On the reconstruction of Ukraine

In the project, which the German Academic Exchange Service (DAAD) is funding with more than 200,000 euros as part of an emergency program, corresponding teaching offers are to be made available via a new digital platform.

In 2017, Ukraine had translated the goals of the EU's Leipzig Charter 2020 into its own decentralized planning system with the "Urban Development" white paper. The war of aggression of Russia against Ukraine is not only directed against the independent and democratic Ukraine, but also against the goals of the EU Leipzig Charter: the European city as a place of democracy, pluralism, rationalism, subsidiarity, orientation towards the common good, as well as public space as a place of exchange, free residence and also protest.

These themes will be explored in depth in the new teaching formats to enable sustainable reconstruction in freedom. "We will first ask our Ukrainian colleagues about short-term teaching needs in order to be able to provide targeted support here with online formats. In addition, we will jointly develop teaching modules and formats that deal with urban development processes and focus on the reconstruction of destroyed cities and communities," says BTU professor Dr. Silke Weidner, Department of Urban Management, explaining the project. She helped design the Leipzig Charter 2020 for the German Federal Ministry of Housing, Urban Development and Building (BMWSB) and supported Ukraine in implementing these goals.

In addition, the project provides several scholarships for Ukrainian students, doctoral candidates and lecturers who are in economic need due to the consequences of war and internal displacement. Ukrainian researchers who are located at the participating universities in Germany are also to be involved in the work.

In order to involve the Ukrainian partner universities, there will be regular courses and colloquia.

The digital learning platform is being developed in cooperation with Prof. Dr. Detlef Kurth from the Technical University of Kaiserslautern, Prof. Frank Schwartze from the Technical University of Lübeck and Prof. Christoph Wessling, Technical University of Berlin. The four professors have already conducted workshops with the partner universities in previous years and were involved in the reorganization of the planning system in Ukraine.

In Ukraine, the National Polytechnic University of Lviv, the National Yuriy Fedkovych University of Chernivtsi, the Kyiv National University of Building Construction Architecture, the University of Poltava and the University of Odessa are involved.