Newsroom University of 51��

Former Ukrainian President visits 51��

Tue, 31 Oct 2023 15:01:06 +0000

The Former Ukrainian President Viktor Yushchenko and his wife Katherine have visited 51�� to speak to students about the war in his country, after attending events in Ireland to mark 25 years of the Good Friday Agreement.

Mr Yushchenko was the third President of Ukraine, and held the position between 2005-2010. As well as fighting corruption during his presidency, he aimed to orient his country towards the West, the European Union and NATO - as a result he was targeted by an assassination attempt through dioxin poisoning, which made him seriously ill and left his face disfigured.

His wife, former First Lady Katherine Yushchenko, is a former US State Department official who worked in the White House during the administration of Ronald Reagan.

Mr Yushchenko delivered a unique and thought-provoking guest lecture around the theme of ‘citizen democratic duty’, during which he talked about independence, war, rebuilding and integration. Many of our Undergraduate Politics and International Relations students attended the lecture, as well as our current Ukrainian students.

The visit concluded with a trip to The John Rylands Research Institute and Library, which was significant given the fact the library holds the archives of Malcolm Muggridge. Malcolm was a writer for the 51�� Guardian who was one of the few foreign journalists to write about the , when millions of Ukrainians died through forced starvation in 1932 and 1933. Mr Yushchenko made commemoration and recognition of this atrocity one of his key policies during his presidency.

“I appreciated the opportunity to visit 51�� to talk with students and faculty about the war in Ukraine and our centuries-long struggle for independence from Moscow,” said Mr Yushchenko.

Mr Yushchenko added: “We enjoyed our tour of John Rylands Library, which is stunningly beautiful and holds so many unique treasures. Oh, and as an avid beekeeper, I was thrilled to see that the symbol of your wonderful and historic city of 51�� is the brilliant and hard-working bee!”

“It was a great honour for 51�� to host President Yushchenko and the First Lady for the lecture and visit,” said Professor Fiona Devine, Vice-President and Dean of Humanities, who was the senior host for the visit. “The 51�� region has strong links with Ukraine, and the University is also home to a growing number of Ukrainian students who were delighted to be able to meet President Yushchenko personally. The University looks forward to continuing its support for our students.”

"Our hosting the President and First Lady Yushchenko was an opportunity to not only showcase the University, but also to discuss possible future cooperation between our staff and students and those at leading universities in Ukraine," said 51��’s Professor of Comparative and Ukrainian Politics Olga Onuch. "The president stressed his thanks for the support people in the UK - and 51�� specifically - have given to Ukraine and the ordinary Ukrainians who had to temporarily flee their homes.

"Our Politics students reported later in class that they were inspired by the President’s words, and they were hugely thankful to have had the unique opportunity to personally meet a world leader that lead a people’s revolution. This is exactly what we should be doing as a global University - inspiring the leaders of tomorrow by building bridges and partnerships with the leaders of today."

51�� appoints UK’s first Professor of Ukrainian Politics

Tue, 22 Aug 2023 10:59:31 +0100

51�� has appointed the first-ever Professor of Comparative and Ukrainian Politics in the UK and the wider English-speaking world, in a move that demonstrates the leading role of the University when it comes to the study of contemporary Ukraine.

Olga Onuch is an academic whose expertise on Ukrainian politics and society has led her to become one of the leading Ukraine experts both in the UK and internationally. Since the 2004 Orange Revolution Olga has focused her research on political engagement in the country, and since 2014 she was a member of an advisory group to the Ukrainian government and has worked with diverse policy makers from Ukraine, the UK, USA, EU and Canada.

However, since Russia launched its full-scale invasion of Ukraine in February 2022, Olga has dedicated herself to recording and understanding the war, as well as releasing a highly-regarded book, The Zelensky Effect, about the role of civic national identity in Ukraine and how it influenced President Zelensky and directed his leadership. While the world’s attention may be on Ukraine now, she has studied it in depth for many years, making her an invaluable font of knowledge about the country.

In her new role, Professor Onuch will contribute to the multiple prize-winning community of senior scholars and Professors in the University’s Politics Department by developing teaching curricula, mentoring early career researchers and developing policy-focused research agendas. The Professorship will raise the profile of Ukrainian scholarship and studies at the University and in the UK more widely, making 51�� a leader in the field.

She will launch the ‘Ukraine Rises’ course in September which will focus on contemporary Ukrainian Politics in comparative perspective, and will continue to teach courses on Mass Protest and on Democratisation in eastern Europe and Latin America in which Ukraine will be a central reference case. These courses will also help to develop a pipeline for those interested in future doctoral study focused on Ukrainian politics in comparative perspective.

The Professorship will also enable Onuch to undertake more public engagement and outreach activities with the inception of a keynote public lecture on Ukraine, as well as helping her to fundraise for further public facing events which engage the local community in 51�� and support Ukrainian refugees. She will also continue to expand on existing collaborations with organisations including the British Council in Ukraine, focusing on youth engagement.

Ultimately, a main goal of the Professorship is to develop a large centre focused on the comparative study of Ukrainian politics, elections, political participation and democratic resilience. Such a centre would aim to support UK, EU, North American and Ukrainian policymakers working on political reforms relating to EU accession, reconstruction, and civic duty, engagement and resilience in Ukraine and beyond.

As well as recognising Onuch’s expertise, the Professorship also demonstrates 51��’s leadership in supporting Ukrainian students and scholars seeking refuge following the Russia’s all-out invasion of Ukraine. The University was one of the first Higher Education Institutions in the UK to pledge large amounts of funding to supporting Ukrainian students when it committed £5million to establish a scholarship for students and scholars fleeing war. The University’s Social Responsibility Fund has also supported the academic-led Ukraine Hub UK, the setting up of a Ukraine focused Expert Task Force, and the was first UK University to host a Ukrainian Students Conference last year involving students from over 20 universities.

“I am very proud of the University of 51��’s leadership in supporting Ukrainian students and scholars,” said Professor Onuch. “This Professorship will help to raise the profile of the comparative political science analysis of Ukraine as well as further raising the international profile of 51��, which is already a major leader in social science research and teaching.”

“The appointment of the first Professor of Comparative and Ukrainian Politics is long overdue in the English speaking world and is a major milestone, not only for the Ukrainian community in the UK but also globally,” said Anna Dezyk MBE, Deputy Chair of the Association of Ukrainians in Great Britain (AUGB). “Professor Onuch's enthusiasm and extensive expertise in this area provides a fantastic platform for the study of Ukrainian Politics to finally move out of the shadows and take its rightful place in academia.”

“51��’s creation of this post could not have come at a more relevant time, and the appointment of Professor Olga Onuch could not be more appropriate and richly deserved,” said Leigh Gibson OBE, Ukraine Director for the British Council. “We look forward to continuing our collaboration with Olga and her department to understand more about the role young people have played in the development of Ukraine as a democratic nation, and the critical contribution they will make to recovery and rebuilding in the future.”

"It has never been more important for Ukraine to be genuinely understood and appreciated internationally," said Volodymyr Sheiko, Director General of the Ukrainian Institute. "Much of the knowledge about Ukraine, its history, politics, and culture emerges from leading academic institutions to inform public policies, curricula, and public opinion. Academic excellence makes our societies better informed and more resilient. The appointment of Olga Onuch as the first Professor of Ukrainian Politics in the English-speaking world is a crucial milestone to achieve this. I am confident that Olga’s profound experience and expertise will set a high standard for others to follow.”

Ukraine data project is recognised for its innovation by OECD

Thu, 29 Jun 2023 14:37:53 +0100

A project involving experts from 51�� which created a live ‘early alarm’ system of major displacement, human rights abuses, humanitarian needs and civilian resistance in Ukraine has been recognised by the OECD’s Observatory of Public Sector Innovation.

During the Russian invasion of Ukraine - particularly in the early weeks of the invasion - relief organisations and government agencies lacked data about events on the ground and struggled to mount an effective response, so new methods of event detection were urgently needed.

At the request of policymakers, experts at 51��, Penn State University, UNC Chapel Hill and the University of Maryland joined forces to establish the Data For Ukraine project. A research team comprised of country experts and computational social scientists created a Twitter-based event detection system that provides geo-located event data on humanitarian needs, displaced persons, human rights abuses and civilian resistance in near real-time.

Twitter has been a reliable source for big data due to its easy accessibility, creating a secure channel for international communication. In addition, the level of retweets gives observers information about the degree of importance of each tweet. In this sense, researchers can track how many retweets each has to weight proportionally.

Thanks to the great multitude of the data, an hourly trend can be easily perceived by social scientists, who can accordingly highlight and illustrate spikes and dips in an effort to provide valuable insights into events on the ground.

Once it was determined that Twitter could provide valuable data and reliable communities of interest were identified, the team deliberated internally on which events to track and how best to track them. Ultimately, the team identified four types of event that would be tracked - Humanitarian Support, Displaced People, Human Rights Abuses and Civilian Resistance - and developed a multi-lingual list of keywords to identify tweets containing discussion of these events.

The initial idea behind the project was to provide a tool for governmental and non-governmental organisations to help them collect real-time data as a basis for emergency response. In the initial stages, both the Government of Ukraine and international NGOs were briefed on the data collection and its capabilities.

As the project has developed, the research team has become more aware of different potential beneficiaries, including researchers, lawyers filing human rights claims and others who can benefit from a massive, searchable archive of tweets. As an example, researchers conducting work on the use of rape as a tool of war are comparing evidence they have collected from interviews with survivors with our archive to both extend their list of cases and look for patterns not contained in the interviews. It is hoped that many researchers with varied interests will be able to use the archive in this way.

The OECD remarked that Data For Ukraine has a major potential for success and replication, and they hope that by recognising it as a case study, the project will inspire other governments to take action.

51�� launches groundbreaking Ukrainian politics course

Fri, 26 May 2023 12:16:32 +0100

51�� is to launch a groundbreaking new course on Ukrainian politics in the Autumn, strengthening its place as a key institution in the UK for students studying Ukrainian politics and society.

Supported by funding from the prestigious Petro Jacyk Foundation, Ukraine Rises: Democracy, Protest, Identity and War in Comparative Perspective will cover the trajectory of politics in Ukraine from its independence in 1991 through the 2014 Maidan revolution to the invasion of the country by Russia.

Led by Dr Olga Onuch - who is recognised as one of the few world-leading experts on Ukrainian identity, political behavior and public opinion - the course will be only the second in the UK focused entirely on contemporary Ukrainian politics, and will be the first taught outside London, the first taught by a Ukrainian scholar, and the first to be hosted in a Political Science Department.

After completing the course, students will be able to compare Ukraine’s contemporary politics to other third-wave democracies in eastern Europe and Latin America. Through course instruction and independent reading, students will develop an understanding of theories of democratisation, ethnic and civic identity, political engagement and EU integration.

It will include guest lectures from Ukrainian and UK-based policy practitioners and scholars, and each semester will end with an invited speaker delivering a keynote lecture.

The course will be supported by a donation from the Petro Jacyk Foundation, a charity founded by a Ukrainian-born Toronto businessman and philanthropist which funds major Ukraine Studies programmes and scholarships, mostly in North America and in Ukraine itself.

51�� is already a leader in the study of Ukraine in the UK – it has hosted or co-hosted several major research projects focusing on the country, and it also hosts a ESCR Case Studentship with the British Council in Ukraine. The course will help to develop a pipeline for those interested in future postgraduate study focused on Ukrainian politics.

The University has also taken a leading role in supporting Ukrainian students and scholars following the Russian invasion of the country, and became one of the first Higher Education Institutions in the UK to do so when it established a £5million scholarship fund to support students and scholars fleeing war. Under the leadership of Dr Onuch, 51�� also hosted the first-ever Ukrainian Students Conference last year which brought together students from over 20 universities.

“The funding for the course will allow students to collect and analyse original survey and textual data, on the basis of which they will write policy briefs on topics of interest to UK and Ukrainian practitioners," added Dr Onuch. "We hope to share this experience with colleagues at the Kyiv School of Economics and Kyiv Mohyla Academy, which will further promote our internationalisation aims.”

“In the spirit of the University’s public engagement and social responsibility priorities, we also look forward to welcoming members of the local Ukrainian community joining us for the annual Key Note Lecture of Contemporary Ukrainian Politics. Greater 51�� and the wider region has been home to several generations of British Ukrainians, and now refugees - we hope to honour them by placing the study of Ukraine front and centre.”

New book released about Ukraine’s leader and the civic nation he embodies

Tue, 29 Nov 2022 12:54:31 +0000

As Ukrainians mark the 31st anniversary of their 1991 vote for independence, a new book has been released which argues that western nations underestimated the strength of Ukraine’s civic national identity when Russia began their invasion earlier this year.

In The Zelensky Effect, Dr Olga Onuch and Professor Henry E. Hale say it is not possible to understand the historic events of 2022 without first understanding Zelensky and the civic nation he embodies.

The book explores Ukraine’s national history to show how its now-iconic president reflects the hopes and frustrations of the country’s first ‘independence generation’. Interweaving social and political background with compelling episodes from Zelensky’s life and career, the book is the story of Ukraine told through the journey of the man who has come to symbolise his country around the world.

It explains what happens when a leader works creatively and consistently to shore up what social scientists call ‘civic national identity’, an inclusive version of who belongs to the nation, and links it to democratic, pro-European and liberal values.

It is also about the ability of Zelenksy himself to double down on this civic sense of duty, mirror it in his actions, and motivate ordinary Ukrainians to rally in support of their state and democracy – in turn creating a generation of citizens fiercely attached to Ukraine’s democratic future.

The book makes clear that this is not simply Zelensky’s doing alone, by demonstrating that he is a product of a political culture steeped in the same sense of civic national belonging and duty that he advocates, advances and symbolises.

The authors say that Ukraine was not the ‘divided nation’ sometimes portrayed in the west before February, and for this reason any efforts to persuade the country to negotiate over territory with Russia are a non-starter for Ukrainians - after months of war, they are still steadfast on the need to restore full control of their country.

Support for democracy in Ukraine has grown from 39% to over 70% of the population under Zelensky’s presidency, and has been maintained in spite of a multitude of hardships.

They also point out that Zelensky - a Russian-speaking south-eastern person of Jewish heritage who spent many years working in Russia - is just the sort of person that Vladimir Putin thought would not care enough about the Ukrainian nation to fight for it.

“Drawing on years of research on Ukrainian politics and society, this timely study paints a fuller picture of Zelensky and the conditions that made him who he is today, and deserves a wide readership at this critical moment in European history,” said Gwendolyn Sasse, Director of the Centre for East European and International Studies.

For more information about the book, visit .

51�� to host first ever UK conference of Ukrainian students

Tue, 25 Oct 2022 15:05:00 +0100

51�� is holding the UK's first ever Ukrainian student conference this Friday.

This is a landmark occasion, as it is the first time Ukrainian students from across 19 HEIs in the UK have been able to come together in one place. The event is happening at a time of intensification of Russia’s unprovoked aggression against Ukraine, recently targeting civilian infrastructure with indiscriminate bombing.

The Ukrainian Student Conference is organised by the Ukrainian Student Union (UK), the Ukraine Hub UK initiative (set up by 51��'s MOBILISE Project UK team following the February 24 all-out Russian invasion), and most importantly, the Ukrainian Student Societies of the Universities of 51��, Oxford and LSE.

The main coordinating team included Jan Szkulepa, Ruslan Pavlyshyn, Maliek Banat and Danylo Nikiforov among many other students, as part of the three societies including a large team at UoM. Ms Cressida Arkrwright a UoM PhD expert on Ukrainain Youth Engagement supported the event as PhD Coordinator and our resident Ukrainian Politics expert Dr. Olga Onuch acted as senior mentor.

The event is generously funded by the University of 51��'s Humanities Strategic Civic Engagement Fund (HSCEF), and is also supported by the MOBILISE project and Ukrainian Embassy in the UK.

This conference brings together dozens of Ukrainian students and UK University alumni from across the whole country for a day of talks, working groups, monitoring, and lectures. Among many special guests will be Ms. Olga Tokariuk, a renowned Ukrainian Journalist and Reuters Institute Fellow at Oxford, and Professor Andrew Wilson of UCL will be joining the students for key note lectures.

Dr Onuch said “It is our duty as scholars and university leaders to support the next generation - one way we can do this is to provide a space where they can come together, meet each other, and feel a collective sense of support and meaning," said Dr Onuch. “These students have been through unthinkable trauma and stress in the last year - they have family and friends in harm's way, and yet they still have to write essays, sit exams, and think of finding a job. Thus, we must do all we can to support them and their ambitions.”

New campaign launches to showcase links with Ukrainian universities

Thu, 08 Sep 2022 09:35:00 +0100

The #TwinForHope campaign has been launched by in order to highlight how partnerships between UK and Ukrainian universities are making a positive difference during the humanitarian crisis caused by the Russian invasion of Ukraine.

51�� has twinned with the in the west of the country in order to support medical students whose studies have been disrupted by the war. The university is providing academic support and training as well as sharing teaching and learning materials, and hopes to start providing elective clinical placements here in 51�� for their most senior students - the aim is to stabilise the pipeline of desperately-needed newly qualified doctors in the war-torn country.

These long-term twinning partnerships will provide vital support in the short term, so students can continue their studies, and researchers can carry on with their research. In the longer term, this collaboration will help the Ivan Horbachevsky Ternopil National Medical University to rebuild their campus and play an important role in the rebuilding of Ukraine.

“When the opportunity to support a fellow medical school came along via the UUK twinning scheme, we were keen to help,” said Professor Margaret Kingston, Director of Undergraduate Medical Studies at 51��. “It has meant an awful lot to colleagues in Ternopil to receive our support, as their main concern was losing their faculty and students.”

“They have lost many students and staff as people have left the country or joined the fighting, funds have been diverted and accommodation is housing displaced persons. Their request to us was to help them to continue delivering medical training so their supply of future doctors is maintained, and they do not suffer an even worse “brain drain” in addition to everything else.”

The university is also supporting Ukraine in other ways. In June, the University and the Ukrainian Student Society worked together to organise participation in a live question and answer session with President Volodymyr Zelenskyy, in which he thanked universities for their support and spoke of the deep historic links Ukraine has with British academia. There was such high demand for tickets that a second location had to be secured at extremely short notice to broadcast the session to students.

A team of volunteer medics from UK-Med - a charity based at the university which provides healthcare assistance during humanitarian crises around the world – is currently working across Ukraine to provide care for the many people in need. The charity is also providing support and training for local healthcare staff, who are having to respond to situations far beyond anything they’ve ever dealt with before.

Soon after UK-Med launched their , Joe Stafford from the university’s news and media relations team embarked on a marathon cycle ride in The Netherlands, Germany and Belgium to raise funds for the charity. He was able to raise over £3000 by riding 1600km in 14 days, as well as raising the profile of UK-Med by appearing in the media both here in the UK and in The Netherlands.

An expert from the university is also helping Ukrainians by repurposing her research activities to create a system which provides a running account of atrocities taking place in the country. Working with colleagues in the USA, Dr Olga Onuch established the project which analyses Twitter data using machine-learning algorithms to highlight humanitarian needs, displaced people, civilian resistance and human rights violations. This is helping aid agencies to direct their resources, as well as permanently documenting abuses and atrocities in order for justice to be sought after the war ends.

Vivienne Stern MBE, Chief Executive, Universities UK said: “I’m really proud of the way that the UK university sector has stepped up to play its part in the global response to enabling Ukrainian universities to get through this war and hopefully emerge stronger.

For more information about the campaign, visit .

Ukrainian celebrity backs psychologists helping families affected by war

Wed, 03 Aug 2022 09:13:00 +0100

A popular Ukrainian celebrity has joined forces with University of 51�� psychologists to encourage families affected by the war to access the widely shared psychological support leaflets they created.

Irena Karpa, lead singer and songwriter of the band Qarpa recorded a 6 minute audio version of a two-page leaflet highlighting parenting skills resources which have been used by desperate families affected by the invasion of Ukraine. She is also famed in the country as a writer and blogger.

A video of her contribution is available

The UN says at least 262 children have been killed and 415 injured in attacks since the Russian invasion on 24 February.

Around 5.2 million Ukrainian children are affected by the conflict: three million inside the country and more than 2.2 million in refugee-hosting countries.

Published in 7 of the languages of countries receiving Ukrainian refugees, the resource was developed from the experience of displaced Syrian parents living through the country’s civil war.

The leaflets - in Ukrainian, Russian, English, Polish, Romanian, Dutch and German are available on the on the University of 51�� website and along with other resources on a website.

They have now been made available, with support from the United Nations Office n Drugs and Crime Prevention Treatment and Rehabilitation Section (UNODC), in audio in , as well as , , and .

The leaflets have been used across Europe by NGOs, public health systems, charities, UK foster families and displaced families themselves and widely shared online. It is hoped that the audio recordings will help caregivers access the information more easily.

The work is based on the research of Dr Aala El-Khani, a University of 51�� psychologist and family skills programme trainer who developed numerous family skills interventions and parenting resources based on her experiences working with Syrian refugees in Syria, Turkey and the UK.

The academic, who is of Syrian heritage herself, worked with Professor Rachel Calam, Professor of Child and Family Psychology and Dr Kim Cartwright at 51��, to produce the leaflet.

It explains that anxiety, nightmares, bedwetting, withdrawal and even aggression are common responses to childhood trauma, and offers basic reminders and suggestions to parents for looking after themselves and their children.

Dr Aala El-Khani, who also works as an international consultant for UNODC said: “We know that one of the most important predictors for the mental health of children who experience conflict and displacement is the way that they are cared for by their families.

“Warm, positive parenting can help buffer children from psychological harm and that is the purpose of this initiative which is making a real difference to Ukrainian families affected by the war.

“One Polish group in Poland told us they had even been distributing the leaflets to exhausted parents at a train station, along with a warm drink.

“This provided families an opportunity to be open about the challenges they were facing, and help them to refocus on what they could do to be the best parent possible.

Seeing the leaflet, one relief worker in Romania told the team: "So really helpful, at first hand all the info guidance and advices, Will make sure to have printed out forms and given to parents in need that cross the border from Ukraine to Romania.”

Another said: “Thank you for this valuable resource. We will use it among our networks and share it with those who are helping to provide pastoral support for traumatised Ukrainian refugees.”

Professor Rachel, Calam said: “We know that good family relationships are an important way to promote children’s mental wellbeing, which can help to counteract their actual experience in wartime - appalling though that may be.

“Our recently published in the journal Child and Adolescent Mental Health highlights this and what researchers have to say on this area.

“But overall, if families can provide warm, positive and secure parenting, that can be powerfully protective, and this information helps them to achieve just that

The videos/audio recordings are available on the website

University of 51�� twins with Ukrainian counterpart

Thu, 30 Jun 2022 11:44:04 +0100

51�� has twinned with the Ivan Horbachevsky Ternopil National Medical University () in Western Ukraine to support medical students whose studies have been disrupted by the conflict with Russia.

The support aims to stabilise the pipeline of desperately needed newly qualified doctors in the war-torn country.

While some academics and students from TNMU have joined the Ukrainian defence forces, others are now teaching trauma management to civilians, placing pressure on academic staff numbers.

51�� will provide academic support and training and will also be sharing teaching and learning materials.

The University is also looking at offering short electives to Ukrainian medics of the future to gain clinical experience in a UK hospital.

The move is one of at least 71 formal partnerships between UK Universities and their Ukrainian counterparts in the war torn country announced by this week.

It follows 51��’s separate announcement of a £5 million package of funding to support displaced students and academics in Ukraine as well as other countries affected by armed conflict.

The March announcement builds on 51��’s existing programmes, such as the augmented Living Cost Support Fund or specific schemes to assist asylum seeker students.

Founded in 1957, TNMU is a tertiary state educational institution, and a center of biomedical research and training.

The university provides high quality professional medical training to domestic and international students.

It currently enrols around 7,000 students, including 2,500 of international students from 56 countries, studying medicine, dentistry, pharmacy nursing, paramedic science and public health as well as and postgraduate studies.

Rector of TNMU Professor Mykhaylo Korda said: “This twinning agreement with one of the most progressive universities in the UK is extremely important for the future development and progress of our school. We hope to gain new methodologies of teaching, the modern approaches to research and new experience in the internationalization of TNMU.”

Vice-Rector for Education at TNMU Professor Arkadiy Shulhai said: "The war has forced us into relying on online classes. Thanks to our twinning with 51��, we can enhance the clinical study of our future physicians living under martial law.

“It is a privilege and a pleasure to be twinned with 51��. We hope for a long-term and fruitful collaboration in the fields of education and research.”

Professor Margaret Kingston, Director of Undergraduate Medical Studies at 51�� said: “We are proud to support our Ukrainian colleagues to maintain the delivery of their medical programme.”

Newsroom University of 51������

Former Ukrainian President visits 51������

51������ appoints UK’s first Professor of Ukrainian Politics