Three delegations from Ukraine have visited Leibniz University Hannover (LUH) in November and December 2024, either to expand existing collaborations or initiate new ones.
Workshop on inclusive education: LUH and Ivan Franko National University of Lviv expand cooperation
As part of a project funded by the German Academic Exchange Service (DAAD), Eastern Partnerships, 2024–2026, LUH welcomed a delegation from Ivan Franko National University Lviv from 17 to 23 November. The goal of the visit was to expand cooperation in the area of inclusive education and enable discussion and exchange on teaching approaches and inclusion for school pupils and university students with special needs. In an intensive workshop organised by Prof. Dr. Rolf Werning and his team from the Institute of Special Education, teaching staff members and researchers discussed examples from practice, the organisation of inclusive education processes, the development of resilience, the role of music therapy and school assistants, and current challenges.
Alongside the presentations on the topic, highlights of the week included visits to inclusive and special education schools in Hannover as well as a meeting with the deans. The exchange gave participants the opportunity to obtain in-depth insights into the German and Ukrainian educational systems, particularly in view of the challenges of integrating children with a refugee background. Plans include further workshops and the ongoing expansion of cooperation, as the identification of common challenges is an important step towards improving the educational systems in both countries and making them more adaptable. The Eastern Partnerships (Ostpartnerschaften) project is financed with funding from the Federal Foreign Office.
Workshop with Ukrainian partner universities: Open Educational Resources with Ukraine project extended
Fifteen representatives from five Ukrainian partner universities and one research institute in Kyiv, Dnipro, Kharkiv and Lviv came to Hannover from 23 to 28 November for the workshop Open Educational Resources (OERs) with Ukraine. Since June 2022, they have been working intensively within the project of the same name under the leadership of TIB director Prof. Dr. Sören Auer. Together with L3S, TIB and other LUH institutes, they are developing video lectures and teaching materials under Creative Commons licences (CC-BY) for the subjects biomedical engineering, biology, materials science, computer science, information technology, and history of science and technology, among others. To date, 290 teaching/learning videos have been produced in English and/or Ukrainian. They are available as OERs on the TIB AV-Portal, the German national portal for academic videos.
As part of the workshop, participants shared their experiences with OERs, discussing innovative approaches such as using LiaScript to produce course descriptions and using the experimental learning platform eDoer to curate and produce didactic OER courses. Current developments in the area of open access publishing, university journals and the research project Fake Narratives: Understanding Narratives of Disinformation in Public and Alternative News Videos were also presented.
A positive message from DAAD arrived during the workshop: the project will be extended until 30 June 2025. This extension will enable the development of additional OER materials as well as the continued integration and mutual recognition of the courses at the partner universities. The OER with Ukraine project is financed by DAAD through the funding line Ukraine digital: Ensuring academic success in times of crisis with funds from the Federal Ministry of Education and Research (BMBF).
Visit from a delegation from Mykolaiv: Discussion and exchange on urban planning and energy supply
As part of the solidarity partnership between the state of Lower Saxony and the city of Hannover with the region and city of Mykolaiv in Ukraine, LUH welcomed an expert delegation from Mykolaiv on 3 December 2024. The visit aimed to enable knowledge exchange on sustainable urban planning and energy supply in order to support the reconstruction of the region, which has been impacted by the war. The solidarity partnership particularly supports the reconstruction of infrastructure and the intensification of economic cooperation. Education, science and sustainable development are key areas.
The visit at LUH began at the Centre for Continuing Education (ZEW) in a discussion with Prof. Dr. Elke Katharina Wittich on continuing education models in the area of “energy” that are specifically tailored to Mykolaiv’s needs. The dialogue then continued at the International Office, where representatives from the faculties of Architecture and Landscape Sciences, Civil Engineering and Geodetic Science, and Mathematics and Physics gave presentations on practice-oriented research at LUH. The focus was on topics such as sustainable building systems and materials, the potential of solar energy in urban settings, and innovative energy supply systems. This was followed by a presentation on the LiFE2050 Leibniz Research Centre given by Dr. Volker Schöber. The centre focuses on the transformation of the energy system and interacts with individuals from academia, the business sector, the political sphere and civil society to develop sustainable solutions.
Contact information: International Office, Nataliya Butych, tel. 0511 762-3702, email: nataliya.butych@zuv.uni-hannover.de
