Higher education actors’ responses to the Ukraine-Russia conflict: an analysis of geopolitical spatial imaginaries

Abstract

The Russian invasion of Ukraine, on 24th February 2022, was met with widespread condemnation across Europe, with many universities and higher education-focussed national and regional organisations issuing their own public statements about the invasion and subsequent conflict and, in some cases, taking specific action in relation to one or both of the countries. This article draws on an analysis of 55 such statements to examine what they reveal about how higher education organisations conceptualise the European higher education space, and the position of Russia and Ukraine within it. Specifically, the article considers what spatial imaginaries–pertaining to higher education–are evident in the statements about the Ukraine conflict issued by higher education organisations across Europe, and the extent to which the statements provide evidence about the role of these organisations as normative policy actors.