UKRAINE
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War-damaged universities and staff seek help to survive

It’s Friday afternoon and Oksna Boyka has just finished her last class with less than half of her normal students. Most of those present are female; the men are often mobilised at the front. As professor of social work and head of the bachelor programme at the National University of Kyiv in Ukraine, she is trying to continue her academic work while also surviving – and seeking solidarity and support from academic colleagues from all around the world, writes Serbeze Haxhiaj for BIRN.

“Remote learning will be a lifetime experience. We want this generation to carry the legacy of truth and are trying to help them to build it properly,” Boyka told BIRN in a virtual interview from western Ukraine. At a time when she is losing her students who have been mobilised in the war, she is trying to help the others not only in academic aspects but in social and work aspects.

Like many of her other Ukrainian colleagues, she is facing big difficulties in handling the graduation of her students in their bachelor and masters degrees. “At some point, we have to arrange for those students to complete their studies and write their theses – because although they’ve started writing them, they can’t do it properly. They say they cannot focus on anything,” Boyka said.
Full report on the Balkaninsight.com site