A pair of philosophers have created a program through which people can volunteer to team-teach online courses at Ukrainian universities.

The European Initiative for Online Tandem Courses for Ukrainian Universities launched in September of last year. It arranges for teams of two European university lecturers from two different countries to offer philosophy seminars via a virtual platform (such as Zoom) at Ukrainian universities. It is done on a voluntary basis and at no cost to the universities.

The aims of the program include communicating to Ukrainian students and scholars:

• that Ukraine is not alone in this terrible war of aggression and that we as European partners stand in solidarity with Ukraine,
• that Ukraine is already part of a peaceful and cooperative Europe today,
• that Russian aggression cannot prevent Ukraine and its European partners from living the “European way of life”,
• with the tandem teaching method of two lecturers from different European countries, that we work together within the European Union across national and language borders, and
• opportunities for gaining academic contacts throughout Europe.

The initiative was created by Ulrich Arnswald (University of Innsbruck, Austria) and Joaquín Jareño Alarcon (University of Murcia, Spain), who have been teaching a two-hour seminar once a week for the Oles Honchar Dnipro National University in Dnipro, close to the front line. Professor Arnswald says, “Every seminar is extremely intensive, the students are highly motivated (and there are good reasons for this) and, despite the strong focus on the philosophical content, you gradually learn more about the war, personal feelings and concerns.”

About the program as a whole, the organizers write:

When we developed this initiative, we remembered the Samizdat underground seminars of the Cold War. At that time, various philosophers such as Charles Taylor, Roger Scruton, Jacques Derrida, and R.M. Hare participated in a kind of “underground university” in Czechoslovakia, one of the most repressive states behind the Iron Curtain.

This group came together on short notice, the seminars took place in private flats in the Czechoslovakia over a few days, and then the colleagues left the country again to avoid being picked up by the secret service. It was an adventurous undertaking, described in a book by Barbara Day entitled The Velvet Philosophers (1999).

What this generation did for the Czechs during the Cold War to show solidarity with the opposition at that time, we now want to do in the form of moral support for the Ukrainians in their fight against the Russian aggressors.

We believe that it is our moral obligation today to support the brave Ukrainians in their fight for freedom, democracy, the rule of law, national sovereignty—in short, all our Western values.

If you are interested in learning more about the initiative, you can contact the organizers at europeantandeminitiative@gmail.com.

Below are some questions I asked them about the program, along with their answers.

(1) If someone is interested in joining your initiative, how would they go about doing so?

Interested parties should contact us by email and send in their CV, letting us know what they can offer in terms of teaching. They will then be placed on a waiting list.

If you register as a tandem, always two people from two different countries, you will be placed on the list as a tandem together with your coordinated teaching offers. If you register alone without a tandem partner, Joaquín and I will suggest a tandem partner who has overlapping teaching offers as soon as the need arises.

(2) How long are the courses? When do they begin and end, and how many sessions are there, typically? How long are the sessions? When will the next round of courses begin? When do you need to hear from new volunteers by?

This varies greatly, as some universities in Ukraine are organized according to the English trimester system, while others follow the continental European semester system. This means that this must be agreed upon individually with each institution.

The start of the semester also varies, but if the Ukrainian side is interested in the offer, the tandem partners can negotiate this directly with the respective Ukrainian university. The Ukrainian university always has the final say.

However, they have been quite flexible so far, as this takes place online and students who speak English very well (often at master’s level) or even PhD students are often offered this opportunity by Ukrainian universities as something special in the difficult situation. It seems like a small reward that Ukrainian universities give to their best students; at least, that is our impression, as these are educated students with good foreign language skills.

So far, there have been 14 to 16 sessions of two hours each. This officially means two 45-minute lessons. However, two full hours are often taught in practice, as the Zoom session often ends after 45 minutes, depending on the Zoom settings in the respective country, and then a new 45-minute Zoom session starts again after a short break. However, this is dependent on the technical provider—currently Zoom—and the respective country settings of the person setting up the session and inviting others to join, as well as their country-specific Zoom offering. We use free Zoom so far; universities that have a Zoom package are not subject to any restrictions. But even with the free Zoom service and a short break between two 45-minute sessions, it works wonderfully.

(A tip: If you ask one of the students in Ukraine to invite the group to the session (to do this, you must provide them with all the email addresses of the course participants, which of course requires the consent of everyone), Zoom is not limited in time, as Zoom is providing free and unlimited Zoom access to all Ukrainians due to the war in Ukraine.)

(3) What is expected from volunteers?

Willingness to teach philosophy; a variety of courses would be helpful. Mostly in English, but theoretically also in French or German, possibly Spanish, as the Department of French Studies, German Studies, and Spanish Studies also offer philosophy courses in their respective languages to a limited extent. We have already had requests for German as a foreign language.

(4) How many courses are offered through your initiative, and at how many Ukrainian universities?

This varies. We currently have a backlist of around 12 Ukrainian universities.

However, we can contact the Ministry of Science at any time, which will then inform all Ukrainian universities and colleges in a notice that they can contact us again if necessary for the  teaching offered.

In other words, we announce that we can offer ten additional courses on certain topics, for example, and then the Ukrainian universities contact Joaquin and me, and we try to match their needs with the people we have available.

 (5) Anything else prospective volunteers should know?

We do not want to achieve size at any cost. It is more important that the colleagues who want to participate share the same spirit of freedom, the rule of law, democracy, international law, and peace. This is therefore a group that stands up for our Western values with and for the support of Ukraine.

This is more important to us than size and numbers, which is why it is important that we select like-minded people. But here, too, it is ultimately up to the Ukrainian universities to decide whether they want the teaching tandem we propose and whether they want to include it in their curriculum. It must always be suitable for the Ukrainian partners.

So the first step is always to be added to the back list, and then we’ll see if we have a concrete offer. It may be that colleagues on the back list will not be considered or will only be considered at a later date.

Email inquiries to europeantandeminitiative@gmail.com.