Project
Oral History Archive: Ukrainian Refugees in the English Higher Education Sector
School: School of Art & Design; School of Social Sciences
About the project
In response to the Russian invasion of Ukraine, the UK has issued Ukraine Family Scheme and Sponsorship Scheme visas to help people seek safety. This project aimed to explore how Ukrainians who have arrived to England during the current Russian war in Ukraine have been navigating the challenges they encounter in the pursuit of their place in the higher education sector in England as students or members of academic staff (e.g., lecturers, researchers).
We collected 11 personal testimonies of individuals who have been seeking to access and/or effectively participate in the higher education sector specifically in England (i.e., not Scotland, Wales or Northern Ireland) as students of any level, mode or type of provision (e.g., Bachelor’s, Master’s, PhD; full-time/part-time) and members of academic staff. These interviews took place in late spring 2023.
It is hoped that this Oral History Archive will contribute to raising public awareness of the opportunities and challenges in the experiences of accessing higher education in England for the Ukrainians whose lives have been impacted by the Russian invasion and who have relocated to England, even if temporarily. It is also hoped that this Archive is going to inspire further action from relevant and interested parties to tackle the multiple interconnected and persisting challenges that Ukrainian refugees continue facing.
This project was funded by Quality Research funding from Nottingham Trent University.
The overarching research design of the project was informed by BERA (2018) Research Ethics Guidelines. It also received a favourable ethics decision from the Schools of Business, Law and Social Sciences Research Ethics Committee (BLSS REC) at Nottingham Trent University.
About the team
Dr Iryna Kushnir was Principal Investigator on this project. She is an Associate Professor at the Nottingham Institute of Education at Nottingham Trent University. She has an international reputation in European and international higher education policy and politics as well as expertise in the sociology of migration. Her recent work on Ukrainian higher education reforms has been published in an authored monograph. She is also a co-founder of the Ukrainian Education Research Association and its co-developer since 2015.
Dr Iryna Kuksa was a co-Investigator on this project. She holds a permanent Senior Research Fellowship at the Nottingham School of Art and Design and is a Director of the Design Research Centre at Nottingham Trent University. She is an internationally recognised expert in the field of design for personalisation, which she launched in 2017. Industrial designer by training, she uses design as a research tool to devise innovative interventions for generating positive, real-life impacts, foster creative cross-fertilisation of ideas, and engage varied stakeholder groups in productive and open discourse.
Dr Verusca Calabria was a co-Investigator on this project. She is a Senior Lecturer at the School of Social Sciences at Nottingham Trent University and an expert in Oral History methodology; she is co-founder of the Nottingham Trent University Oral History Network and Trustee of the Oral History Society. Veruska has led on the creation of oral history collections of regional and national importance.
Ellis Richards was a Research Assistant on the project. He has completed a BA in Sociology and Politics at Nottingham Trent University and an MA in Social Policy at University of Birmingham. His research interests are focused on migration, education and health inequalities.
Prof Chris Reynolds provided support to the research team. He is Professor of Contemporary European History and Memory Studies at Nottingham Trent University and co-founder of the NTU Oral History Network. He has published widely in the field of ‘1968 Studies’ including two monographs and multiple academic articles and book chapters.
Dr Natasha Hodgson provided support to the research team. She is an Associate Professor of History, Heritage and Global Culture. She is an expert in gender and conflict studies and is Director of NTU Centre for the Study of Religion and Conflict. She has designed Digital Humanities projects and completed a TILT sabbatical in 2021 dedicated to this field.
Dr Iryna Kushnir
Associate Professor
Nottingham Institute of Education
Iryna Kuksa
Senior Research Fellow
Nottingham School of Art & Design
Verusca Calabria
Associate Professor
School of Social Sciences
Chris Reynolds
Professor
School of Arts & Humanities
Natasha Hodgson
Associate Professor
School of Arts & Humanities
The Oral History Archive
This index table provides a summary of the data available in the Oral History Archive.
Anna Chechel
See Anna's transcript:
We have a very good sponsor, and we still have a very good relationship, she is an Indian woman, and he is British. We had such a mix of cultures, a mix of attitudes...we exchanged the experience of national cuisine, that is, a lot of experience... and the opportunity to constantly practice English when you communicate with sponsors is invaluable experience in this field.
Anna Chechel
Inesa Kostenko
See Inesa's transcript:
When you go to bed together with the children in the basement [bomb shelter], and the question of the eldest son: ‘Will we wake up?’ I remember this being one of the scariest questions. And so, every day you live with it.
Inesa Kostenko
Maryna Rusanova
See Maryna's transcript:
My husband, by the way, is in the army... there were some classes for people who wanted to defend the country. To learn something. And he... well, I last saw him in 2022. Now I'm fleeing. Yes, we keep in touch every day.
Maryna Rusanova
Taisia Korolova
See Taisia's transcript:
I also need to find some documents from my university in Ukraine which is going to be complicated because I don't have physical documents here with me because they're all in my university and I don't know if I'll have access to them, which is kind of a problem. I can't really prove that I finished school or whatever because I just don't have those documents anymore with me.
Taisia Korolova
Sergii Koziakov
See Sergii's transcript:
Most of all, I appreciate peace from war, as far as possible, remotely. That is, I know that there are no bombings. I know that when I work personally through my PC with some source from the library, I won't have to go to the bomb shelter. I appreciate that the CARA fund finances my ability to pay the rent for an apartment and my family is safe here. I have unlimited access to library resources. If I want to talk to some scientist, professor, or experts, they will be happy to meet with me. I will be able to discuss any topic of mutual interest. I really appreciate it. At the same time, I also appreciate London parks, London museums. This is a longstanding interest of mine.
Sergii Koziakov
Yaroslava
See Yaroslava's transcript:
I feel like my system of priorities, due to my experience perhaps, has sort of changed because my friends, my everyone is in Ukraine. And sometimes I don’t sleep half of the night because there is another drone attack happening in Ukraine.
Yaroslava
I have a husband, brother, family, friends, many people left there and you understand that they are there, and your day starts with the news of what happened in Ukraine. Whether you want it or not, you open social networks or take the smartphone. You are constantly alerted by an air alarm, or something happened today. And if something extraordinary happens, like today, for example, in the morning, then it just completely knocks you out. For example, you had a plan to do something tomorrow, to prepare something and you know how to do it, but you can't emotionally put yourself together, you constantly look at the smartphone.
Tetiana
My career in Ukraine seems to have reached almost the highest level. I mean, if you look at the scientific field, it is a doctor, a professor. Whereas in England, it has dropped to a lower level, and now I need to build it back up to a higher one.
Oleksandra
As a matter of fact, when it comes to some personal traits, it is the ability to take risks in a sense, that is, I went to England alone, and I made phone calls to find out how to apply, you don't have to be overly fearful, you have to try, because if you don't do it, you won't know.
Zhenia
…the main thing is that we, Ukrainians, help each other. It's a really big deal because I don't feel like I'm alone because I can go to someone to turn to. I am very grateful to fate that there are such people who have achieved a lot in this country. It was very difficult, and they are ready to help others.
Liudmyla
In England, compared to Ukraine, especially in Oxford, you just have access to all the resources, you can read any articles, any books, if there is no book there, you let your own college know about that and they will order it for you, and you will read any book you want. For example, now, when we are doing research, we do not choose what to buy, what reagents, we immediately choose the best ones, because there is funding for this. It seems to me that resources are such an important plus. In Ukraine, we did not have such resources at all for anything. Yes, the quality of teaching is also much better than in Ukraine, of course. That is, teachers are better prepared for classes. It can be seen that the level is different. Mostly, those who teach have a PhD degree. In Ukraine, not all teachers had a PhD. But it seems to me, regarding the cons, there may be a question of a language barrier or a feeling of being in this environment. I feel that in Ukraine somehow, I had some closer contact with the teachers, they were more interested in us and how we learn the material, our academic performance. Here, it seems to me, there is such an attitude, they simply read a lecture and leave. That is, there is no contact with us.
Taisiia
Read more on the outputs of the project
Kushnir, I. and Richards, E. (2025). Crafting agency in a host community: Accessing and participating in the English higher education sector by Ukrainian refugees. British Educational Research Journal IF 3.0 https://doi.org/10.1002/berj.4178
Kushnir, I. and Richards, E. (2025). Oral histories of Ukrainian refugees in English higher education. WonkHE. Available at https://wonkhe.com/blogs/oral-histories-of-ukrainian-refugees-in-english-higher-education/
Kushnir, I. and Kuksa, I. (2024). Interview materials from the oral history project ‘Ukrainian Refugees in the English Higher Education Sector’. [Dataset]