Free exchange, peaceful community
Solidarity with Ukraine
- 28.02.2022
Teaching and research – as they are conducted at universities – are only conceivable in an international context: as part of free, cross-border exchange and within a peaceful community of researchers, teaching staff and students around the world.
The University of Duisburg-Essen is appalled at Russia’s attack on Ukraine. We are deeply concerned about the lives and safety of the Ukrainian people, particularly the families of Ukrainian students and researchers at UDE.
We stand in solidarity with our partner organisations and all people in Ukraine.
We fully support the statements made by the German Rectors’ Conference (HRK) and the German Academic Exchange Service (DAAD).
Academia and research bring people together from all over the world to collectively solve problems. In this context, we see it as our duty to translate our positions on peacefulness and tolerance into reality – particularly at a time in which long-standing certainties of international coexistence are disintegrating.
In view of these developments, universities, including UDE, will have to scrutinise their actions.
It is important that academic contact and transfer with universities and research institutions in Ukraine be maintained even under these difficult conditions. At the same time, it is likely that exchange with Russia will suffer serious damage.
Within its networks and as part of the University Alliance Ruhr, UDE is assessing what shape the common research environment with Russia can take in future and what effects the current situation will have on mutual mobility in research and teaching.
One thing remains certain: UDE will maintain its culture of welcoming people – particularly those whose freedom and safety are now threatened.