Higher education institutions as frontline responders: Ukrainian universities in wartime

• In Event: Roundtable Group 3
  In Refereed Roundtable Session: Building youth-responsive higher education institutions

Proposal

The purpose of the [DONOR]-funded [PROGRAM C] is to improve the overall economic resilience of Ukraine, as the country has seen a disruption of critical market linkages, decline of previously dominant industries, and massive population disruption and migration. The project aims to bolster this resilience through, among other strategies, inclusion, which aims to bring more people into the economic life of Ukraine by providing them with the capabilities to realize their potential in the economic sphere, with a special focus on vulnerable and hard-to-reach populations.
[C], Senior Workforce Development manager, will share how [PROGRAM C'S] Workforce team, prior to the Russian aggression, worked to support Ukrainian HEIs to strengthen their abilities to respond to and understand its student populations. This has included carrying out a series of Positive Youth Development (PYD) trainings for 80 staff of universities and TVETs of the region. These activities also identified champions with each partner, willing to take on and own the approach, piloting new ways PYD perspectives can influence better practices at more traditional institutions on attracting and retaining students.
During the war, [PROGRAM C] has pivoted to assist HEIs to provide targeted, urgent support to their students and staff. The project has sponsored [INITIATIVE Z], which supports the participation of female university students, mostly from eastern Ukraine, in an immersive business start-up program at a university in Georgia. Over the course of a year, they are building and piloting their start-ups, with the goal of returning to Ukraine and launching their businesses. Crucially, [PROGRAM C] is also connecting HEI students, professors, and staff across Ukraine to mental health and psychosocial support (MHPSS) resources, including trainings in stress management and psychological first aid, with the aim of mitigating burnout and preventing suicide, and supporting youth people to remain in and thrive in their studies despite displacement and uncertainty. Participants included locals, IDPs and people who had moved abroad. These trainings covered 20 regions of Ukraine and reached 520 individuals, including students; teachers from 33 universities; representatives of vocational education institutions; methodologists from training and methodological centers of VET, and practical psychologists and representatives of organizations working with young people.

93% of surveyed students and 87% of surveyed teachers reported that the training had a positive impact on their openness to apply for MHPSS or recommend it to others, and students expressed a desire to continue exploring these issues. Further, 74% of surveyed students and 91% of surveyed teachers reported that the knowledge and skills gained from the training had a positive impact on their study and/or work. The teachers added that their new knowledge and skills also positively influenced education, interactions with students and/or extracurricular activities at their educational institution.

Drawing on findings of the survey and her recent publication (AUTHORS, 2022) [C] will also discuss the efforts that are needed in the days ahead so that HEIs can engage, attract, and retain young people to support them in the rebuilding of Ukraine.

Author

• Snizhana Leu-Severynenko, USAID Economic Resilience Activity