In the year that passed, as Ukrainians suffered devastating losses, the geopolitical tensions of the conflict played out across the international education world. Globally, universities simultaneously took in new students and cut ties with Russian institutions.
As Ukrainians fled their homes in the wake of the invasion, countries opened their borders to welcome them. With an estimated 83% of Ukrainians between the ages of 18-24 enrolled in higher education before the war, students began to look for ways to continue learning.
The European Students’ Union sprung into action coordinating with the Ukrainian union and student groups in the neighbouring countries to respond.
Meanwhile, universities quickly opened their doors to both students and academics. In a 2022 survey, the European University Association found that, out of 24 respondents, 21 European countries had implemented programs to host students and academics, including subsidising accommodation and offering language courses.
In Ukraine, education continues despite the destruction of war. Over 3,000 institutions have suffered damage from shelling. However, many universities continue to deliver courses, with some students attending remotely.
Over 100 British universities have now signed up to a twinning scheme to support these institutions, from sending ambulances to designing underground shelters. (Ed. – Prof. Koen Lamberts, President & Vice-Chancellor at the University of Sheffield, which is partnered with Igor Sikorsky Kyiv Polytechnic Institute, wrote in October 2022 that the partnership between the two universities was progressing well, and hopefully their contribution towards Kyiv Polytechnic’s air raid shelters would help towards a quick build)
There were an estimated 76,000 international students in Ukraine at the time of the invasion, drawn to the country by the offer of comparatively cheap courses taught in English. Medical studies were particularly popular with students from South Asia and Africa, where university capacities are often low in comparison to youth population rates.
These foreign students began to evacuate the country in February 2022, but leaving the country proved difficult.
While still ongoing, the responses to the Russian invasion of Ukraine are now looked to as a model for how the education community should act in the wake of an international crisis. There have been pleas for students from other war-torn countries to be treated with as much hospitality as some Ukrainian refugees have been, and, after the earthquakes in Turkey and Syria, some looked to the Ukraine response for examples of how the world can help.
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