) has selected winners of the All-Ukrainian Student Competition "Monetary policy: NBU University Challenge", the final of which was held on 22 November 2019.
In the final round, students from three universities assumed the roles of the NBU monetary policy committee members and presented their monetary policy recommendations to the jury that played the role of the NBU Board. The participants had to be well-prepared to convince the attending experts that their proposal was optimal in the current macroeconomic situation in the country, its forecast and inflation expectations. Students supported their proposals with results of economic and mathematical modeling.
The team of Kyiv National Economic University named after Vadym Hetman, headed by captain Olha Honcharenko and instructor Anna Korniliuk, PhD, associate professor, won the NBU University Challenge 2019.
Motivational breakfast with the NBU top managers will be their award.
The 2nd degree diploma was awarded to the team from Ivan Franko National University of Lviv (captain - Sofiia Kalishchuk, instructor - Larysa Zomchak, Ph.D., associate professor). The 3rd degree diploma was awarded to the team from the Institute of Banking Technology and Business of the Banking University (captain - Oleksii Maistrenko, mentor - Olha Klishchuk, assistant).
All the participants from the three finalist teams have the opportunity to take an internship at the NBU
“This is the first year we are holding this competition. This challenge is a part of work of informing young people about the NBU’s role in improvement of the economy and strengthening of the financial system. Students had to immerse themselves in the peculiarities of monetary policy to win the competition, so they were able to obtain additional theoretical knowledge and to analyze the real macroeconomic situation in Ukraine. At the first stage, we received applications for participation from 42 teams. This is a good indicator that shows the level of interest of the young generation in the NBU’s operation. To some extent it also reflects their trust to us and our work," emphasized Oleg Churiy, NBU Deputy Governor, in his welcome address.
The NBU University Challenge is one of the NBU’s activities aimed at development of the youth intellectual potential. To that end, there are ongoing topic-based tours and lectures on financial literacy held by the NBU Money Museum and representatives of various NBU departments as well as the NBU’s financial literacy days in the regions.
In total, 42 teams of 26 universities from Kyiv and 12 oblasts of Ukraine expressed their will to participate in the NBU University Challenge 2019. All the registered teams took part in an induction session, a Q&A session and a tour to the NBU Money Museum.
The jury of the finals of the First All-Ukrainian Student Competition Monetary Policy: NBU University Challenge included:
- Oleg Churiy, NBU Deputy Governor
- Elisabeth S. Curtis, PhD, Associate Professor at Dartmouth College (USA), who has participated on several occasions in similar student competitions conducted by the Federal Reserve Bank of Boston
- Andrii Bezpiatov, Board Member of CFA Society Ukraine;
- Vitalii Vavryshchuk, Director of the Financial Stability Department
- representatives of the Monetary Policy and Economic Analysis Department, who are actively involved in developing the NBU’s decisions on monetary policy
- Міchne Constantinesku, international expert, who joined the crew of the NBU Research Department
- Andrii Blinov, Manager of the NBU Expert Platform.
In 2020, the NBU intends to repeat the NBU University Challenge. Follow the NBU University Challenge news on the special web site https://events.bank.gov.ua/uchallenge/ and on the Financial Literacy Ukraine Facebook page https://www.facebook.com/finlitukraine.