LPNU, founded in 1816, stands as the largest university in Ukraine. It encompasses 18 institutes and 106 academic departments, serving approximately 34,000 students and 600 Ph.D. candidates. The teaching staff consists of nearly 2,200 members, including 280 full professors (Sc.D. holders) and over 1,200 associate professors (Ph.D. holders).
Since 1961, LPNU has welcomed international students ; by early 2022, the university had over 300 students from 20 different countries. The European Credit Transfer and Accumulation System (ECTS) is actively applied to support student exchange programmes. The university focuses on educating and training highly qualified researchers and academics while conducting scientific research, developing innovative solutions, and creating research-based products.
LPNU’s educational and research successes span various scientific disciplines, integrating engineering, natural sciences, economics, and social sciences. The university is guided by core principles such as excellence, academic freedom, institutional independence, innovation in teaching and research, mutual respect, and fairness. LPNU is a leader in Ukraine in adopting a modern educational approach, focusing on student-centred learning and a competency-based framework for curriculum development and implementation. The university has also introduced an internal quality assurance system with ISO 9001:2015 certification.
Located in Lviv, a city that has remained relatively safe since the Russian invasion on 24 February 2022, the university has become a place of refuge for thousands of individuals, including students and faculty members, seeking security. Since 2014, LPNU has been actively involved in assisting refugees and internally displaced persons. In response to the ongoing conflict, the university established a Humanitarian Aid Centre to provide essential supplies and support to displaced persons and the military. Furthermore, from 14 March 2022, students from Ukrainian universities in war-affected areas, where academic operations have been disrupted, have been given the opportunity to continue their studies at LPNU.
The Ukrainian higher education system has been facing severe problems caused by the Russian invasion in eastern Ukraine since 2014. At that time, the concept of "displaced higher education institutions" emerged, as since the beginning of hostilities in the Donbas region, 18 HEIs have been moved from the temporarily ceased territories. The displaced HEIs managed to resume the educational process and now educate over 40,000 students and employ about 3,500 academic staff. However, most of these universities struggle with infrastructure, funding, and human resource problems. LPNU collaborates with many of them and tries to provide help.
In particular, LPNU is coordinating a capacity-building Erasmus+ project called Open Practices, Transparency and Integrity for Modern Academia, which aims to bring Open Science to Ukraine, while focusing on engaging disadvantaged academic communities from displaced Ukrainian universities. Another example is the Crimea-Ukraine Educational Centre, which operates within LPNU and supports people from the temporarily occupied Crimea in entering university. LPNU is the base for the work of the Ukrainian Distance School. Ukrainian schoolchildren abroad can combine studying according to the programmes of the country of temporary residence with studying according to Ukrainian standards.
Since 2022, LPNU, in particular the Department of Social Communications and Information Activities, has been an active partner in Erasmus+ educational projects such as :
- AGILE : Higher education resilience in refugee crises : forging social inclusion through capacity building, civic engagement and skills recognition
- Welcome ! : Preparatory online school for children with a migration background,
- Baltics4UA : Supporting Ukraine through citizen engagement at Baltic Universities and
- WELLTEENS : Fostering the well-being of teenagers fleeing the war.
LPNU also carries out actions initiated by the academic community and aimed at the successful integration of displaced persons and refugees into its academic community, as well as assistance in crisis situations (https://zenodo.org/records/7994655).
LPNU’s participation in EGAL-I will be mainly represented by the Institute of Humanities and Social Sciences and the Institute of Law, Psychology and Innovative Education, whose team has expertise in working on EU-funded projects.