Conceptualizing transformative power of resilience for continued higher education in times of crisis

• In Event: Lessons in Resilience: Insights from Ukraine for a Changing Global Higher Education Landscape

Proposal

Ukrainian higher education has demonstrated an extraordinary degree of resilience in the face of Russia’s full-scale invasion. Unlike historical precedents in which war has led to the shutdown of universities, Ukrainian institutions continued educational and research activities despite bombardments, occupation, and mass displacement. They relocated to safer regions, shifted rapidly to distance and hybrid education, engaged international partners, and sustained academic communities in virtual and dispersed formats (Bohdanov et al., 2023; Błaszczyk et al., 2025). These actions revealed not only coping strategies but also adaptive and transformative capacities, confirming that resilience is not merely survival but the reconfiguration of higher education itself (Agapova et al., 2024).

The Ukrainian experience illustrates how resilience emerges at multiple levels. At the institutional level, anticrisis management enabled continuity of teaching and research through innovative measures such as cloud-based infrastructures, donor-supported access to resources, and partnerships that compensated for the loss of physical facilities (Bohdanov et al., 2023). At the organizational and student level, resilience manifested as what Błaszczyk et al. (2025) describe as “shared resilience,” a dynamic interaction between institutional flexibility and grassroots student and faculty initiatives. Despite blackouts, air raids, and the compounded stress of examinations during wartime, students intensified everyday coping practices and relied on peer support networks, while faculty modified assessments and teaching approaches.

At the systemic level, the balance between centralization and institutional autonomy proved decisive. While government regulation provided frameworks for continuity, much of the resilience depended on the autonomy of universities and the agency of teachers and administrators who adapted governance, curricula, and examinations under wartime constraints (Nechitailo & Alieva, 2025). The adaptability and resilience of individual teachers and students also played a crucial role. Empirical research shows that while the majority displayed average levels of resilience and adaptability, a significant proportion demonstrated high levels of stress resistance, motivation, and socially supportive behavior that helped sustain learning communities across fragmented contexts (Zhelanova et al., 2025).

Together, these findings confirm that Ukrainian higher education is undergoing ontological transformation. Universities are no longer confined to a bounded physical space serving a local population; instead, they are functioning as dispersed, transnational, and technologically mediated communities. As Agapova et al. (2024) argue, resilience encompasses adaptation, transformation, and anticipation, and Ukraine’s case demonstrates all three. This transformation also carries wider significance for the global academic community. In times of geopolitical tension, declining public funding, and rising attacks on academic freedom, U.S. institutions in particular can learn from the Ukrainian experience of sustaining integrity, continuity, and community under extreme conditions.

Author

• Nina Balandina, Graduate School of Education and Human Development, GW