Existential crisis can be a major driver of transformations in the universities. Using interviews and survey responses from Ukrainian professors and administrators affected by the Russian invasion of 2014-2022, this paper examines the transformative agency of academic communities in Ukraine. The data are analyzed through the prism of agency as “relational pragmatics” (Emirbayer and Mische, 1998) where determination, creativity, will to power and other qualities of taking actions within social constructs of institutional development are supposed to lead to desired outcomes. Yet, the legacies and values of the previous phases of institutional development often interfere and generate unintended outcomes. Grounded in idiosyncrasies (Kramar 2014), human agency naturally develops tensions with forms of institutional agency that are constructed through the misaligned influences of governments and universities which are often unable to coordinate properly or respond to the stakeholders’ demands in a timely manner.

The agency undergoes a major transformation itself in the context of major crises (Oleksiyenko et al. 2023). In war zones affected by destruction and death existential crisis can be particularly glaring  (Benedek, 1997; Oleksiyenko and Terepyshchyj 2023). The loss of intellectuals drastically impoverishes the human habitat and educational landscape of universities and their communities (Milton, 2018). While humanitarian assistance can play a significant role in alleviating the problem, technical intervention is only a temporary solution (Heath, 2009). More sustainable strategies, including the re-establishment of educational institutions and their infrastructure, are usually difficult to advance in the absence of substantial resources, and commitment of donors and local educators and governments. These challenges grow in the absence of respectful conduct among the belligerent parties (Milton, 2021). Leadership and determination for transformations in such environments is particularly back-breaking as hopes are difficult to sustain (Oleksiyenko and Terepyshchyj, 2023).

The reconceptualization of agency and examination of the impact of transformative powers on scholars’ strategies of teaching, research and service are increasingly important, as the war in Ukraine shows (Oleksiyenko and Terepyshchyi, 2023). The transformative agency is in high demand as scholars in vulnerable societies are urged to take a closer look at the processes of value-making and intentionality in their own institutions, especially as demand for strategies of trust- and partnership-building grows among colleagues, students and other members of society. These pressures also show to affect networks abroad. The massive engagement of Ukrainian refugees in the European space of higher education and science has shown to be reshaping the idea of university linkages and responsibilities. This became increasingly obvious as more Western scholars had been striving to reassess and reframe prevalent Russo-centric narratives on their campuses and in their programmes (Aslund, 2023; Prince, 2023). Ukrainians are also urging their colleagues to move away from the old paradigms of thinking about Ukraine as lacking agency, self-determination, and a predisposition to chart a European future.

With conflict-affected areas multiplying around the world, the transformative agency is becoming an intriguing concept which requires more investigation and reframing. In particular, the roles and responsibilities of academic leaders, as the core of transformative agency, grow in importance (Clifford and Montgomery, 2015), especially given that the crisis affects the growing number of stakeholders who believe in solutions to be made by exceptional individualities. The need to reconceptualize the transformative strategies for enhanced security looms thus larger on the academic radars for change management.

This paper draws on data collected and analysed with the help of interviews engaging 50 participants from across Ukraine. These participants were engaged through online interviews (N40) and emailed or web-based survey responses (N10). Most of them were female, given that many males were conscripted. The study engaged representatives of public and private universities. The responses came from universities representing all parts of Ukraine (13 – Northern, 6 – Southern, 8 – Western, 5 – Eastern, and 8 – Central Ukraine). Given the war-related context of the study, the study has acquired a phenomenological character. Indeed, the participants were located in unusual conditions and environments while being periodically affected by missile attacks, bombing and shelling. Some grieved over losses in their families and institutions. Many were under direct affect of devastation and death. With campuses closing and being restructured in view of declining public budget, many felt a direct threat of precarity with their jobs being terminated. The financial and structural crisis became staggering. The participants shared their “lived experiences” while answering questions about the nature of crisis, academic responsibilities, and transformative challenges affecting the universities and teaching positions. The interviews were conducted online, recorded, and later transcribed verbatim using conventional guidelines for qualitative research in general (Miles, Huberman & Saldaña, 2018), and interviews in particular (Salmons, 2011). Each interview was semi-structured and lasted between around 40 minutes. Considering participants' competing priorities, potential connectivity disruptions, and the emotional burden imposed by the war, the interviewers were cautious in managing time and respecting the participants' privacy and need for withdrawal, in accordance with the institutional ethics procedures governing data collection in this study. The interviewers posed clarifying questions and encouraged participants to engage in retrospective and prospective analysis of their universities' institutional strategies and transformative approaches. The study sought opportunities to re-explore the concept of agency within the phenomenological context of the crisis-driven university, and examined how transformative powers of exceptional individualities affect the social construct of agency.

The study finds that transformative agency used to transpire at the Ukrainian universities over the past few decades through confrontations with the post-soviet legacy-holders who promoted mediocrity and bullying in expectation to sustain the status quo and reproduce the culture of dependency and peripherality. The legacy-holders often derided innovations. Before the war, very few universities were able to change this organizational culture and some action-driven participants argued to have suffered from uncritical thinking and apathy in their communities and institutions. By using the transformative agency, the activists however sought opportunities to undermine this culture or at least to escape it, while reaching out to peers in partner universities abroad and creating a robust exchange of teaching and research ideas and methods. The war has brought a range of institutional pressures onto all academics to re-orientate themselves toward “useful” teaching and research agendas. As the larger number of Ukrainian citizens express their commitment to the EU accession and NATO membership, this usefulness implies joining the space of education and development promoting the competitive and accountable science. With Ukrainian universities closing their departments, merging with other institutions in their regions, and terminating redundant and unproductive professoriate, questions however emerge about the sustainability rather than re-orientation of science-based higher education. In the absence of proper resources for high-technology education, which science departments require, the transformative agency, and intellectual leadership as its extension and continuation, has been primarily expanding on the basis of international partnerships with colleagues of the former socialist camp. Meanwhile, such collaborations are not as ample in English-speaking countries, where more resources exist. The westward outreach is often limited in view of colonial legacy of anti-westernization (primarily suspicion to the intentions and capacities of partners abroad), narcissistic self-isolation, and deficient skills in scientific English – the key banes of the soviet-days academia.

Aslund, A. (2023, January 4). The end of post-soviet studies? Kyiv Post, retrieved from https://www.kyivpost.com/post/6385 Benedek, W. (1997). International cooperation and support of higher education in Bosnia and Herzegovina. Journal of Studies in International Education, 1(1), 69-78. Clifford, V., & Montgomery, C. (2015). Transformative learning through internationalization of the curriculum in higher education. Journal of Transformative Education, 13(1), 46-64. Emirbayer, M., and Mische, A. (1998). What is Agency? American Journal of Sociology 103 (4): 962–1023. Heath, E. (2009). Power structures, politics and change in Kosovo’s higher education system. In Nicolai, S. (ed.). Opportunities for Change: Education Innovation and Reform During and After Conflict (pp. 151–162). Paris: UNESCO/IIEP. Kramar, R. (2014). Beyond strategic human resource management: is sustainable human resource management the next approach?. The International Journal of Human Resource Management, 25(8), 1069-1089. Miles, M. B., Huberman, A. M., & Saldaña, J. (2018). Qualitative data analysis: A methods sourcebook. Sage Publications. Milton, S. (2018). Higher Education and Post-Conflict Recovery. Switzerland: Springer International Publishing AG. Milton, S. (2021). Higher education and sustainable development goal 16 in fragile and conflict-affected contexts. Higher Education, 81(1), 89-108. Oleksiyenko, A., Mendoza, P., Riaño, F. E. C., Dwivedi, O. P., Kabir, A. H., Kuzhabekova, A., ... & Shchepetylnykova, I. (2023). Global crisis management and higher education: Agency and coupling in the context of wicked COVID‐19 problems. Higher Education Quarterly, 77(2), 356-374. Oleksiyenko, A., & Terepyshchyi, S. (2023). ‘Hope despite all odds’: academic precarity in embattled Ukraine. Teaching in Higher Education, 1-15. Prince, T. (2023, January 1). Moscow's invasion of Ukraine triggers 'soul-searching' at Western universities as scholars rethink Russian studies. Radio Free Europe/Radio Liberty, retrieved from https://www.rferl.org/a/russia-war-ukraine-western-academia/32201630.html Salmons, J. (2011). Cases in online interview research. Sage Publications.