ADAM PLOSZAJ�HEAD OF SCIENCE STUDIES LABORATORY�CENTRE FOR EUROPEAN REGIONAL AND LOCAL STUDIES EUROREG�UNIVERSITY OF WARSAW

THE IMPACT OF THE�RUSSIAN INVASION OF UKRAINE ON�HIGHER EDUCATION AND RESEARCH INSTITUTIONS�IN THE EUROPEAN BORDERLAND

Photo by Mirosław Kaźmierczak.

The impact of the 2022 Russian full-scale invasion of Ukraine (the first invasion began in 2014) on the universities and other research institutions in 9 European countries bordering Ukraine, Russia, or Belarus.

The impact of the 2022 Russian full-scale invasion of Ukraine (the first invasion began in 2014) on the universities and other research institutions in 9 European countries bordering Ukraine, Russia, or Belarus.

The impact of the 2022 Russian full-scale invasion of Ukraine (the first invasion began in 2014) on the universities and other research institutions in 9 European countries bordering Ukraine, Russia, or Belarus.

Research Questions

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• What is the impact of the Russian invasion of Ukraine on the functioning of research and higher education institutions in countries bordering Ukraine, Belarus, or Russia?

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• Did the negative consequences of the Russian invasion of Ukraine have a more substantial impact on institutions with a relatively worse financial situation?

Methods & data

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• A survey of scholars working in higher education and research institutions in Estonia, Finland, Hungary, Latvia, Lithuania, Moldova, Poland, Romania, and Slovakia.

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• The survey questions were developed based on 11 individual interviews with scholars from the above-mentioned countries.

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• Respondents were invited from a random sample of corresponding authors of publications indexed on the Web of Science database.

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• The survey was conducted online (February- March 2024). It was available in English and 8 other languages used in the 9 countries covered by the study (Estonian, Finnish, Hungarian, Lithuanian, Latvian, Polish, Romanian, Slovak).

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• We collected 3,743 fully completed surveys (response rate of 10%).

Answers to the question: Please assess changes after 24 Feb, 2022 in the:

• intensity of your academic interactions with people working in institutions located in the following countries

Answers to the question: Please assess changes after 24 Feb, 2022 in the:

• intensity of your academic interactions with people working in institutions located in the following countries
• number of students from the following countries at your institution

Answers to the question: Do you agree with the following statements?

Answers to the question:�Please assess the impact of the Russian invasion of Ukraine on your research activity?

Features related to the negative impact of the Russian invasion of Ukraine on respondent’s research activity. Results of logistic regression.

Dependent variable coding:�1 – negative and strongly negative impact;�0 – no impact, positive impact, undecided

Features related to the negative impact of the Russian invasion of Ukraine on respondent’s research activity. Results of logistic regression.

Dependent variable coding:�1 – negative and strongly negative impact;�0 – no impact, positive impact, undecided

Features related to the negative impact of the Russian invasion of Ukraine on respondent’s research activity. Results of logistic regression.

Dependent variable coding:�1 – negative and strongly negative impact;�0 – no impact, positive impact, undecided

„I experienced productivity issues in 2022. I later adapted and got funding for a project on war's impact on human-nature relations in Ukraine. But I can’t visit Ukraine due to military restrictions, which limits fieldwork.”

„I was a manager in the [anonymized] project. Over the years, I traveled to Russia at least 20 times for work. All this ended. I feel anger, sadness, despair. My Russian colleagues were highly educated, yet they believe I’m the victim of Finnish propaganda. I gave up talking about the war and stopped communicating.”

„The war made me question the relevance of my fundamental research. Who would care for my experiments if we had to fight for our lives?”

„I swiftly redirected my research efforts towards data science and OSINT projects. I've recognized that my work now serves a dual purpose—not solely catering to the academic community but also striving to counter misinformation by disseminating my findings through the media.”

„At my institution, the admission of international students […] stopped, and all positions were dedicated to Ukrainians. This decline in diversity has posed challenges in finding motivated PhD candidates. Scholarships for other students were canceled.”

„Young researchers from Ukraine and Belarus came to us and are great collaborators. Sadly, mid-career Ukrainian researchers often lack the qualifications for meaningful cooperation.”

„Most of the impact is indirect. Attention and funding from the government has been moving away from education towards military defense. […]. It's a good thing. I prefer to live in a free country as opposed to having enough funding for research.”

„The interest in learning Ukrainian has been great and many universities, mine included, are now offering courses.[…] it has become much more urgent to ensure Russian is still learned and understood”

Conclusions

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• Almost every forth respondent (22.5%) reported a negative or very negative impact of the Russian invasion of Ukraine on their research.

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• The observed impact is predominantly negative, but for some, there have also been positive effects, e.g., an increase in the number of students from Ukraine or new collaboration and research funding opportunities.

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• Scholars who are more involved in international collaboration are more likely to experience the adverse effects of the Russian invasion of Ukraine.

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• Institutions in worse financial condition are more exposed to the negative impacts of the Russian invasion of Ukraine. As a result, this external shock may deepen the inequalities in the research and higher education sector, which in most of the analyzed countries was already struggling with underfunding, brain drain, and decreasing student admissions.

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Adam Ploszaj

Science Studies Laboratory & Centre for European Regional and Local Studies EUROREG,University of Warsaw

a.ploszaj@uw.edu.pl | aploszaj@gmail.com

www.euroreg.uw.edu.pl | www.lbn.uw.edu.pl

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Answers to the question:�Please assess the impact of the Russian invasion of Ukraine on your research activity?