Cambridge launches support package ‘Cambridge University Help for Ukraine’

On Monday 27th June 2022, the University of Cambridge launched ‘Cambridge University Help for Ukraine’, a new package of support developed in partnership with the Ukrainian government and universities for students and academics displaced by the war on Ukraine. The package seeks to ensure that the Ukrainian Higher Education sector continues to operate and flourish.

The ‘Cambridge University Help for Ukraine’ package comprises a number of initiatives, including fully-funded residential placements for a number of visiting doctoral students and academics, Clinical Placements for 22 Kharkiv National Medical University students from July 2022 onwards, and financial support for academics still researching in Ukraine in partnership with the National Research Foundation of Ukraine (NRFU).

Furthermore, more than 10 Ukrainian students applying to study at Cambridge from a conflict zone will be funded through The Rowan Williams Cambridge Studentship, with their tuition, maintenance, and travel-associated costs all covered by the Scholarships.

A further hardship fund is already helping over 20 affected students currently studying in Cambridge who have been direct affected by the war, and plans to boost the studies of evacuated Ukrainian schoolchildren are also in development in partnership with the Ministry of Education of Ukraine, among others.

Cambridge University Vice-Chancellor Professor Toope described the development of the programme and the University’s efforts to aid Ukraine, “Since the start of the invasion, the University has been working with education leaders in Ukraine to support academics and students whose lives have been torn apart in this humanitarian tragedy. From the online resources which were immediately made available to displaced Ukrainian students at the beginning of the conflict, through to the comprehensive package of support that now makes up Cambridge University Help for Ukraine, there has been an undiminished determination across our community to do everything we can, and to stand with Ukraine.”

Pro-Vice-Chancellor Professor Kamal Munir said of the package’s purpose, “Cambridge University Help for Ukraine will provide support, and safe and nurturing environments for academics, and their dependants, displaced by the conflict. Education can be a source of light in times of darkness, and this programme of help will allow students and researchers to continue their vital work and one day contribute to the rebuilding of their country.”

Vigil for Ukraine. Image credits: Cambridge University

Dr Rory Finnin, Cambridge University Associate Professor of Ukrainian Studies, said, “The University has worked with Ukrainian institutions of Higher Education to put together a consciously multi-pronged strategy of support that looks both to the present and the future. All of our measures and actions are being taken to help strengthen Ukraine’s institutions in sustainable ways and to show how the University of Cambridge stands with a free, independent, sovereign Ukraine and its people – now and into the future.”

Oksana Hetman, President of the Cambridge University Ukrainian Society, said, “Ukrainian scholars are hiding in the basements without water or food, fighting on the frontlines and often losing the closest ones due to the ongoing war. These are incomparable abruptions to face.

“Every student or researcher continuing their work despite the war is a win both for Ukraine and for the global academic and scientific community.”

In order to facilitate and aid the support package, the University of Cambridge is working with Cambridge4Ukraine, an initiative connecting refugees and hosts in the UK. For more information on how to help support refugees, click here. 

A link to a further YouTube video by the University about ‘Cambridge University Help for Ukraine’ can be found here.

Feature image credits: Cambridge University