(Re)imagining the mission of the European Higher Education Area in the context of the war in Ukraine/geographical Europe
- Dr Iryna Kushnir , Nottingham Trent University
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Following the launch of the full-scale invasion of Ukraine in February 2022, the role of the European Higher Education Area (EHEA) in this context still remains an under-researched area. This presentation will explore the political role of the EHEA as an institution and the instrumentalisation of its higher education (HE) cooperation initiatives in the context of the invasion. This presentation will build on my larger related project and rely on a thematic analysis of interviews with representatives from key HE stakeholders in three EHEA members – Germany, France and Italy, as well as key recent international communications related to EHEA’s response to the war. The thematic analysis, revealing two overarching themes, will lead us to consider that: (1) the EHEA has been regaining its lost significance through shaping and disseminating its response as an institution to the war; and (2) HE cooperation in the EHEA in the context of this war has been acquiring a new meaning. These themes lead us to conclude that the war has prompted the EHEA to re-establish its purpose, following the ebbing interest in standardising HE structures. Most importantly, the EHEA has begun to emerge as a platform for political cooperation beyond HE for the promotion of peace in the European region.
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Dr Iryna Kushnir is an Associate Professor of Education Policy at the Nottingham Institute of Education at Nottingham Trent University. Prior to this, she held academic posts at the University of Edinburgh and the University of Sheffield. Dr Kushnir’s interdisciplinary research combines the following main areas: higher education policy and sociology, European integration and social justice. She is particularly interested, and has published widely, in the higher education policy and politics of the European Higher Education Area. She is PI on the project funded by the Spencer Foundation and entitled ‘Europeanisation agenda and membership in the European Higher Education Area post-2020: stakeholders’ perspectives from the UK, Germany, France and Italy’. Dr Kushnir’s interdisciplinary approach has led to empirical and theoretical contributions, which reveal how education policy on one hand and Europeanisation processes on the other hand are interrelated and mutually shape one another. A wider societal impact of Dr Kushnir’s work is in co-establishing and co-developing the Ukrainian Education Research Association which has become the biggest national research association in Ukraine and a hub for education research and quality.