UK universities to ‘twin’ with Ukrainian universities

@UniversitiesUK – UK universities* are being matched with Ukrainian institutions** as part of a twinning initiative to offer support to academics, students and university leaders during the conflict. The scheme is being coordinated by Cormack Consultancy Group with the support of Universities UK.

Conversations between universities have started this week with the aim of securing long-term collaboration across areas including curriculum content, online resources, research collaboration and the movement of students and staff.

The project is at an early stage and around 30 universities from across the UK have expressed their interest in the twinning initiative so far.

As well as long-term collaboration, some universities have already started discussing short-term support initiatives, including:

• Enabling Ukrainian academics to be based at UK universities to allow them to continue to teach Ukrainian students through online courses; access to IT infrastructure and accommodation.
• Ensuing Ukrainian academics have access to libraries and other online academic resources which UK university staff can access (providing staff with a UK university ac.uk email address, for example).
• Giving Ukrainian students who can speak English the opportunity to take online UK university modules with credits which their Ukrainian universities will recognise.
• Helping to protect Ukrainian resources including rare book collections.
• Hosting summer schools at UK campuses to help students catch up with learning.
• Linking UK and Ukrainian student unions to raise funds for new equipment that is needed to support learning.
• Extending municipal relationships – this has even extended to discussing twinning football clubs.
• Sharing expertise regarding psychological support for students.

Professor Dame Janet Beer, Vice-Chancellor of the University of Liverpool and Chair of UUK’s International Policy Network, said: “UK universities have unequivocally condemned the war on Ukraine and we are committed to supporting Ukrainian staff and students currently in the UK as well as those who arrive here fleeing the conflict.

 “Our universities have a wealth of resources, knowledge and expertise, and we want to find practical ways to support Ukrainian universities now and in the future. That starts with understanding their current needs, and this twinning initiative is an excellent way for UK universities to support Ukrainian universities directly, in partnership alongside our higher education counterparts around the world.”

Charles Cormack, Founder and Chairman of Cormack Consultancy Group, said: “This project is designed to support Ukrainian universities to continue to function during this difficult time. By supporting them in their mission we are also minimising the risk of brain drain, with academics and students disappearing into the HE systems of other countries. 

It also allows UK universities to focus their support on a particular partner, which allows them to see they are making a real difference to the lives of academics and students and helping to sustain their partner.”

UK universities which have expressed interest in the twinning initiative:

• University of Hull
• University of Roehampton
• University of Birmingham
• Edge Hill University
• Canterbury Christ Church University
• Aberystwyth University
• St. Mary’s University, Twickenham
• University of London
• Newcastle University
• University of Edinburgh
• University of Bristol
• Queen’s University Belfast
• University of Wolverhampton
• University of Nottingham
• University of Essex
• Sheffield Hallam University, UK
• University of Worcester
• University of Greenwich
• Cardiff Metropolitan University
• University of Liverpool
• Abertay University
• INTO University Partnerships – Private Pathway Provider
• Loughborough University
• London Metropolitan University
• University of Warwick
• University of St Andrews
• University of Glasgow
• University of Hertfordshire
• University of East Anglia (UEA)
• Wrexham Glyndwr University

**List of Ukrainian higher education institutions:

• Sumy National Agrarian University
• Dnipropetrovsk State University of Internal Affairs (DSUIA)
• Shupyk National Healthcare University of Ukraine
• Zaporizhzhia State Medical University
• Dnipro State Medical University
• Kharkiv National Medical University
• Private institution of higher education “Kharkiv International Medical University”
• Ivan Horbachevsky Ternopil National Medical University
• Danylo Halytsky Lviv National Medical University
• Bogomolets National Medical University
• Zaporizhzhia State Medical University
• KNUTD – Kyiv National University of Technologies and Design
• Taras Shevchenko National University of Kyiv 
• National University of Kyiv-Mohyla Academy
• The Odesa national economic university​
• Oles Honchar Dnipro National University
• Yaroslav Mudryi National Law University
• V. N. KArazin Kharkiv National University
• Chernihiv Polytechnic National University
• Nizhyn Mykola Gogol State University
• Sumy State University
• Bohdan Khmelnytsky National University of Cherkasy
• National University of Ostroh Academy
• Ivan Franko National University of Lviv
• Simon Kuznets Kharkiv National Univesity of Economics
• National University of Water and Environmental Engineering (NUWEE)
• Ternopil V. Hnatiuk National Pedagogical University
• Open International University for Human development