More than two years on since the Russian invasion of Ukraine, the International Programme team at Richmond American University London is continuing to support our partners in Ukrainian universities.
It’s still an incredibly challenging time. A recent initiative was planned with a new partner, Mychailo Boichuk University, but the university campus was badly damaged by a missile, leaving two people injured. We’d like to wish all those at the University well at such a difficult time and hope to re-start discussions with the team when possible.
This work continues the efforts of the International Programme team, in assisting Ukrainian students continue with their studies after the invasion by Putin’s Russia. The range of free initiatives included room and board for refugee students over summer, organising online classes for students still in Ukraine (with our university partner Ukrainian American Concordia University), setting up full year tuition scholarships for students to come to London and working with our housing partner iQ, and now also AES, in providing free accommodation. These initiatives were recognised in the Independent Higher Education Awards 2022 as the winner of the Advancing International Education Award for the International Programme team, working with other faculty and staff.
As Director of Universities UK International, Jamie Arrowsmith has overseen the work undertaken as part of both the UK-Ukraine twinning scheme, and the wider grants scheme.
In this blog, Jamie reflects on the past two years and his hopes for the future of these flourishing partnerships, he says:
“In the two years since the Russian invasion of Ukraine, the work between UK and Ukrainian institutions has been ambitious, collaborative, and transformative. Ambitious, in that we have seen work ranging from constructing bomb shelters to capturing oral histories of the war; collaborative, in that these partnerships are genuinely built on two-way exchange; and transformative in the demonstrative power of what a united sector can do. As we reflect on the twinning scheme two years on, it’s important to appreciate both how far we have come in such a short time, and how much is still to be done.”
