Securing Futures: Resilient and trauma-sensitive (digital) Learning Spaces

The German university system has missed the systematic development of multidisciplinary expertise on Ukraine. Despite the establishment of short-term funding programmes since 2014 and especially since the full-scale invasion in February 2022, discussions about/with Ukraine take place mainly in expert circles instead of bringing reflection and debate directly into society.
Since the war of aggression, many universities in Germany have been particularly challenged in supporting people arriving from Ukraine. However, at the same time the challenges facing the continuation of teaching at Ukrainian universities are enormous and diverse: obvious consequences of the war (emotional strain, personal trauma, destruction of infrastructure, emigration) result in conceivably unfavourable conditions for successful study. In addition to the reconstruction and maintenance of infrastructure, questions arise as to how this complexity of the reality of life of Ukrainian teachers and students can be supported in many ways in order to secure educational biographies and completion of studies more likely. At the same time for students and teachers, the reality of life and study is shaped by war and crisis. Both are omnipresent and at the same time they are in a university setting, which means that studying and teaching continue to be part of their life reality. At the same time, a good university education remains an important part of everyday life. Circumstances and available resources change quickly, and classic teaching and learning plans are quickly disrupted in times of crisis. How can we counter this and design teaching and learning in such a way that students can study without permanent internet access or physical presence at the university?