The Ukrainian Catholic University's rector reflects on teaching students to help other people in need.
The Rector of the Ukrainian Catholic University, Dr Taras Dobko, is relatively new to the job – he was appointed at the beginning of July – and couldn’t have begun it in more challenging times: first Covid, then war. “We are fortunate that the university is in the west of the country, so it is removed from the worst of the conflict in the east,” he said. The student body, now 2,300 strong, actually grew before and during the war; about a third of the undergraduate body and over half of graduates are from the country beyond Lviv where it is based, including the capital, Kyiv, and eastern parts of the country. From being a regional university it is now national in scope. And as soon as humanly possible after Covid, classes resumed in person because, as Dr Dobko says, it’s not possible to express solidarity with others on Zoom. There’s a large shelter at the university in case of missile attacks; students may well be safer there than at home.
