Academics beyond Borders

The Academics Beyond Borders programme was created to provide remote academic support for students affected by conflicts and/or repression. It was developed from solidarity initiatives led by staff and students at the School of Social and Political Science.

The programme aimed to offer PhD students enrolled in universities in countries affected by conflict or repressive regimes remote doctoral supervision from SPS academics, online academic mentoring from either a fellow postgraduate student or a member of staff from the SPS and access to the University’s electronic library resources

A solidarity initiative

The programme was set up initially to support the Academics for Peace signatories in Turkey (who had signed a petition demanding that the Turkey government stopped bombing the Kurdish part of Turkey, and suffered repression amounting to ‘civil death’ as a result), and then with Ukraine-based doctoral students following the assault on Ukraine by Russia in February 2022.

With the cooperation of the Postgraduate office within the School of Social and Political Science (SPS), of the Visiting Student Office at the College of Arts, Humanities and Social Science and Edinburgh Global, our group set up a scheme to allow for remote study, namely: remote supervision and mentoring by SPS staff and access to e-resources in the Library.

I would like to inform you that I have finally defended my dissertation successfully and gained a PhD degree. This would be definitely impossible without the great support of the University of Edinburgh. I would like to express my gratefulness once more. I hope you are all doing very well during these pandemic days and in good health.”

Support developed in collaboration

We sought to match the volunteer supervisors according to each student’s field of research, and mentoring was meant to help participants in the programme with support for accessing journals, structuring an academic paper, or presenting at virtual conferences. This scheme aimed to provide PhD students affected by persecution or/and war with support to work independently and to maintain links with the international academic community, it is not a degree-granting programme.

A ‘remote visiting research student’ status was created so the Library could give the access to their resources that are usually only reserved for matriculated student. The University and the School also granted a fee waiver for 20 places. This was essential as the programme was meant to last for some months for each student (in fact it has almost always been a year, sometimes two), and in any case more than 12 weeks (In person visiting students staying less than 12 weeks do not have to pay fees).

Finding the first scholars to join the programme

It is notoriously difficult to publicise such schemes in a context of repression and heavy policing, and there is the added difficulty of language since we cannot organise this programme in another language than English. Only six student signatories of the Academics for Peace petition took part in our programme (2018-2019 and 2019-2020).

Dissemination of our call was easier in the direction of PhD students at Ukrainian universities, thanks to the Science4Ukraine platform which was established by Ukrainian scholars very early on. Nevertheless, we only had a total of 9 students (over 2022-2034 and 2023-2024), based in Kyiv, but also in Lutsk (NW Ukraine), as well as in Warsaw and London (for those amongst our participants who had to flee).

Participants benefitted unevenly from the programme – the material circumstances and traumatic experience made it humanly impossible for some of them to carry on working on their PhDs. For others, however, the programme did meet its objectives of encouraging them to keep to their studies despite the extremely stressful and materially challenging environment. Maintaining this focus on their studies, making them feel part of a wider academic community, were and are indeed the two key aims of this programme. Some of the participants in the scheme for Ukraine wrote to us at the end of their programme to express their appreciation for such support.

I am deeply grateful for the opportunity to participate in the Academics Beyond Borders program. I believe it has significantly helped me and has, to some extent, changed my worldview... My standards for myself and my research work have significantly increased, much to the surprise of my academic advisor in Ukraine. Only by participating in this program was I able to publish articles in serious international journals, which, in turn, allowed me to make new valuable connections (academic peers), even beyond the University of Edinburgh. Additionally, I greatly benefited from access to the library and the ability to publish articles open-access for free as a student of Edinburgh. I really appreciate the atmosphere of respect and care that prevails at UoE, and one of my plans after the war is, of course, to visit Edinburgh, as I have never been to the UK. Who knows, if I ever have the opportunity to study in a postdoc program in Europe, it will definitely be at the University of Edinburgh.

Future plans

The leads of Academics Beyond Borders are currently looking into possibly developing the programme in the direction of Palestinian PhD students in the social sciences who have fled Gaza and are able to access some minimum communication and study infrastructure where they are based.

Through the programme, I received invaluable supervision from two experienced School of Social and Political Science scholars. This remote supervision was crucial, as it helped me navigate the complexity of my research, improve my methodology and the quality of my writing, and continue my doctoral studies despite the challenges. Participating in this programme has enabled me to maintain links with the international academic community, ensuring that I remain involved in the wider scientific discourse in my field. Interaction with the international academic community broadened my horizons, allowing me to understand and incorporate diverse perspectives into my research…The Visiting Postgraduate Researcher (non-resident) programme exemplifies European science diplomacy, fostering greater involvement of Ukraine in the European scientific community and demonstrating strong support and solidarity. The ability to access the University’s extensive electronic library resources has been another significant advantage. This access enabled me to obtain critical literature and data that would otherwise have been unavailable, thereby enhancing the quality of my research… I am extremely grateful for this opportunity and the solidarity shown by the academic community at the University of Edinburgh. This support not only improved my scientific work but also strengthened my determination to contribute to my field.

Find out more

Academics Beyond Borders programme on the SPS website

This article was published on 2025-02-28