Universities in Ukraine During and After the War

Inna Sovsun Lecture

Lecture| Thursday, Novmeber 10 | 12:00 - 1:00 p.m. PT | In-person and online | Livestream

The Russian invasion of Ukraine brought devastation and suffering as well as heroic resistance by the Ukrainian people. Higher education was no exception to this dramatic story. To date, more than 300 Ukrainian schools and universities have been completely destroyed, and more than 2,300 have been damaged. Hundreds of thousands of students and faculty have been forced to leave their homes. Universities have demonstrated tremendous resilience in their response to the war, employing innovative approaches to learning and refocus their research to support the needs of a society under attack. What are the challenges to Ukrainian universities, students and faculty facing during the war? How has it changed their lives and priorities? What is the role of universities in Ukraine's recovery after the war?

Join us for a discussion with Inna Sovsun, a Member of the Parliament of Ukraine, lecturer at the Kyiv School of Economics and Kyiv-Mohyla Academy, former First Deputy Minister of Education and Science of Ukraine in 2014-2016, and a former Fulbright Visiting Scholar at UC Berkeley's Center for Studies in Higher Education in 2018-2019.

Moderator: John Douglass, Senior Research Fellow at the Center for Studies in Higher Education (CSHE), UC Berkeley.

Inna Sovsun Headshot

Inna Sovsun is a Member of Parliament in Verkhovna Rada of Ukraine where she serves on the Committee of Energy, Housing and Communal Services. As MP, Sovsun focuses on several major issues: education reform, the promotion of green energy, gender equality and LGBTQ+ rights. She has also been named the most LGBTQ-friendly Ukraine's MP. Sovsun served as the First Deputy Minister of Education and Science of Ukraine in 2014-2016 and launched several major reforms in higher education, including those aimed at combating corruption and plagiarism. She studied educational policy at UC Berkeley as a Fulbright Scholar and is currently a lecturer at the Kyiv School of Economics and Kyiv-Mohyla Academy.

Since the beginning of the full-scale invasion of Ukraine, Sovsun has concentrated on informing the international community about the impact of the war and the needs of Ukrainian society. She has provided her comments and insights on CNN, BBC, and MSNBC, as well as on social media.

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