We must not lose momentum in initiatives to support Ukrainian HE

The Russian invasion of Ukraine in February 2022 created an unprecedented crisis for Ukrainian universities, severely disrupting operations and continuity. Faced with infrastructure damage, displaced academic communities and ongoing safety concerns, these institutions urgently needed support.

This emergency highlighted the invaluable role that international partnerships can provide to nations experiencing the devastation of war or other crippling crises. With our breadth of academic expertise, global engagement and sense of civic mission, UK universities are uniquely positioned to offer vital assistance in addressing multifaceted challenges.

Establishing inter-university partnerships usually involves detailed and lengthy administrative procedures. However, the gravity of this crisis necessitated an expedited approach that cut through conventional time frames. In a remarkable display of agility, Cormack Consultancy Group swiftly launched a unique twinning initiative, supported by the UUKi Twin for Hope Campaign, to pair Ukrainian universities with UK partners.

Despite the experience of the pandemic, during which university teaching moved very rapidly online, I was also somewhat uneasy at the speed of the required action regarding Ukraine. But while the twinning arrangements were forged quickly, care was taken to find the right partners, underlining again that universities can be surprisingly fleet of foot when circumstances require it.

More than two years on from the start of the war, I was aware of the successful outcomes of the twinning partnership between my own institution, the University of Kent, and Kherson State University, focused on offering both emotional and practical support to an academic community under siege. However, I wanted to learn more about the broader impact of this scheme – which was also showcased this week at Cormack’s Ukraine Twinning conference, hosted at Vistula University.

This curiosity led me to establish the Ukraine Twinning Voices (UTV) interview series, an opportunity to collect accounts of resilience and determination from five of the 100+ pairs of twins, each with shared ambitions and unique challenges. The common messages are important not only for sustaining attention on the ongoing needs of Ukraine but also for informing our sector’s potential responses to future crises in different global regions.

In addition to the Kent-Kherson partnership, the one between the University of Central Lancashire and Uzhhorod National University takes a different yet equally crucial tack through humanitarian aid and fostering civic engagement with local governments. The Royal Agricultural University and Sumy National Agrarian University have joined forces in food security and regenerative agriculture research to support immediate needs and contribute to long-term sustainability. Newcastle University and the National University of Water and Environmental Engineering are pursuing joint grant acquisition, research projects and peer-assisted learning. And last, the University of Sheffield and Kyiv Polytechnic Institute are focused on entrepreneurship and nuclear waste management.

The UTV interviewees’ testimonies also reveal several shared benefits of the twinning partnerships, which may be transferable to other international academic crisis contexts. The Ukrainian university representatives consistently describe resilience and adaptation by explaining how the twinning partnership has helped them cope with the war’s immense challenges, from infrastructural damage and displacement to psychological trauma, maintaining core operations amid unprecedented adversity.

While the primary objective of the twinning was to support Ukrainian institutions, the UK partners also acknowledged significant reciprocal benefits. These include exposure to new academic perspectives, cultural exchange opportunities and the potential for joint education and research projects addressing global challenges.

While overall, the twinning initiatives can be seen as a very successful response to the urgent needs of Ukrainian higher education during an incredibly tumultuous period, the UTV videos also underline the many key lessons that have been learned from the experience. The first key point is that although UK universities are hesitant to make quick decisions regarding partnership development, the wide range of institutional knowledge in this area and the experience gained from the Ukraine twinning project shows that we are better equipped than we thought to respond to such circumstances when necessary.

But the twinning scheme also reinforces the importance of sustaining support for as long as the partner universities need it. Interviewees from both the UK and Ukraine also welcomed the rapid establishment of the twinning partnerships, and they highlighted the importance of flexibility and adaptability as the partnerships evolved to meet changing needs and circumstances.

While unique to each pair of institutions’ strengths and needs, the Ukraine/UK twinning partnerships collectively exemplify global citizenship, social purpose and the power of international solidarity in higher education.

The challenge now is for the sector to leverage its experience with Ukraine to address other significant global crises. The work of organisations such as the Council for At-Risk Academics (CARA) demonstrates the range of international regions whose academics need support.

This task has also become more complicated because of the current financial crisis in UK higher education. But we must make sure that this important element of our sector’s international responsibility is not lost among other priorities. Sustaining momentum will provide continued support to Ukraine’s universities during the enduring crisis while also serving as a model of good practice for future application elsewhere.

Anthony Manning is director and dean for global and lifelong learning at the University of Kent.