Page 55 - EW July 2022

International News

UKRAINE “heart-breaking” prospect of uprooting again as front lines
Rebuilding shattered varsities have shifted.

Nevertheless, she believes university reconstruction
should begin in cities under Ukrainian control, such as
Chernihiv. That will bring tough decisions for many. Build-
ings are a costly investment for a decimated economy, but
people must also return to remake institutions.
After stopping completely in the first weeks of the in-
vasion, by mid-March, universities in most regions have
resumed remote or mixed in-person teaching, often build-
ing on lessons learned from the pandemic. No one yet
knows what enrolment will look like in September. Kseniia
Smyrnova, vice-rector for education at Taras Shevchenko
National University of Kyiv, says volumes could be less than
a third of previous years.
Few expect Ukraine’s international students to return
without security guarantees, a blow for revenue. In addition,
parents of many fee-paying domestic students may have
War damaged Kharkiv university. Inset: Inna Sovsun become unemployed, meaning they will have to pause their
studies, adds Denys Smolennikov, head of benchmarking
AS RUSSIA’S INVASION OF UKRAINE NEARS its and statistics at Sumy State University.
fourth month, much of the focus remains on fight- In April, the government estimated the cost of damage to
ing and survival. When can we talk about the re- schools, colleges and universities to be more than $5 billion
construction of Ukrainian higher education? “Now, I think, (Rs.40,000 crore) and said the war could eventually cost the
because we have to understand that reconstruction will be country at least $1 trillion, five times the value of all final
taking place in stages,” says Inna Sovsun, professor at the goods and services it produced in 2021.
Kyiv School of Economics and the National University Kyiv-
Mohyla Academy. UNITED KINGDOM
Alongside tens of thousands of deaths and millions Rising tuition fees
forced to flee to the relative safety of western regions, or
beyond Ukraine’s borders, in the east at least four universi- SEVERAL UK UNIVERSITIES ARE RAISING
ties have been destroyed — in Luhansk, Donetsk, Kharkiv their headline postgraduate fees by 10 percent or
and Zaporizhzhia — and 25 damaged. more next year, suggests an analysis of the latest
If thoughts are soon to turn to academic reconstruction, course data for 2022-23. By benchmarking data on indi-
how best can this be achieved? Ukraine could look abroad. vidual courses collected from institutional websites, The
Tempus, a precursor to the European Union’s Erasmus mo- Knowledge Partnership (TKP) suggests that ten institutions
bility programmes, proved its worth after the Yugoslav wars will raise tuition fees by 10, with many more increasing fees
of the early 1990s, according to Ivanka Popović, rector of by at least 5 percent.
the University of Belgrade. Examples include Birmingham City University, where
Projects sought to strengthen institutions and systems, the average international postgraduate taught fee is set to
promote international relations and technology transfer rise by 20 percent to £16,400 (Rs.15.7 lakh) for 80 courses
offices, strengthen central administration, improve stu- with comparable fees between 2021-22 and 2022-23, and
dent mobility and develop new bachelors and Masters London Metropolitan University, where the average is ris-
programmes. “This was a systematic approach of the Eu- ing by 16 percent to £15,700 (Rs.15.07 lakh), based on 65
ropean Commission. You had people building bridges again, courses. The role of inflation in that is unclear given that
contacts, and exchanging experiences with colleagues from many fees would have been set before the current inflation
western Europe,” says Popovic. spiral began making headlines.
Ukraine dwarfs the western Balkans in the size and de- Some variation in TKP data also suggests that price elas-
velopment of its higher education system. It is also fight- ticity — the degree to which raising fees affects demand for
ing a very different war. Perhaps instead, lessons should courses and, therefore, student numbers — could have been
be learned from Russia’s 2014 annexation of Crimea and more central to decision-making rather than inflationary
its ongoing occupation of the Donbas. In government at pressures in 2022-23. Amy Ross, a senior market insight
the time, Prof. Sovsun recalls that efforts to relocate uni- analyst at TKP (a Times Higher Education company), says
versities had mixed results. Donetsk National University “many institutions have fee-setting procedures that make
has moved successfully, she says, but others had faced the decisions well in advance of their public release”. “It seems

54 EDUCATIONWORLD JULY 2022