The Russian war of aggression against Ukraine is also having an impact on the country’s universities. Students and lecturers are scattered all over the world and the local infrastructure has been damaged in many cases. One way to continue learning and teaching would be to offer degree programmes online, which is already happening in many cases. However, the infrastructure for an overarching system that links the individual universities with one another is lacking. “Digital University – Open Ukrainian Initiative” (DigiUni), a new project funded by the European Union (EU) and coordinated by the National Taras Shevchenko University of Kyiv, is now aiming to establish an effective digital education ecosystem for Ukraine. In addition to ten Ukrainian universities, a further eight universities from Europe are involved, including Leibniz University Hannover (LUH). The project is docked at the L3S Research Center under the leadership of Prof. Dr Sören Auer. The EU is investing a total of around 5 million euros in the DigiUni project until November 2027.
The DigiUni project focuses on knowledge exchange, knowledge transfer and the development of a suitable infrastructure for digital teaching at the participating Ukrainian universities. The aim is to ensure continuous, high-quality, inclusive and transparent education for students, regardless of their place of learning. At the same time, a basis is to be created to promote the reconstruction of the education system in Ukraine despite the war.
Specifically, the project will analyse experiences and best practices in the field of digital teaching and learning infrastructures. In addition, decentralised digital centres, so-called DigiCentres, are to be set up in Ukraine. Furthermore, the stakeholders want to initiate a national digital platform, the so-called DigiPlatform. To this end, they want to develop special courses for trainers and content creators. At the same time, quality standards for digital content will be defined and virtual labs will be made available on the platform.
Together with TIB as an associated project partner, L3S is organising a study visit for around 40 partners from Ukraine on the topic of “Digital Learning Environments and Open Education at LUH and TIB” from 21 to 25 July 2024.
