Statement regarding Russia’s aggression in Ukraine

The Centre for Russian and Eurasian Studies of the University of Tartu unequivocally condemns Russia’s aggression against its peaceful neighbor, the sovereign country of Ukraine and stands in solidarity with Ukraine.

We fully endorse the statement made by the Rector of the University of Tartu, Dr Toomas Asser, regarding Ukraine: https://ut.ee/en/content/rectors-address-ukrainian-members-university-tartu-and-entire-university-community.

Since the outbreak of the war in Ukraine, the University of Tartu has been actively engaged in supporting its Ukrainian staff and students and preparing for the reception of refugees from Ukraine. Among other measures, the university plans to allow Ukrainian students to study at the university without paying the tuition fee and apply for financial support.

An overview of what is being planned and what has already been decided:

The university is looking for ways to offer tuition fee discounts to our current Ukrainian students.
The university will ask the Ministry of Education and Research to review the requirements for need-based allowance for Ukrainian students. The senate will create the possibility for Ukrainian students to apply for a need-based special allowance in 2022.
The university has established a scholarship fund to collect and channel donations to support Ukrainian students’ studies at the University of Tartu. We invite the entire university family to donate to the University of Tartu scholarship fund for Ukrainian students and share the word about the fund. Ukrainian students can apply for the scholarship until 15 March.
To support Ukrainian citizens’ access to higher education, the university extends the period of admission to non-Estonian-taught curricula for Ukrainian citizens. The application deadline for Ukrainian citizens for the first and second level of study will be extended to 1 June. This means the applicants for non-Estonian-taught curricula will have to be assessed in several stages. Therefore, institutes should be ready to assess Ukrainian citizens’ applications in the middle of June. In addition, Ukrainian citizens will be exempt from paying the fee for processing admission documents.
In cooperation with the Ministry of Education and Research, the university will create additional tuition-waiver student places for Ukrainian citizens. For the 2022/2023 academic year, the university is ready to create up to 250 additional tuition-waiver student places for Ukrainian students. In addition, the university will offer jobs to academic staff from Ukraine. The related conditions will be specified shortly.
Estonian universities decided to halt cooperation with Russian and Belarusian universities. The decision concerns institutional cooperation between universities. The International Cooperation and Protocol Office will compile information on ongoing cooperation projects and organise the informing of partner universities.

Please find more information about the activities of the University of Tartu taken regarding Ukraine here: https://ut.ee/en/ukraine (continuously updated).