The response of higher education institutions to the migration crisis: From the experience of martial law in Ukraine

Abstract

After more than three years of martial law and military operations in Ukraine, the education system of our country demonstrates a unique ability to continue education for students of all forms and types, at all educational levels. At the same time, educational institutions are trying to ensure the education system's successful functioning by supporting its participants, primarily those forced to change their residence, study, or work. The purpose of the article is to study the role and potential of higher education institutions in solving socio-economic and socio-political problems caused by the crisis of forced displacement of persons as a result of full-scale Russian aggression in Ukraine. Methods. To achieve the goal, methods of analysis and synthesis of information from the source database (including regulatory and legal documents) on the problem of forced migration, refugees, internally displaced persons in the context of their interaction with the educational environment of higher education institutions were used; empirical methods of sociological survey (focus group, questionnaire); comparison of the results of theoretical and empirical research, generalization. The results of the work are presented in the form of summaries of three stages of research into the problems and needs of IDPs: focus groups with IDPs - participants in the advanced training course; survey of IDP students and teachers; analysis of information from open sources on assistance and support by universities for IDPs; recommendations for improving the participation of higher education institutions in promoting the social adaptation of IDPs and overcoming the forced migration crisis. Conclusions. Universities play an important social role, on which the country's and society's socio-economic and socio-cultural development depend. The peculiarity of universities is that they are engaged in science and research and are at the beginning of the innovation chain. At the same time, new knowledge, norms, values, and behavior models are spread through universities. Higher education institutions actively participate in the social adaptation and integration of IDPs in new living conditions during the war. This is facilitated by creating and strengthening the “University-Community” system, which helps solve IDP problems using a complex of mutually enriched knowledge, skills, and technologies. This will allow higher education institutions to implement further socio-cultural, civic, and social functions for many social groups and their educational role. Through interaction with other components of the socio-cultural space, the university becomes an open social environment, initiates the socio-educational influences of cultural, leisure, and social protection institutions, and becomes a center for generating and implementing social programs for adaptation, integration, and identification of the social subjectivity of displaced people.