Coping with adversity: mechanisms of resilience in Ukrainian universities during the Russian-Ukrainian War—a perspective from Lviv University students

Abstract The ongoing Russian-Ukrainian war profoundly impacts Ukrainian higher education, demanding significant adaptation from institutions and students. This study investigates the mechanisms of educational resilience during this conflict, focusing on the experiences of Lviv University students during the challenging winter examination session of 2022–2023. Using qualitative analysis of written student memoirs, we explored how educational continuity was maintained amidst extreme adversity. Our findings highlight three core aspects of wartime educational resilience: first, war-related disruptions like air raids and power outages intertwined with typical academic pressures, creating “compounded adversity.” Second, students responded not with entirely new methods, but by intensifying and adapting everyday coping strategies, collaborative practices, and peer support networks—a manifestation of “ordinary magic” in extraordinary circumstances. Third, while institutional adaptations (e.g., hybrid learning, flexible assessments) provided crucial frameworks, educational continuity ultimately relied on “shared resilience.” This emerged as a dynamic interplay between institutional possibilities and the grassroots initiatives of students and faculty who navigated practical challenges and filled implementation gaps. This study proposes the concept of “shared resilience” as a potentially valuable analytical framework for understanding how higher education institutions maintain functionality during prolonged crises and disruptions.