The University of Manchester has twinned with the Ivan Horbachevsky Ternopil ³Ô¹ÏÍøÕ¾ Medical University (TNMU) in Western Ukraine to support medical students whose studies have been have been disrupted by the conflict with Russia.
The support aims to stabilise the pipeline of desperately needed newly qualified doctors in the war-torn country.
While some academics and students from TNMU have joined the Ukrainian defence forces, others are now teaching trauma management to civilians, placing pressure on academic staff numbers.
Manchester will provide academic support and training and will also be sharing teaching and learning materials.
The University is also looking at offering short electives to Ukrainian medics of the future to gain clinical experience in a UK hospital.
The move is one of at least 71 formal partnerships between UK Universities and their Ukrainian counterparts in the war torn country announced by this week.
It follows The University of Manchester’s separate announcement of a £5 million package of emergency funding to support displaced students and academics in Ukraine as well as other countries affected by armed conflict.
The March announcement builds on Manchester’s existing programmes, such as the augmented Living Cost Support Fund or specific schemes to assist asylum seeker students.
Founded in 1957, TNMU is a tertiary state educational institution, and a center of biomedical research and training.
The university provides high quality professional medical training to domestic and international students.
It currently enrols around 7,000 students, including 2,500 of international students from 56 countries, studying medicine, dentistry, pharmacy nursing, paramedic science and public health as well as and postgraduate studies.
Rector of TNMU Professor Mykhaylo Korda said: “This Twinning agreement with one of the most progressive universities in the UK is extremely important for the future development and progress of our school. We hope to gain new methodologies of teaching, the modern approaches to research and new experience in the internationalization of TNMU”.
Vice-Rector for Education at TNMU Professor Arkadiy Shulhai said: “The war has forced us into relying on online classes. Thanks to our twining with The University of Manchester, we can enhance the clinical study of our future physicians living under martial law.
“It is a privilege and a pleasure to be twinned with the University of Manchester. We hope for a long-term and fruitful collaboration in the fields of education and research.”
Professor Margaret Kingston, Director of Undergraduate Medical Studies at The University of Manchester said: “We are proud to support our Ukrainian colleagues to maintain the delivery of their medical programme.”
