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UK response to invasion of Ukraine shows merit of coordination, says UUK International report
The UK government should offer long-term funding to enable universities to help colleagues in countries affected by humanitarian crises, a report analysing the sector’s response to the invasion of Ukraine has suggested.
As well as killing thousands upon thousands of Ukrainians and injuring many more, Russia’s invasion inflicted destruction on the country’s universities and many researchers abandoned their work to flee or fight.
In response, UK universities brought in a twinning scheme to offer support to Ukrainian institutions and a £12.8 million Researchers at Risk fellowships scheme was created to allow Ukrainian researchers to continue their work in the UK, providing salary, research and living costs for up to two years.
Coming together
“The response to the invasion of Ukraine has demonstrated what is possible when policy, funding and political interests align with the goodwill, creativity and commitment of colleagues in the UK’s higher education community,” wrote Universities UK International director Jamie Arrowsmith in the report.
“However, the scale and impact of this response has—rightly—posed questions over how we, as a community, can respond to, and support, other higher education systems experiencing humanitarian and other forms of crises.”
While the UK and other powers have been praised for coming up with significant resources to assist Ukraine’s higher education and research, there have been questions about why such levels of support have not been forthcoming for other nations.
In an opinion piece for Research Professional News earlier this year, Arrowsmith himself wrote: “The question of whether universities could do more, as a community, to mobilise that support in response to other crises is absolutely the right one.”
Lessons learned
Released on 11 September, the UUKI report identifies lessons learned from the Ukraine situation that could ensure higher education is better placed to respond to future international crises.
It suggests that the government and funding agencies should consider sector-wide funding to support higher education continuation as part of humanitarian efforts. This should consider funding ahead of crises for preparedness, as they start via emergency response, during for recovery and rehabilitation, and finally for long-term reconstruction and development.
Long-term sustained financing should be explored “as a priority” by government bodies, including the Foreign, Commonwealth & Development Office and the Department for Science, Innovation and Technology, and government funder UK Research and Innovation, the UUKI team says.
Collaborative working
Universities should also look to work together to maximise resources and avoid any duplication, the report team urges. This could be coordinated via UUKI and include proper performance monitoring.
UUKI should also “hold a comprehensive record that maps sector knowledge and expertise in relation to humanitarian response, and which can provide a frame of reference to be used in future humanitarian crises”.
“With global challenges accelerating and geopolitical relationships increasingly fraught and contested, the need for university systems across the world to benefit from partnership, support and expertise of their peers in countries such as the UK will continue to grow. It is incumbent on us, as a community, to think carefully about how we can best respond in a coordinated, strategic way,” said Arrowsmith in the report.
Research Professional News has approached the government for comment.