Initiatives

The Centre for Civic Engagement will serve as a site for international cooperation with the Ukrainian academy, and it will reinforce the work Ukrainians are currently doing to keep their universities and communities functioning. The Centre will also provide an opportunity to for academics displaced within Ukraine to resume their research, teaching, and public service, and it will offer a repatriation program for exiled Ukrainian academics. Finally, the Centre will help prepare the way for post-war reconstruction of higher education and civil society in Ukraine.

 

Given the urgent and evolving needs of the Ukrainian academy, the Centre for Civic Engagement will offer institutional, intellectual, and financial support to Ukraine in three stages: foundation, expansion, and reconstruction.

 

Foundation

  • Institutional Support: The Centre for Civic Engagement will establish partnerships with universities and academic institutions in Australia, Canada, the EU, the UK, the US, and other allied countries. These partnerships will initially provide the technical and administrative support required to get the Centre for Civic Engagement up and running, and they will subsequently serve as the foundation for intellectual exchange and international fundraising for Ukraine.

 

  • Intellectual Support: The Centre for Civic Engagement will counteract Ukrainian brain drain by supporting and building on several academic and civic initiatives underway in Ukraine. Specifically, the Centre will assist and advance the work Ukrainian faculty, staff, and students have been doing in podcasting, journalism, public education, and civic engagement.
    • Podcasting: In the midst of the Euromaidan protests in 2013-2014, the Ukrainian philosopher, Volodymyr Yermolenko, founded Ukraine World. Ukraine World provides English language news, analysis, and information about Ukraine by Ukrainians, and Yermolenko’s Ukraine World podcast, Explaining Ukraine, is a key source for foreign media reporting on the current conflict. Yermolenko just launched a new podcast, Thinking in Dark Times, that is designed to grapple with major geopolitical issues, and the Centre for Civic Engagement will provided funding for this podcast and invite speakers from colleges and universities around the world.
    • Journalism: Although Ukraine World is produced for an international audience, Yermolenko recognizes the need to provide Ukrainians with world class analysis of the major issues of our time in Ukrainian. So using The New Statesman’s Agora series as a model, the Centre for Civic Engagement will work with Yermolenko to support the publication and translation of a new ideas column with renowned international authors in The Kyiv Independent.
    • Public Education: The Culture and Arts Centre at Kyiv Mohyla Academy once offered students and local citizens accessible introductions to classical and modern art. But after Russia invaded Ukraine, the Centre began providing public programing on Ukrainian politics, Ukrainian and Russian history, and international relations to ensure that their students and local community have an adequate understanding of the war. With that said, the Centre for Civic Engagement will support this public programing, and it will start an international speaker series on intellectual history for faculty, students, and other members of the Ukrainian community.
    • Civic Engagement: Apart from producing public programing, the Culture and Arts Centre is a hub for student activity. Since Russia invaded, the Centre has been coordinating the volunteer work students have been doing for their local communities, including stocking shelters, setting up student support groups, and visiting elderly citizens whose families have left the country. This work is currently being done with very little funding, so the Centre for Civic Engagement will provide the student volunteers at Kyiv Mohyla Academy with much-needed assistance.

 

  • Financial Support: The Centre for Civic Engagement aims to raise $500 000 US to fund its various academic and civic initiatives for the calendar years of 2023 and 2024. Here is a breakdown of the relevant costs:
    • Podcasting: The Centre will allocate $40 000 per year to help cover the production, distribution, remuneration, and overhead costs required to produce Thinking in Dark Times.
    • Journalism: The Centre will use $40 000 per year to help cover the production, distribution, remuneration, translation, and overhead costs of running a new ideas column in The Kyiv Independent.
    • Public Education: The Centre will allocate $30 000 per year to support the public programing currently being run out of Culture and Arts Centre.
    • Civic Engagement: The Centre will use $30 000 per year to assist the volunteer work students are doing to support their university and local communities.
    • Administration: The Centre will hire a director with a salary of $50 000 per year. The director will be responsible for procuring and overseeing international partnerships and funding as well as coordinating the podcast, ideas column, public programing, and volunteer work. The Centre will also employ an administrative assistant with a salary of $30 000 per year, and the assistant will manage the accounts, work with other administrators at Kyiv Mohyla Academy, and liaise with the Ukrainian state.
    • Overhead: The Centre will set aside $30 000 per year to cover various overhead costs, including the use of office space, lecture halls, and technical support at Kyiv Mohyla Academy.

 

Expansion

  • Institutional Support: The Centre for Civic Engagement will establish two fellowship programs to provide displaced academics with a chance to resume their research, teaching, and public service in Ukraine. Specifically, the Centre will work with the IIE: Institute of International Education in Kyiv to set up a domestic ‘scholars at risk fellowship’ for academics displaced within Ukraine due to the fighting in Donbas, Kharkiv, Mykolaiv, Zaporizhia, and Kherson. The Centre will also work with CARA and SAR to repatriate exiled Ukrainian academics through a new ‘repatriation fellowship’.

 

  • Intellectual Support: The scholars at risk and repatriation fellowships will offer displaced academics temporary housing as well as faculty appointments in the appropriate department or program at Kyiv Mohyla Academy. These fellowships will mitigate the brain drain Ukraine has suffered since Russia invaded. And by providing displaced academics with a position in Kyiv, these fellowships will help ensure that students continue to have access to higher education in Ukraine.

 

  • Financial Support: The Centre for Civic Engagement aims to raise $5.5 million US to fund fellowship programs for displaced and exiled Ukrainian scholars. These programs will run from the academic year of 2023-2024 to the academic year of 2028-2029. Here is a breakdown of the relevant costs:
    • Scholars at Risk Fellowship: The Centre for Civic Engagement will offer 10 ‘scholar at risk fellowships’ per year. Each fellowship will be allocated $50 000 per year, and this funding will be used to cover housing, salary, research, and overhead costs. With that said, the number of ‘scholar at risk fellowships’ vs. the number of ‘repatriation fellowships’ offered in any given year will vary depending on the state of the conflict in Ukraine.
    • Repatriation Fellowship: The Centre for Civic Engagement will offer 10 ‘repatriation fellowships’ per year. Each fellowship will be allocated $50 000 per year, and this funding will be used to cover the relevant fellow’s housing, salary, research, and overhead costs. Again, the number of ‘repatriation fellowships’ vs. the number of ‘scholar at risk fellowships’ offered in any given year will vary depending on the state of the conflict in Ukraine.
    • Administration: The Centre will hire a deputy director with a salary of $50 000 per year. The deputy director will run the scholar at risk and repatriation fellowships for internally displaced and exiled Ukrainian academics. The Centre will also employ an administrative assistant with a salary of $30 000 per year, and the assistant will manage the accounts, work with other administrators at Kyiv Mohyla Academy, and liaise with the Ukrainian state.
    • Overhead: The Centre will set aside $20 000 per year to cover various overhead costs, including the use of office space, lecture halls, and technical support at Kyiv Mohyla Academy.

 

Reconstruction

  • Institutional Support: To date, more than 170 Ukrainian institutions of higher education have been damaged and over 20 have been completely destroyed. Rebuilding colleges and universities in the post-war period will be a massive undertaking. Ukraine was also granted EU candidacy status on 23 June 2022. This means Ukrainian institutions will be striving to meet EU standards in the years to come.

 

  • Intellectual Support: Post-war reconstruction will be run by the Ukrainian Ministry of Education and Science. However, the Centre for Civic Engagement will be a blueprint for rebuilding colleges and universities in Ukraine. Specifically, the Centre will work with its international partners after the war to ensure that world class education is offered in Ukraine. And in the post-war period, the Centre will reconfigure its domestic ‘scholar at risk fellowship’ to repatriate more Ukrainian academics and to invite international faculty to spend an academic year in Ukraine.

 

  • Financial Support: With EU candidacy, Ukraine is now eligible for various structural and investment funds that are designed to ensure Ukrainian institutions meet EU standards. Ukraine will also be the recipient significant aid from Australia, Canada, the UK, the US, and other international donors in the post-war period. As a key part of Kyiv Mohyla Academy, the Centre for Civic Engagement will use some of this funding to continue its public outreach, facilitate international cooperation, and make sure the Ukrainian academy flourishes in the 21st Century.