Masaryk University has been supporting Ukraine since the start of Russia’s full-scale invasion. Immediately after the invasion began, the university offered assistance to students, academics and their families. This initial support has since been complemented by longer-term projects focusing on education, research and the development of Ukrainian universities.
Alongside ongoing support for Ukrainian universities, researchers and students, the discussions focused on how higher education institutions operate in wartime, their resilience, war medicine, and the integration of Ukrainian universities into European networks. In Ukraine, Martin Bareš, Rector of Masaryk University, and Petr Suchý, Vice-Rector for Internationalisation and External Relations, met with university leaders in Lviv and Ivano-Frankivsk.
Masaryk University has been supporting Ukraine since the start of Russia’s full-scale invasion. Immediately after the invasion began, the university offered assistance to students, academics and their families. It also admitted nearly 500 Ukrainian students through a special admissions procedure and employed more than 100 people from Ukraine. This initial assistance has since been complemented by longer-term projects focusing on education, research and the development of Ukrainian universities.
These projects include DigiUni, through which MU shares its expertise in hybrid teaching and digitalisation. The project aims to create a shared environment for online education at Ukrainian higher education institutions. Masaryk University is also coordinating the European RIFF project – Research Infrastructures for the Future of Ukraine – which is mapping the needs of Ukrainian research infrastructures and developing a plan for their restoration, modernisation and further development.
Support for Ukrainian universities was also on the agenda in Poznań, Poland, immediately before the MU delegation travelled to Ukraine. Rector Martin Bareš took part in a discussion entitled ‘Supporting Ukrainian Universities’ at the General Assembly of the Compostela Group of Universities, alongside representatives of universities from Ukraine, Lithuania and Poland. During the discussion, he presented Masaryk University’s activities in support of Ukraine, including the RIFF project.
From Poznań, Rector Martin Bareš and Vice-Rector Petr Suchý travelled directly to Ukraine. Their first stop was Lviv, where they met Jiří Borcel, Consul General of the Czech Republic. They discussed the current situation in western Ukraine, as well as Masaryk University’s activities in support of local educational and research institutions.
In Lviv: university resilience and war medicine
The main university meeting in Lviv took place at Danylo Halytsky Lviv National Medical University. Rector Martin Bareš and Vice-Rector Petr Suchý met with Rector Orest Chemerys and Vice-Rector Ihor Dutko to discuss the further development of cooperation and the university’s experience of operating while its academic community is directly affected by the ongoing war.
The discussions covered the resilience of universities and their ability to operate under exceptional circumstances, as well as war medicine, traumatology, care for war veterans and advances in prosthetics. The Lviv university’s management also shared its experience of integrating a university hospital into the medical university as part of a government pilot project.
During their visit to the campus, the MU representatives toured the facilities and met information technology students who presented a Franco-Ukrainian project using 3D printing to produce prosthetic devices for Ukrainian soldiers who have lost lower limbs.
“Masaryk University has been supporting Ukrainian students, academics and partner institutions since the start of the war, and we want to continue this cooperation in the long term. At the same time, face-to-face meetings at Ukrainian universities are a powerful reminder that this is not a one-way relationship based solely on assistance. Our Ukrainian colleagues have exceptional experience of how universities can operate and remain resilient in wartime. They have developed a high degree of flexibility in crisis management and have also gained valuable expertise in areas such as war medicine, traumatology and the reintegration of veterans into civilian life. We have much to learn from them in these areas as well,” said Martin Bareš, Rector of Masaryk University.
The MU delegation also gained first-hand insight into the reality in which Ukrainian universities operate on a daily basis. During the trip, the delegation experienced two air-raid alerts and spent part of one night in a hotel shelter. The presence of the war was also brought home by a visit to the war cemetery in Lviv and by the streets of Ivano-Frankivsk, where large-format photographs of fallen defenders are displayed in public spaces. Many of those pictured were very young – “the same age as our children,” as Rector Martin Bareš put it. Their faces and stories offered another powerful reminder of the extent to which the war is affecting the lives of local people.
The programme in Lviv also included a round-table discussion on Czech-Ukrainian cooperation, held as part of the Czech Dreams festival. The meeting brought together stakeholders involved in cooperation between the two countries and provided an opportunity to share information about upcoming projects and explore ways of making cooperation even more effective. The Czech Dreams festival, which this year focused on the Czech-Ukrainian partnership and sustainable development, featured not only a professional programme but also Czech and Ukrainian music and a photography exhibition in Lviv.
Western Ukrainian university seeks closer ties with EDUC
The Masaryk University delegation then travelled to Ivano-Frankivsk to visit Vasyl Stefanyk Carpathian National University. Like MU, the university is an associate member of the European university alliance EDUC and participates in the EDUC-WIDE project.
Bareš and Suchý met with Rector Valentina Yakubiv and Vice-Rector Lilia Turovska. The Ukrainian university’s management outlined the current situation and the challenges facing students and staff as a result of the war. Among other things, Russian attacks on energy infrastructure have led Ukrainian universities to bring forward the start of the autumn term so that teaching can be completed before winter.
The discussions also focused on support for universities in eastern Ukraine, which face an even more challenging situation and, in some cases, are unable to provide in-person teaching. Carpathian National University, for example, has made part of its premises available to a university in Kherson.
The delegation visited several university sites and met with students and researchers involved in the EDUC-WIDE project. One of the main topics was further cooperation within EDUC and Carpathian National University’s ambition to become a full member of the European university alliance in the future.
“Once again in Ukraine, we saw just how important regular personal contact is, alongside specific projects. It allows us to respond more effectively to the actual needs of our partner universities while also identifying new areas for cooperation. Their participation in European university networks is also very important. For example, we want to continue supporting Carpathian National University in its efforts to become a full member of the EDUC alliance,” said Petr Suchý, Vice-Rector for Internationalisation and External Relations.
Representatives of both universities also discussed establishing contacts in specific areas of research. One promising opportunity is cooperation involving the new observatory at the summit of Pip Ivan, the third-highest mountain in Ukraine. The observatory could serve as a base for joint research in astronomy, satellite tracking and monitoring, meteorology, climate and environmental studies, and mountain ecosystems.
Further opportunities are emerging in plant biotechnology and biochemistry, psychology and research into social resilience, as well as Czech studies and technology transfer.