A landmark moment is happening this week as Manchester Uni is holding the UK’s first-ever Conference of Ukrainian Students.
The event, which is taking place on Friday, October 28, is the first time Ukrainian students from across 19 HEIs in the UK have been able to come together in one place and this is all happening while Russia is still in conflict with Ukraine.
Manchester Uni Conference of Ukrainian Students
The Ukrainian Student Conference is organised by the Ukrainian Student Union (UK), the Ukraine Hub UK initiative (set up by The University of Manchester’s MOBILISE Project UK team following the February 24 all-out Russian invasion), and most importantly, the Ukrainian Student Societies of the Universities of Manchester, Oxford and LSE.
This conference brings together dozens of Ukrainian students and UK University alumni from across the whole country for a day of talks, working groups, monitoring, and lectures.
Among many special guests will be Olga Tokariuk, a renowned Ukrainian journalist and Reuters Institute Fellow at Oxford, and Professor Andrew Wilson of UCL will be joining the students for keynote lectures.
The main coordinating team included Jan Szkulepa, Makar Mizevych, Ruslan Pavlyshyn, Maliek Banat, Danylo Nikiforov, among many other students part of the three societies (including a large team at UoM).
Conference of Ukrainian Students ‘Supports Next Generation’
Cressida Arkrwright, a UoM PhD expert on Ukrainian Youth Engagement, supported the event as PhD coordinator and Manchester University’s resident Ukrainian Politics expert Dr Olga Onuch acted as a senior mentor.
Dr Onuch said: ‘It is our duty as scholars and university leaders to support the next generation – one way we can do this is to provide a space where they can come together, meet each other, and feel a collective sense of support and meaning.
‘These students have been through unthinkable trauma and stress in the last year – they have family and friends in harm’s way, and yet they still have to write essays, sit exams, and think of finding a job. Thus, we must do all we can to support them and their ambitions.’