Ukrainian higher education in distress: “I am the only specialist here”
More than a year after the Russians’ massive invasion of Ukraine, universities there are holding out thanks to online education and stubbornly academics. “For Russians the war is political; for us, it’s personal.”
Higher education and research are under pressure in Ukraine. Last year, the national budget for scientific research was transferred overnight to the defense budget. Missiles have also damaged educational institutions and laboratories. The few students and staff who remain are under great mental pressure.
A quarter of the population has fled abroad, mostly women with children and some pensioners. Adult men were conscripted and had to join the army. Academics sometimes left science to go fight. The remaining Ukrainian scientists are trying to keep research and teaching afloat. How did the war change their lives and outlook on science? One scientist who stayed and another who fled tell their stories.
Universities on the run
Universities are also fleeing, explains 45-year-old sociolinguist Viktoriia Ryhovanova. In 2014, she was working at the Pedagogical University of Foreign Languages in Horlivka in the Donbas when soldiers suddenly arrived and forced all employees to swear allegiance to the separatist “People’s Republic of Donetsk.” “We refused and left in a rush, and had to leave all the books there, our syllabi, the libraries, the laboratories, everything...” The entire university was moved in those days to the slightly deeper inland town of Bakhut. “We stood in line for hours to get through the checkpoints to our work,” she says.
That same university was forcibly relocated again last year, in the battle of Bachmoet, she says. “This is indicative of what has happened in Donetsk, Luhansk, Kherson, and Zaporizhzhya provinces. More than 3,000 educational buildings have since been damaged and institutions have had to find new locations or close their doors.” The latter happened to some 25 institutions, according to her. Some universities merged with other institutions.
To flee or to stay
Ryhovanova has been living in Leiden for more than a year now with her school-age daughter, where she is a visiting researcher working on the language of the Ukrainian diaspora. In March 2022, she fled the capital Kyiv, where she was associated with an intellectual property law institute, and, through an international network for linguists, got in touch with a Leiden professor who hosted her and her daughter. Her husband, who is fighting in the military, and her student son remained behind in Ukraine. “It was hard to leave, but it is better for my daughter.”
The 64-year-old Ígor Órzhitsky, who specializes in Spanish language and literature, decided to stay precisely when Russian soldiers arrived at the country’s second-largest city of Kharkiv in February. “I wanted to be there for my conscripted son. The many enemy missiles did not fall in the city center where he lives; the Russians mostly ravaged the city’s outskirts during the months of their offensive. My intuition has fortunately not failed me so far.”
Online education
Órzhitsky has worked at the Vasily Karazin University for decades and continued lecturing even during the war. “I am the only remaining lecturer with a science degree.”
“When the war started, everything was at a standstill for a month, and many people left, but then everything resumed online,” Órzhitsky said. “That switch to online teaching was a big challenge, but with the missile attacks, it was too dangerous to have many people in one place.” The literary scholar has since been teaching five courses with an average of 10 students each.
Shortages
Ryhovanova also continued to provide lectures for her Ukrainian students after relocating to Leiden, but at some point, she was unable to continue. “Many refugee employees have been fired, partly because the government prefers to keep them in the country, but also because there is too little money to keep them employed.” Especially professors and researchers who are good at foreign languages have disappeared. “It’s a kind of brain drain with major consequences for the system in the long run.”
“In general, funding for education and research has suffered a lot because of shortages, although salaries are still paid here,” Órzhitsky says. Previously, he says, there was never any money for conferences abroad, but now the need is also affecting research. “Chemists, for example, complain that they can’t do experiments because they don’t have the right equipment.”
Distance
Until 1991, Ukraine was part of the Soviet Union, governed by Moscow. The current war actually began in 2014. That year, a major uprising broke out against incumbent President Viktor Yanukovych, who wanted to abolish the popular association agreement with the EU. The Russians annexed the Crimean Peninsula and supported pro-Russian separatist armies in eastern Ukraine.
The Russian language, then widely spoken in the eastern part of the country, is now increasingly seen as the language of the aggressor, according to Ryhovanova. People now prefer to speak Ukrainian out of national solidarity. It represents something bigger: the war seems to have shifted the orientation of Ukrainians totally toward the West, toward Europe.
Europe
Órzhitsky used to publish widely in Russia, but when one of his close Russian friends asked him in 2015 to contribute to a publication, he declined. “For Russians, the war is further away from them: for them it is political, but for us it is personal. For example, we recently buried a student of mine who had volunteered to fight at the front.” Nor is there any contact now. Russian colleagues, he says, are afraid to correspond with him because of censorship in their country.
The hope is that scientists in Europe can help the Ukrainians. Ryhovanova says: “Because no one could predict in advance how long the war would last, research projects were budgeted for six or 12 months. These are now coming to an end. Ukraine cannot continue to pay for that on its own.”
The European Horizon program gave more support last year. But more can be done. Strengthening ties between institutions and universities in Europe and Ukraine is needed, believes Órzhitsky, who is currently in talks with the Spanish embassy. “For my students, it was always very difficult to go on exchange to Spain. If that becomes easier, it will make us feel more like part of Europe.
