Interview with Rector Olena Karaman

7.11.2024

The journalist of the Internet edition of the “Anti-Crisis Media Center” interviewed the rector Olena Karaman. 

The evacuated Luhansk University is training personnel for the recovery of the region

The state institution “Luhansk Taras Shevchenko National University” continues to operate after two forced relocations caused by Russian aggression against Ukraine. Currently, the educational institution is located in three cities in the Poltava region. Despite the difficulty of the evacuation, the university administration managed to save the scientific and teaching staff, students, and academic specialties. Moreover, the university is developing, introducing new forms of work and planning to return to its native Luhansk region after its liberation. Most teachers and students from Luhansk have firm intentions to return home and rebuild the region.

Poltava region became a second home

Luhansk Taras Shevchenko National University is one of the oldest in Ukraine, founded 102 years ago. During its existence, the university achieved considerable success and was among the leaders of academic education. In 2014, the established educational process was interrupted by the invasion of Russian troops and the capture of a part of Luhansk region and Luhansk itself. There was no time to think – the administration decided to evacuate the institution.

“Then there was real chaos, because the ministry could not advise us what to do. At the same time, the occupation authorities began to persecute our teachers as pro-Ukrainian, some of them were sent to a boot camp. Therefore, we did not hesitate and became the first higher education institution that moved to the territory under the control of the Ukrainian authorities,” recalls the rector of the university Olena Karaman.

In 2014, part of the faculties were moved to Starobilsk, where the university had its divisions and premises. However, those faculties where many foreign students studied had to be relocated to Poltava, further from the war zone. They were sheltered at the Poltava University of Economics and Trade.

“When in 2022 the enemy began to capture the rest of the territory of Luhansk region, we no longer had the question of where to go. Of course, to Poltava Oblast. Currently, our university is located in three locations – Poltava, Myrhorod and Lubny. I thank the leadership of the region, these cities, the educational institutions that accepted us, for sheltering and supporting our work,” says rector Olena Leonidivna.

We lost our property, but we kept the most valuable thing – our personnel and students

All the property of the university remained in the temporarily occupied Luhansk region. Unfortunately, it is already known that most of the buildings have been completely destroyed. Even the modern building in Rubizhne, which was built before the war. Its opening was planned for March 1, 2024. The university’s administration registered all the damage with the law enforcement agencies in order to bill the occupiers after the release.

Despite all the troubles associated with the relocation, Luhansk University did not lose its main potential – scientific and pedagogical personnel and students. After two evacuations, 85% of teachers remained to work in institutions. Some got a job at other universities or went abroad, and only a few remained to work for the occupiers.

That powerful skeleton of scientific workers, teachers, which continues to work at the university, allowed to fully preserve the number and structure of educational and scientific institutes. Now there are ten of them, which allows to develop education and science in integration. Also, the list of specialties studied by students has remained unchanged since pre-war times.

“Having arrived in Poltava region, we actually confirmed the status of a national university. After all, students from all over the country are currently studying with us. One third are from the Luhansk region, including from the occupied territory, and two thirds are from the central, western and southern regions. In total, the university has about 8,000 students. This number has been stable over the past ten years,” Olena Karaman said.

Among the students are military personnel

Currently, 1,200 military personnel and combatants are studying at Luhansk Taras Shevchenko National University. The first such students appeared at the institution after 2014. They served in the Luhansk region and enrolled in higher education at the place of deployment. Even after the transfer of the university, the military recruitment was preserved. They choose different specialties and study remotely without interrupting services. Also, children and wives of military personnel receive their education here.

At the end of October, the grand opening of the Center for Veteran Development took place at the university. The basis for the creation of this unit was a unique ten-year experience of educational and psychological work with military personnel – participants in hostilities, war veterans, members of their families, families of fallen military personnel. Experience that other civilian institutions of higher education of Ukraine do not have.

In this center, military personnel will be able to obtain a second education, or retrain, or improve their qualifications in the following areas: social support of war veterans and their family members; psychological assistance to war veterans and their family members; physical culture and health activities with war veterans and their family members. Also, the Center for Veteran Development will become a free space for communication, leisure and solving urgent problems of defenders.

The plans are to return home and restore Luhansk region

“Our mission now is to preserve the university for the restoration of Luhansk region. By the way, we are the only higher education institution that still remains at its previous legal address with registration in Starobilsk. We overcame the difficulties of two relocations and continue our educational activities in order to return home after de-occupation and revive the socio-economic potential of the region. All branches of the national economy are represented at our university. That is, within the framework of our specialties, we train specialists for various fields of activity. These specialists should become personnel potential for reconstruction,” Olena Karaman is confident.

A year ago, when it was announced at the state level about the creation of a reserve of teaching staff and civil servants who will work in the de-occupied territories, a survey was conducted among university students. According to its results, 63% of future civil servants and 67% of future teachers expressed a firm intention to return to Luhansk Region for recovery. Such data were as of October 1, 2023. A year later, a similar survey showed a 10% decrease in these indicators.

The reason is that during the almost three years of the war, people integrated into new communities, found jobs, housing, started families, that is, settled in a new place. Many have gone abroad and are not going to return to Ukraine. It is very unfortunate to realize this, but the longer the occupation drags on, the smaller the percentage of those willing to restore the Luhansk region will be.

“As for our scientific and pedagogical workers, the university administration including the rector, vice-rectors, directors of educational and research institutes – all of them are going to return to Luhansk after our victory to restore the work of the university on its historical site and to rebuild the Luhansk region. Among department heads, the percentage is slightly lower, also due to their assimilation in new communities. But we will do everything to preserve Luhansk Taras Shevchenko National University and return it to its home, where it was founded and developed for a hundred years. This is our principled civic position, and it is unshakable,” the rector emphasized.

Svitlana Denysenko, journalist of the Internet edition of the Anti-Crisis Media Center