The year 2025 marked the third anniversary of the participation of Taras Shevchenko National University of Kyiv in the NICE virtual exchange programme.
The NICE programme consists of two parts: online modules and a summer school in Edinburgh, United Kingdom.
The participation in the NICE programme started off by working as a part of a virtual team of students from the University of Edinburgh, Taras Shevchenko National University of Kyiv, the University of Amsterdam, the University of Padua, the University of Johannesburg, as well as the University College Dublin, to solve the global challenge.
The participation of KNU students in this programme is supported under KNU’s partnership with the University of Edinburgh and is a meaningful annual tradition.
Over a period of four months, 25 KNU students participated in the first part of the NICE (Network for Intercultural Competence to facilitate Entrepreneurship) virtual exchange programme.
This year, KNU was represented by students from 12 structural units:
- Educational and Scientific Institute of International Relations;
- Educational and Scientific Institute of Law;
- Faculty of Economics;
- Faculty of Computer Science and Cybernetics;
- Educational and Scientific Institute of Philology;
- Faculty of History;
- Faculty of Information Technology;
- Educational and Scientific Institute of Public Administration and Civil Service;
- Educational and Scientific Institute of Journalism;
- Faculty of Radiophysics, Electronics and Computer Systems;
- Faculty of Psychology;
- Faculty of Philosophy.
Summer School
In July 2025, 2 lecturers, 2 programme coordinators and 10 students from KNU visited Edinburgh to participate in the NICE Summer School. This year’s summer school was unique in nature, as it was organised jointly by Taras Shevchenko National University of Kyiv and the University of Edinburgh for the first time. Participants were asked to develop a proposal for reorganising student spaces in the city to create safer, more inclusive and sustainable environments.
The summer school began with a cultural event at the Edinburgh branch of the Association of Ukrainians in Great Britain. Participants had the opportunity to learn about Ukrainian culture and national cuisine, as well as socialise before the start of classes. By the end of an eventful and productive week, the intercultural student teams had developed mini-projects to improve student locations in Edinburgh, learning to identify potential problems or shortcomings in the environments and find solutions to remedy them. The summer school ended with a presentation of the teams’ results to representatives of the university community.
One of Kyiv and Edinburgh joint research groups, the Understanding Languages and Cultures Lab, contributed to the NICE summer school programme. As part of Labs4TwinnedResearch, it is co-led by Dr. Emmanuelle Lacore-Martin (Department of European Languages and Literatures, University of Edinburgh) and Professor Lilia Miroshnychenko (Department of Foreign Literature, KNU).
Their joint session, which opened the school, focused on how cities and citizens are transformed by global challenges. The goal was to explore urban life in times of peace and war through the lens of the sky as a physical phenomenon and an object of poetic representations in Ukrainian, French, and English literatures.
More on the session ‘Two Skies’
The sky is a universal and understandable image, however the russian-Ukrainian war has changed it by adding new negative meanings – those of unpredictability and danger. The enemy attacks from the sky with deadly drones and missiles. Civilian planes do not fly through it. Natural sounds are no longer credible – what in the sky above the city promises rain in the peacetime, in the wartime may disguise a bomb explosion or drone attack. This change is very well captured in the literary response by a Ukrainian poet Kateryna Mikhailitsyna as she writes, “Thunder is no longer thunder / the sky is broken.”
After the lecture, students were invited to reflect on how their perception of the sky is impacted by current events, changes of location, texts studies, and personal experience. The responses formed in group discussions tended toward a symbolic perception of the sky, linking it with hope and belief in a better future. One of the students rightfully reminded everyone: we all live under the same sky.
Among the photographs students took over the week in Edinburgh, some captured the beauty of the sky above the Scottish capital.
Professor Miroshnychenko noted: “For as long as the war continues, in talks about Ukraine – and we understand how important those are for us – the Ukrainian sky will remain yet another entry point into the cluster of questions about how our routine has changed and what empowers us in daily resistance. Referring to shared artistic imagery in such communication is an effective way to be heard and understood. I’d also like to acknowledge the responsible attitude of the Taras Shevchenko University students, who, in addition to their studies, became active ambassadors of Ukraine for this week, telling their peers about hardships, about loss, but also about how they manage to overcome the constraints of war and, more than that, create and implement new social practices for the benefit of communities.”
The theme of Ukrainian resistance to the russian aggressor became a central thread throughout the NICE summer school, both in the classroom and beyond.
On July 1, as part of the NICE-2025 Summer School, a joint session between Taras Shevchenko National University of Kyiv and the University of Edinburgh took place under the title ‘Rethinking Student Spaces: Place Elasticity and Shifting Attachments.’ The session was co-organised and facilitated by Professor Kostyantyn Mezentsev, Head of the Department of Economic and Social Geography (Taras Shevchenko National University of Kyiv), Professor Soledad Garcia Ferrari, Dean International of the College of Arts, Humanities and Social Sciences and Professor of Global Urbanism and Resilience, and Dr Hafsa Olkay, Teaching Fellow at the Edinburgh School of Architecture and Landscape Architecture (University of Edinburgh).
More on the session ‘Rethinking Student Spaces: Place Elasticity and Shifting Attachments’
In the opening lecture, Professors Kostyantyn Mezentsev and Soledad Garcia Ferrari introduced participants to their collaborative work on urban regeneration within the framework of the joint “Impacts of War” Lab. They outlined key theoretical foundations related to place elasticity, liquid migration, temporary uses of urban space, diversity of public spaces, displaced place attachment, and student agency in shaping urban environments. Drawing from their own research, they also demonstrated practical applications of these concepts.
Working in groups with specially designed activity cards, students discussed a variety of real-life situations concerning the use of student spaces and proposed solutions to identified challenges. They reflected on how to make student spaces more flexible, inclusive, safe, and resilient.
The session concluded with the co-creation of a ‘Manifesto for Student Public Spaces’ by the international student participants.
On July 2, as part of the NICE-2025 Summer School, a second joint session – held with the live video feed from Kyiv – was conducted between Taras Shevchenko National University of Kyiv and the University of Edinburgh under the title ‘Connected Student Spaces: Safety and Belonging Across Cities in War and Peace.’ The session was co-organised and led by Professor Kostyantyn Mezentsev (Taras Shevchenko National University of Kyiv) and Professor Soledad Garcia Ferrari (University of Edinburgh).
More on the session ‘Connected Student Spaces: Safety and Belonging Across Cities in War and Peace’
In their opening remarks, Professors Mezentsev and Garcia Ferrari reflected on the importance and distinctiveness of researching urban spaces in contexts of war and peace. They also showcased how student spaces at Taras Shevchenko National University of Kyiv have changed since the onset of Russia’s full-scale invasion.
Ahead of the session, participants watched short video reports prepared by students of the ‘Urban Studies and Planning’ study programme (Department of Economic and Social Geography), which explored student spaces at Taras Shevchenko National University of Kyiv during wartime. During the session, students in Kyiv provided live commentary and on-site presentations of the damage and transformations taking place in the University spaces.
Moderated by Professors Mezentsev and García-Ferrari, the session featured an engaging discussion on how student spaces are formed and transformed in wartime, how to ensure safety within them, and how place attachment evolves in such contexts.
From the KNU side, the coordination of the NICE programme was supported by Roman Petyur, Head of the International Relations Office, Anastasiia Pozhar and Arina Maliuha, members of the International Relations Office.
Students’ impressions on participating in the NICE 2025 Summer School
Video was created by NICE 2025 participant Daryna Skutska
