Universities in times of war: Challenges and solutions for ensuring the educational process

Abstract

Educational activities of higher education institutions located in the war zone are undergoing significant changes, particularly in Ukraine. This study aims to generalize the experience of the National University “Zaporizhzhia Polytechnic,” Ukraine, in ensuring the continuity of the digital services of the educational process and generate recommendations for countering threats arising under the influence of active hostilities.49% of students are residents of Zaporizhzhia, and 40% live in the occupied territories. Most students were forced to move to safer locations or even abroad. Still, some of them remained in the occupation (due to the strict regime by the occupiers, they could not move to the territory controlled by Ukraine). About 5% of students temporarily or entirely stopped their studies. The city of Zaporizhzhia is under constant fire from the occupying forces, so academic staff is dynamically relocating to safer regions. The university constantly responds to the situation at the front and implements measures to continue educational activities in these conditions, relying on digital services. To minimize the impact of war threats and ensure the continuity of digital services, the university administration guarantees protection against power outages of all elements of the digital infrastructure, providing backup Internet communication channels and creating a distributed information base. National University “Zaporizhzhia Polytechnic” continues to further expand its information services library, improving the quality of the educational process in war conditions.