The University's Vice-Chancellor, Professor Rama Thirunamachandran, signed a memorandum of understanding to officially twin Canterbury Christ Church University with Open International University of Human Development (OUHD) in Kyiv.

A UK-Ukrainian Universities Twinning Project was initiated by Universities UK International (UUKi), in partnership with the Cormack Consultancy Group in May 2022 to match UK universities with a Ukrainian counterpart. The intention is to offer support to academics, students and university leaders in Ukraine during the conflict and more importantly to facilitate long-term collaboration between UK and Ukrainian institutions and support their recovery and rebuild for a sustainable future.

Canterbury Christ Church University is one of 71 UK universities who expressed an interest in the scheme and OUHD was recommended by Cormack Consultancy Group as a twining partner. Several meetings have taken place with Dean of International and the Faculty of Medicine, Health and Social Care to discuss OUHD’s immediate needs for support, such as online short courses and equipment required to enable their students’ learning. A further meeting is organised to discuss offering available library resources to OUHD students and academics and organising a campaign in partnership with the Students’ Union for donations and contributions.

On 28 June, a UK-Ukraine Twinning Conference was held via Zoom. The British Ambassador to Ukraine Ms Melinda Simmons, Ukrainian Ambassador to the UK Mr Vadym Prystaiko and the President of Ukraine’s spokesperson for Education, Science and Sports addressed the attendees and praised those universities taking part in this scheme. They highlighted that ‘the future of the students in Ukraine is the future of Ukraine’ and the value of such a scheme in preventing Ukraine from a potential ‘brain drain’.