Bath Spa University is to support the post-war recovery of Ukraine’s higher education system under a scheme twinning it a university in the west of the conflict-ravaged country.
Bath Spa, which has just over 7,000 students and specialises in arts, sciences, education, social science and business courses, will work with Academician Stepan Demianchuk International University of Economics and Humanities (IUEH) to help it survive and thrive beyond the current Russian invasion.
Proposed support includes sharing learning resources, developing a mentoring scheme and collaborating across disciplines that are studied or researched in both institutions.
When possible, the two universities will also undertake staff and student exchanges.
The partnership builds on an existing connection between Bath Spa and IUEH, which began in 2018 as part of a Erasmus+ funded DESTIN project to improve journalism education in Ukraine. Students from IUEH visited Bath as part of that project.
The initiative is part of a wider UK-Ukraine university twinning scheme launched by the Cormack Consultancy Group (CCG) and Universities UK International (UUKi) in which UK universities are signing memoranda of understanding (MoU) with their Ukrainian counterparts for a minimum of five years.
Bath Spa secretary David Newman said: “Bath Spa University stands in solidarity with Ukraine and we are delighted to partner with IUEH in this way, to provide support, and to strengthen ties of friendship and cooperation through the development of academic, cultural and personal exchange.”
IUEH rector Vitalii Demianchuk added: “It is a great honour for us to work with such a highly regarded institution as Bath Spa; a University we have had a strong relationship with for many years.
“We would like to express our gratitude to the people of the United Kingdom and the leadership team at Bath Spa University for choosing to partner with our institution.
“We will do all we can to ensure the longevity of our collaboration in order to positively impact our future generations.”
Last month Bath Spa took part in an official signing ceremony held for all the twinned institutions. On the same day the government announced £190,000 in financial assistance as a commitment to establishing and supporting the scheme.
