Ukrainian higher education in time of war and EU integration aspirations: great losses or great opportunities for change?

Following the onset of the full-scale Russian aggression, the Ukrainian higher education system has encountered numerous challenges: educational institutions and infrastructure were damaged or destroyed during the war, a decrease in funding of education and science, relocation of participants of the educational process abroad, which has led to a significant loss of students and teaching staff by Ukrainian universities. Based on a survey among Ukrainian academic teachers, factors that hold back Ukraine’s EU integration aspirations, i.e. the shadow sector and pathologies of the higher education system, are characterized. The results of the analysis identify recommendations for integration into the European Higher Education Area and increasing the competitiveness of Ukrainian universities: improvement of the institutional environment, harmonization of Ukrainian legislative acts on higher education and science with EU legislation, consolidation of universities, increasing the level of academic integrity.