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More than three-and-a-half years on from the Russian invasion of 2022, Ukrainian universities are still adjusting to the realities of war ¨C finding new ways to combat Kremlin propaganda, teach their students military skills and help neighbouring countries be better prepared in case of attack.

Despite facing a full-scale bombardment, Serhiy Babak, chairman of the Ukrainian parliament committee on education, science and innovation, told Times Higher Education that the country¡¯s higher education system has?managed to improve and become more efficient in the past few years.

Ukraine had 10 institutions represented in?91ÇÑ×Ó¡¯²õ?World University Rankings?in 2022 but this had more than doubled to 22?for the 2026 edition.

This was despite the Ukrainian government having to repeatedly move institutions away from the frontline. It relocated 20 universities after the 2014 war in Crimea and 24 more since 2022. It is now considering merging some others.

Despite the logistical demands of relocating and constructing new buildings, Babak said: ¡°The biggest asset is not buildings and equipment, the biggest asset is people, and in some cases servers and information as well.¡±

The government was able to preserve the databases and distance learning platforms of Mariupol State University, for example, allowing it to reopen in Kyiv almost immediately after its home city had to be evacuated.

Universities are also having to offer many different forms of learning in the same classroom including remote, in-person and blended models to cater for students who have been relocated, either outside Ukraine as refugees or to safer parts of the country.

Around 70 per cent of education institutions also now have bomb shelters, compared with?only a handful when the invasion began.

¡°We are a peaceful country, peaceful people¡­but if we knew how it will be, we could [have] built it before, and now we are trying to catch up,¡± said Babak.

¡°We are trying to share the experience for other countries at least to think about what they will do in case. It is always better to be prepared, that is our message.¡±

Babak and Mykola Trofymenko, Ukraine¡¯s newly appointed deputy minister of education, with responsibility for higher education, were speaking?at the British Council¡¯s Going Global conference in London, where the pair hoped to share their experiences with others and shore up diplomatic support.

¡°We didn¡¯t have in Mariupol the manual where it was written how to act in case Putin will start a full-scale invasion,¡± said Trofymenko, who?is the former rector of the displaced university. ¡°It was emotional in some cases with a huge number of victims, that¡¯s why we want to share this expertise.

¡°We want to show the communities that our universities, they are resilient and sustainable. They work even when the light goes down or we have blackouts, so people can come there to find electricity, they can charge their phones.¡±

Mariupol¡¯s university has received help from the University of Hull, among others, which is based in a city with a similar profile, and was almost totally destroyed by German bombing during the Second World War.

Ukraine¡¯s universities have recently started teaching students basic military skills ¨C made up of theoretical lessons on critical thinking and preventing cyberattacks, and practical exercises, which will start next year, including first aid training.

Trofymenko, who is also an associate professor of international relations and foreign policy, said countries all over Europe should be prepared and have protocols in place for such emergencies because the threat from Moscow will not disappear.

Kyiv is still trying to counter disinformation from the Kremlin. Russian teachers have told students in the occupied Zaporizhzhia region that Ukrainian diplomas are not recognised worldwide,?

Trofymenko said the Russians built a new ¡°so-called Mariupol State University¡± on the site of the old, destroyed campus to create the idea of Mariupol as a Russian city.

¡°It¡¯s another challenge in this war because it¡¯s not only on the battlefield, it¡¯s also in the sense of information education. And our universities, they really fight for our rights, for our students, for our people.¡±

A total of 10 million Ukrainian citizens have been displaced by the war ¨C 6 million of whom have been forced to flee abroad.

After the war, Trofymenko said the country¡¯s universities will become key points of redevelopment, centres for civic engagement and will help reskill millions of veterans returning from the frontline.

Though he is grateful for the shelter universities around the world have provided his colleagues, they?will also need their scientists and academics to return.

¡°All students, all researchers, and all active people all over the world will have this desire to come and to be part of this great story.¡±

patrick.jack@timeshighereducation.com