The University of Bologna for Peace

Every evening in the heart of Bologna’s university district, Piazza Scaravilli lights up with the colours of the Ukrainian and Peace flags. A play of colours makes one flag turn into the other, as a gesture of solidarity with the people of Ukraine. This is just one of the actions taken by the University of Bologna, which is fully committed to supporting students and members of the academic community who are victims of the war in Ukraine, and, more generally, to the whole population of Ukraine.

Rector Giovanni Molari wrote to the academic community: “With this message, I would like to share with all of you the main actions taken so far to address the current emergency. All Ukrainian students enrolled (176) and in exchange (7) at the University of Bologna were promptly contacted by email and offered support. We have met with representatives to receive requests and are maintaining a constant dialogue with everyone affected by the situation. The outgoing exchange students (6) in Russia returned within days of the outbreak of the conflict. The University of Bologna has agreed with the Italian Ministry of University and Research to welcome researchers and students of Ukrainian nationality, in collaboration with ER.GO (Italian Regional Authority for the Right to Higher Education in the Emilia-Romagna Region), the Bologna City Council and the Emilia-Romagna Region.

We are working on calls for tenders to allocate resources. Furthermore, the University of Bologna has taken an emergency measure to postpone the deadline for the payment of the third instalment of tuition fees from 15 March 2022 to 15 June 2022. The measure is effective immediately and benefits students suffering from the new economic and financial situation occurred as a consequence of the war in Ukraine.

Moreover, the Departments will be invited to supplement the financial resources that the University can centrally allocate with project resources made available by colleagues. The goal is to increase the capacity of the University of Bologna to welcome Ukrainian teachers and students. Other ongoing initiatives include the setting up of specific psychological support, the identification of interpreters, and collaboration in the collection of medicines and foodstuffs. Of no less importance are the cultural and study initiatives organised by professors from various Departments".

The University has also set up a specific e-mail address to receive support requests from students and researchers: emergenza.ucraine@unibo.it. Moreover, a web page containing information on the current situation and the actions taken by the University is constantly being updated on the university website.

On Unibo Magazine it is possible to find all the online and in-presence events, talks and lectures open to the entire university and city community. These events are organised by professors at the University to talk about this conflict that is upsetting the heart of Europe.