Universities as Creators of the Future: Lessons from the Embattled Ukraine
- Serhiy Kvit, National University of Kyiv Mohyla Academy
- Anatoly Oleksiyenko, University of Hong Kong
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Universities often act as legacy institutions, cherishing their achievements and impacts. However, universities are also institutions that shape the future. Their professors, students and alumni construct national identities and cultures, as well as spearhead and lead societal transformations. In the times of conflicts and wars, these contributions are of the greatest consequence. In the battle with the Russian fascism of the last eight years, and with the Russian imperialism over the last few centuries, the Ukrainian universities have developed a paradigm of unprecedented resilience and resistance. These qualities, and the universities’ transformational strategies, are now being put to the ultimate test, as Russia conducts a brutal war, killing thousands of civilians and demolishing cities – levelling university campuses, schools, museums and hospitals. In this presentation, two scholars from Ukraine, Serhiy Kvit and Anatoly Oleksiyenko, share findings from their recent research, which indicate that universities still build a hopeful future, notwithstanding ongoing devastation, atrocities, and genocidal hatred being inflicted on Ukraine by the Russian subaltern empire. The study also examines how the totalitarian legacy in Ukraine has been undergoing deconstruction over the previous decades, and how this contributes to the academic transformations that have been paving the way for a democratic future underpinned by a vital civil society.
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Serhiy Kvit is Professor and President of the National University of Kyiv Mohyla Academy. In 2014-2016 he served in the role of the Minister of Education and Science of Ukraine, and championed legal reforms in higher education as well as Ukraine’s partnerships with the European Union’s flagship research programs. Since 2019, he has been heading the National Agency of Higher Education Quality Assurance of Ukraine. He is also a well-known educational and literary critic, journalist and social activist. His publications on higher education reforms in Ukraine have been shaping major policies for university reforms in the country.
Anatoly Oleksiyenko is Associate Professor of Higher Education, and Director of Comparative Education Research Centre in the Faculty of Education, University of Hong Kong. He is a leading scholar and critic of post-soviet transformations in higher education, where his books and articles have received international acclaim. He has published and edited special issues in world-leading journals in the field of comparative and international education. Born and educated in Ukraine and later in Canada, he had an extensive research engagement with institutional changes in his home country as well as abroad. Anatoly has been an active contributor to international programs, projects and public consultations at UNESCO, Open Society Foundations, and Hong Kong’s Research Grants Council.
