Ukraine’s Higher Education system is under severe pressure. Universities are under constant threat of losing their most experienced academics, along with the drain of students and damaged reputations.

Since it was set up in 2022, Lancaster has been part of the Universities UK initiative ‘Twin for Hope’, supporting Ukrainian universities through the crisis and helping them build resilience, skills and resources to play a full part in international networks — and make sure the quality of their teaching and research gets the international recognition it deserves.

“We are twinned with Dnipro University of Technology,” explains Lancaster’s Global Engagement Manager Tania Hughes. “With the aim of collaboration in a meaningful way. The ongoing war with Russia has been isolating for Ukraine’s universities. Students from other countries don’t consider Ukraine as an option, current students are taught entirely online, and researchers less likely to look for collaboration there. Meanwhile teaching and research goes on as the country looks to protect and secure its independent future.”

Research Collaboration

Ukraine’s Dnipro University of Technology (DUT) has been working alongside Lancaster’s Faculty of Science and Technology on restoring the country’s agricultural land in the wake of war damage.

Ukraine and its humus-rich ‘magic soil’ was producing around 80 million tonnes of wheat, corn and barley for global food supply chains before the war with Russia. Production is estimated to have halved in the past two years. The impact on agricultural land - by blast damage, heavy metals and other chemicals from munitions and explosives, the compaction of soil, and fossil fuel spills — could last for at least 100 years.

Practical workshops were set up at the Lancaster’s Leipzig campus, involving students and researchers from across agriculture, soil, ecology and engineering disciplines.

Workshop lead Professor Nick Ostle said: “As the war in Ukraine has demonstrated so dramatically, healthy soils are critical to global food security. Estimates suggest that the loss of 40 million tonnes of crop production a year represents enough calories to feed the entire UK population for three years.

“Over the two-day conference, we explored how to address soil restoration challenges in Ukraine, shared innovative findings on the use of bioremediation and engineering technologies and identified areas for future work together.”

The conference was just the start of strategic co-operation around research priorities, backed up by new networks of academics and ongoing collaborative projects on land restoration.

Student mobility

Teaching and study continue in Ukraine, online for most university students, and interrupted by air raids, power outages and damage to infrastructure. International students are not traveling to Ukraine anymore and it is difficult for students in the country to leave to experience and immerse in different countries and cultures.

The partnership between DUT and Lancaster looks to provide digital mobility opportunities and allow students studying at each institution to connect through online learning, and for DUT students to participate in Lancaster Undergraduate Research Conference with Lancaster students studying around the world.

Lancaster has also hosted several students from Ukraine for a semester abroad. Support is offered to students through the twinning programme and includes a fully funded place with fees, travel and accommodation paid, along with a scholarship.

Donations made by Lancaster alumni were able to funding students such as Software Engineering student, Sofiia: “With the beginning of the war in my country, development as a professional and living a normal life became impossible… Without exaggeration, the funding that I have received to make the transition to Lancaster is a miracle.”

Read Sofiias full story on our website

Building Academic Reputation

The international rankings and league tables don’t take the implications of war into account.

One of Ukraine's largest cities, Dnipro, has been targeted for missile attacks due to its energy infrastructure, most recently with the first use of a hypersonic Intermediate-Range Ballistic Missile. Dnipro University of Technology was founded in the nineteenth-century, the university has an established reputation and expertise in geology, mining and engineering.

A study visit was held this autumn at Lancaster, funded by the British Council, to exchange ideas and experiences, and pass on best practices around institutional transformation, global reputation and profile building. Along with a joint research programme making practical recommendations for restoring Ukrainian agricultural land from the effects of wartime degradation, schemes so far have included a fully-funded short-term student mobility programme and access to Online Leadership Classes and the Undergraduate Research Conference.

“We’re exploring the full range of ways to work together and joint ventures that help with Dnipro University’s development and capacity building — including the behind-the-scenes functions that also contribute to the student experience and a university’s global reputation,” Lancaster’s Global Engagement Manager Rachel Harvey.