The war in Ukraine, which forced thousands of students to flee the country, has demonstrated the need for European support for the higher education sector.
The coronavirus pandemic as well as the current war in Ukraine have revealed the necessity to establish a systematic and holistic framework for coordination within the European higher education sector in time of emergencies. Indeed, the support for persecuted academics and students currently rely mostly on national level. However, higher education institutions (HEIs) play a fundamental role in society, especially considering that young people and a robust academic community are essential for rebuilding countries after a war or a similar catastrophe. Therefore, on 31 March 2022, the German Academic Exchange Service (DAAD) held an event, which aimed at exploring new possibilities for European support for the higher education sector in emergencies.
Kyryl Naumenko, Chief of Foreign Affairs at the Ukrainian Association of Students, detailed the areas of concerns in Ukraine regarding higher education institutions by dividing them into three distinct moments: i. pre-war concerns; ii. first stage war concerns; iii. present day concerns. Before the war started, the main focus was on the digitalisation of processes and information as well as the cyber security of online learning platforms. Once the war broke out, the first priority became to evacuate the students and to relocate them in other institutions in Europe. In this regard, the recognition of qualifications raises a number of challenges especially because of missing documents. Indeed, the education degrees are mainly delivered in papers, which means that most students who had to flee do not have a record of their education. On 5 April 2022, the European Commission (EC) has thus adopted a Recommendation on the recognition of qualifications for people fleeing Russia’s invasion of Ukraine, which will provide Member States’ authorities with guidance and practical advice to ensure a quick, fair and flexible recognition process. The current worries lie on the quality of education and the enrolment campaign due to the uncertainty of the duration of the war.
In order to guarantee access to education, the EC has provided flexibility in the use of Erasmus+ funding to support incoming students and staff from Ukraine (e.g. flexibility regarding the signing learning agreements and inter-institutional agreements). Furthermore, during the meeting of the Council of the EU for Education, Youth, Culture and Sport on 5 April 2022, Education Commissioner Mariya Gabriel suggested advancing €200 million of the Erasmus+ budget planned for 2027 to the year 2023 in order to ensure that the programme has the necessary funding to support Ukraine (e.g. for a new scholarship scheme). This proposal still needs to be accepted by the Council and the European Parliament (EP), but it would constitute a strong and concrete act of support on behalf of the European Union. Going in the same direction, the Marie Skłodowska-Curie Actions (MSCA) programme will mobilise €25 million for MSCA4Ukraine fellowships. Lastly, the Erasmus+ will be opened up for incoming mobility from Ukraine for a period of 12 months. There are also discussions to extend this period by another 12 months.
The students’ representative organisations also call for more European action in time of crisis. The Erasmus Student Network (ESN), the European Students’ Union (ESU), the European University Foundation and the Coimbra Group of Universities proposed concrete measures to ensure support for the Ukrainian students and university staff through the Erasmus+ programme. These measures include: i. maximum flexibility with the remaining funds from the 2019 and 2020 International Credit Mobility (KA107); ii. fast track nomination processes to allow for an immediate start of new mobilities; iii. work programme amendment to expand funds for Ukrainian students in the 2022 KA107 call; iv. a specific funding call to support Ukrainian students; v. reinforced access to Erasmus+ opportunities; vi. access to language learning opportunities through OLS.
The event organised by DAAD highlighted the necessity for the European Union to better support the national higher education institutions by adopting a long-term, flexible and scaled up support framework for students at risk which has to be in place before a crisis emerges, especially since the needs differ greatly between countries and universities.