Supporting Ukraine: Perspectives from Colleagues Abroad

In this webinar facilitated by Campus Compact President Bobbie Laur, hear perspectives from colleagues in Europe about Russia's ongoing invasion with support of Belarus in Ukraine and its impact on higher education. Learn more about what is going on on the ground from government, policy, and student perspectives, and listen in for information on what higher education can do to help locally and globally.

A representative of the Ministry of Education and Science of Ukraine will present the situation of higher education in Ukraine after the invasion, outline Ukraine’s needs and priorities in terms of assistance for both short term and longer term, and talk about how this assistance could be coordinated. The Vice President of the European Students’ Union will give a students’ perspective and will speak from his double experience as a student leader both at the European level and in Poland, the country that has so far received the highest number of refugees from Ukraine. The former head of the Council of Europe’s Education Department will speak about the impact of the invasion on European cooperation, in particular in higher education.

Sjur Bergan

Former Head of Education Department
Council of Europe

Sjur Bergan was Head of the Council of Europe’s Education Department until February 1, 2022. In this position, among other things, he lead the Council of Europe projects on Competences for Democratic Culture and the European Qualifications Passport for Refugees. He represented the Council of Europe in the Bologna Follow Up Group and Board between 2000 and April 2022 and chaired three successive working groups on structural reforms in 2007 - 15. He will remain a member of EHEA working group on the fundamental values of higher education and the group overseeing the Roadmap accompanying San Marino’s accession to the EHEA, as he was a member of the group overseeing the roadmap for Belarus’ accession between 2015 and 2018. Sjur was a member of the editorial group for the Council’s White Paper on Intercultural Dialogue and a main author of the Lisbon Recognition Convention as well as of recommendations on the public responsibility for higher education; academic freedom and institutional autonomy; and ensuring quality education.

Sjur Bergan was series editor of the Council of Europe Higher Education Series and the author of Qualifications: Introduction to a Concept and Not by Bread Alone as well as of numerous book chapters and articles on education and higher education policy. Sjur was also one of the editors of the Raabe Handbook on Leadership and Governance in Higher Education (2009 – 15) and one of the session coordinators at the Bologna Process Researchers’ Conferences in 2015, 2018 and 2020. He is the recipient of the 2019 European Association for International Education Award for Vision and Leadership.

For more on the topic of Higher Education and Ukraine, check out Sjur's recent University World News article, Assisting Ukrainian academics and students is our priority: https://www.universityworldnews.com/post.php?story=20220415150749461.

Supporting Ukraine: Perspectives from Colleagues Abroad

Speakers