Many online courses and exchange projects have been set up with students and academics in Ukraine since the Russian assault began in February. But the Central European University (CEU) in Vienna has set up a new type of programme known as the Invisible University for Ukraine with an eye on preparing Ukrainian students for a future beyond the current war.
The project draws on the underground and exile ‘invisible colleges’ of the early 1990s launched by former dissident intellectuals in Budapest, Hungary, and elsewhere in Central Europe. These provided an alternative educational structure alongside students’ own university programmes at a time when those countries were in transition towards democracy at the end of the Cold War.
The idea was to expose students to alternative views that were still not easy to access within their own country and to prepare a generation – one that had not experienced open or democratic societies – for an era in which they would be playing a role in setting up and supporting new democratic institutions.
The invisible colleges disappeared in the early 2000s as Central and Eastern European countries joined the European Union and NATO alliance.
The Invisible University enrolled 129 Ukrainian students last semester and over 200 students this semester. They were taught courses virtually in history, political science, law and sociology for a semester, but with additional mentoring and complementary courses in English writing, curriculum development and soft skills.
A winter school is now planned for January.
More information:
https://www.universityworldnews.com/post.php?story=20221109144829140&utm_source=newsletter&utm_medium=email&utm_campaign=GLNL0716