A year after Russia’s brutal invasion of Ukraine, the Institute of International Education has announced a commitment to fund 210 members of Ukraine’s academic community to continue their university career.
The allocation of funding will benefit 160 students and 50 scholars of the Volodymyr Dahl East Ukrainian National University, one of the colleges most impacted by military operations.
Alongside projects such as the Emergency Student Fund for Ukraine raising close to $650,000 to support 225 Ukrainian students enrolled in more than 140 US and the Ukraine Crisis Response Fund providing grants and funding for research and reconstruction purposes in Ukraine, IIE’s commitment also envisages other projects.
“Promoting access to education is at the core of IIE’s mission, and we work with partners around the world to help students who have been displaced continue their education,” Mary Karam McKey, IIE’s head of corporate and foundation programs, told The PIE.
“We are supporting a group of students at Horlivka Institute for Foreign Languages and are in the process of working with other universities to serve students and scholars in need,” she said.
Additionally, the Global Democracy Ambassador Scholarship – spearheaded by renowned figures such as former Russian chess player and human rights activist Garry Kasparov – has granted 20 Ukrainian students up to $30,000 to enable them to either continue studying in the US or to matriculate in a US university in the spring and/or summer 2023.
“Promoting access to education is at the core of IIE’s mission”
IIE is considering providing further support to international students enrolled in Ukrainian universities who fled the country when the war broke out, McKey continued.
“IIE is aware of this population, has been in conversation with other organisations focusing on supporting these students, and we are seeking ways to help,” she told The PIE.
Furthermore, supporting programs for Ukrainian and Russian scholars as well as for artists are planned.
The Scholar Rescue Fund has rescued 13 Ukrainian scholars since the outbreak of the war and is also helping nine Russian scholars who are no longer able to continue their activities in Russia, while the Artist Protection Fund has allocated six fellowships to literary, performing and visual artists in desperate need of emergency support.
