Students in Ukraine are already benefiting from a project created by staff at Paisley’s University of the West of Scotland.
The High Street UWS campus – alongside the univeristy’s other campuses have recently launched a new partnership with the Ukrainian State University of Railway Transport (USURT).
Announced in January, UWS has partnered with USURT to provide a range of support to the university, and students can be seen using their new power banks and USB lighting from UWS to ensure they can continue with their studies during any outages.
The partnership comes as part of a national twinning scheme led by Universities UK / Universities Scotland and supported by Cormack Consultancy Group and Research England, to help Ukrainian universities and researchers.
The scheme supports UK and Ukrainian universities to share resources in a gesture of solidarity, for the benefit of Ukrainian institutions, colleagues and students.
As well as physical aid, UWS is exploring three research collaborations with USURT, and developing English language support for staff and students through UWS’s School of Education and Social Sciences.
Marcus Ross, vice-principal of planning and recruitment at UWS, said: “It is fantastic to see the students benefiting already from UWS’s support. Ensuring students of USURT can continue to engage in their studies is incredibly important and we are pleased to have been able to help them.”
USURT is located in Kharkiv – within a minute’s missile strike from the Russian border. USURT and its campus has already been damaged by missiles during the crisis. Marcus Ross added: “The situation in Kharkiv is extreme and one that can change rapidly.
“Through this partnership and twinning scheme, UWS will dynamically support USURT through the provision of various items of hardware to enable students and staff to continue vital learning and teaching activities, as well as providing support to colleagues and students in Ukraine, and – importantly – to develop longer-term approaches to help USURT through the conflict.”
It is hoped the twinning scheme will enable UK universities to build long-term strategic partnerships with their institutions in Ukraine that support research and innovation priorities, and support Ukraine’s university-based research and innovation ecosystem beyond the current crisis.
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