A crisis management team at Eindhoven University of Technology has contacted all thirty of its Ukrainian and all one hundred of its Russian students and employees, according to an article by Cursor. They will receive help if they are experiencing psychological problems, but also if their residence permit is about to expire or if they are unable to access money due to the sanctions imposed on banks.
In the latter event, they will have recourse to an emergency fund established by the university, and the money they will be awarded will provisionally be regarded as a gift rather than a loan. In addition, a Ukraine Fund will be established with donations given to the University Fund by alumni.
The University of Amsterdam is establishing a similar emergency fund for all students affected by the war, and the Amsterdam University Fund is organising a crowd-funding project.
SaxNow reported on Tuesday that a crisis management team at Saxion University of Applied Sciences had sought to contact six students in Ukraine. One of them turned out to have gone into hiding, while another was able to flee to Moldova. An unknown number of students is in Russia, which is practically cut off from the outside world due to the no-fly zones.
Not Russia’s war
Not just Ukrainian students and staff, but their Russian counterparts, too, are devastated by the war. Russian Nelly Litvak, a professor of applied mathematics at the University of Twente, said in U-Today that what is happening in Ukraine is terrible. “All the Russians I know are against this war, in which there are no winners, only losers. It is Putin’s war, not Russia’s war.”
Andrei Tertienko, a Russian student attending Wageningen University & Research, says that all his friends in Russia are horrified by the war raging in Ukraine, despite all the propaganda the Russian government is using to influence public opinion. “The Russian government is not the people”, he told Resource.
Support
Many tertiary education institutions have started collecting things to be delivered to Ukraine. For instance, Ukrainian students attending Tilburg University are planning to drive to TU’s partner university in Lviv next week, carrying clothing, medicine, food and items for babies.
Similar actions are being undertaken at the University of Twente, the University of Amsterdam, Saxion University of Applied Sciences, Radboud University Nijmegen and Erasmus University.
