Olha Porkuian, Rector of the Volodymyr Dahl East Ukrainian National University, was among more than 40 heads of educational institutions from across the country who took part in a training session on building and developing a system of psycho-emotional support in higher education in Ukraine.
The event was held in cooperation with the Ministry of Education and Science of Ukraine and the CMU Coordination Center / Mental Health UA within the framework of the All-Ukrainian Mental Health Program “Are You OK?”, an initiative of First Lady Olena Zelenska at the Ukrainian Catholic University.
“The first challenge is to train specialists of the appropriate level who will restore a person. The second important task is to take care of the health of young people and students. International experience shows that mental health issues among students are relevant – 41% of young people experience stress after entering university. The third challenge is taking care of teachers, who are very important. I thank everyone for the resilience you have demonstrated during the war,” said Andrii Vitrenko, Deputy Minister of Education and Science.
“We should also focus on the fact that the portrait of a student is changing. Even today, students in classrooms are people with war experience. This means that we need to develop completely new approaches to education and teaching and to the organization of university space. It should be human-centered and respectful of everyone’s experience. Every higher education institution today should become an ambassador of mental health and participate in building a new system,” emphasized Oksana Zbitneva, head of the Mental Health Coordination Center.
“The issues discussed in the reports of Oksana Zbitneva, Andrii Vitrenko and other speakers are particularly important for our university. Most members of our community are internally displaced persons who lived in the territories that are now temporarily occupied, so they have experienced and are still experiencing stress. The practices shared by colleagues from other universities are aimed at creating an atmosphere in the institution that would foster resilience,” noted Olha Porkuian.