2026 Spring Semester – Visible Ukraine

Invisible University for Ukraine (IUFU) is a certificate program for Ukrainian undergraduate and graduate students, whether residing in Ukraine or in refuge, whose studies have been affected by the war.

The program offers an intensive learning experience on the role of Ukraine in changing European and global contexts, placing questions relevant for Ukrainian students into a transnational comparative perspective. The name of this solidarity program evokes the underground and exile educational initiatives (such as the “flying universities”), as well as the tradition of Invisible Colleges formed after 1989 in Eastern Europe.

The program is not meant to replace or duplicate the existing education opportunities in Ukrainian universities, but to support them by filling the gaps that temporarily emerged because of the Russian invasion. By strengthening the ties of Ukrainian educational institutions, scholars, and students to transnational networks, we hope to counter the destructive effects of brain drain by creating access to educational infrastructure and academic knowledge for students irrespective of their current location.

The program is designed in a hybrid format, combining online teaching with on-site winter and summer schools. The program is comprised of four main components:

thematic courses, including small group meetings mentored by doctoral students and postdoctoral scholars
student individual research projects
a series of offline events
skill-building activities (academic English, academic writing).

In Spring 2026, IUFU offers eleven online interdisciplinary courses in the field of humanities and social sciences. As a rule, courses consist of 12 sessions (100 minutes), equal to 4 ECTS credits. Students are expected to take no more than three courses. In addition, IUFU offers several short trans-disciplinary intensive online seminars and plans to organize offline meetings in Lviv and Kyiv. Courses are taught online, in English, in the late afternoons once a week per class. Classes are recorded and available to watch online for registered students if their circumstances prevent them from attending the online sessions.

The envisioned duration of the Fall Semester is 29 September–19 December 2025. The most motivated and successful participants will have an opportunity to participate in a Winter School in January 2026 (a separate application form will be circulated in November).

Ukraine-Poland-Europe: Entangled Histories, Asymmetric Memories. Course director: Andrii Portnov (Centre for Advanced Study Sofia).
Have We Ever Been Modern? Modernism, Modernity, and Modernization in Twentieth-Century Ukraine. Course director: Volodymyr Ryzhkovskyi (Independent Researcher).
Intellectual Debates in Modern Ukrainian History. Course co-directors: Ostap Sereda (UCU/BCB) and Balázs Trencsényi (CEU). A course offered together with the Ukrainian Catholic University.
New Media and Russo-Ukrainian War. Course director: Alina Mozolevska (Universität des Saarlandes).
Constitutional Stories of European Integration: A Comparative Perspective for Ukraine. Course co-directors: Marta Mochulska (Ivan Franko National University of Lviv) and Nazar Stetsyk (Ivan Franko National University of Lviv / Ludwig Boltzmann Institute of Fundamental and Human Rights).
Research Methods for the Social Sciences. Course co-directors: Levente Littvay (CEU Democracy Institute) and Inna Melnykovska (EUI).
The Future (of the) Balkans: Rethinking Balkans for Ukraine. Course co-directors: Marija Mandić and Aleksandar Pavlović (Institute for Philosophy and Social Theory, University of Belgrade). This course is also open to students from the West Balkans.
War after War in the former Yugoslav Space. Course director: Vladimir Petrovic (NIOD Institute for War, Holocaust and Genocide Studies). This course is also open to students from the West Balkans.
Post-Empire Transformations: Georgia and Ukraine in Comparative Perspective. Course co-directors: Nino Gozalishvili (University of Georgia) and Rusudan Margiani (ELTE University). This course is also open to students from Georgia.

In addition, we offer two courses for the students of the Invisible Graduate School and for motivated MA and advanced BA students. IGS Students can take them automatically, other IUFU students will be asked to write a short motivation letter.

Writing for the Public and Sharpening our Storytelling. Course directors: Natalie Nougayrède (Re/Visions), Diána Vonnák (Institute of Etnology, Czech Academy of Sciences).
EU Enlargement and Transformation in Times of Crisis. Course director: Inna Melnykovska (EUI).

Mentoring and Academic English classes are open to those who take at least one thematic course.

DEADLINE FOR ALL APPLICATIONS IS 10 FEBRUARY 2026, MIDNIGHT, 12 PM (CET). Admitted course participants will be notified by 20 February 2026, and the results of research scholarship applications will be sent on 24 February.

Who is eligible and how to apply?

Any student who has been pursuing a BA, MA, or doctoral degree program at a Ukrainian university in the academic year 2021-22, or who started university studies in 2022, 2023, 2024, or 2025, or who graduated in this period. Participation in the program is free of charge.

Applicants should fill in the application form via the following link: Application Form | Invisible University for Ukraine. If you experience any technical difficulties with the form, please send all application materials to iufu@ceu.edu.

Applications can be submitted in English or Ukrainian.

Applications should contain:

a short (up to 1 page) motivation letter including:

reasons for applying to IUFU and expectations from the course(s)
a description of the applicant’s thematic interests (e.g., research topic or thesis topic)
choice of preferred course(s) an applicant would like to take (up to 3) and indication of interest in Academic English communication/writing classes;

and a short CV with information on:

name in Ukrainian and in the version used in an international passporte-mail address
current location
previous education, current university, student status, and program of study
involvement in civil activities/volunteering or related experience
estimated level of English language competence.

Research Scholarships

Research scholarships (up to 800 Euro per semester) are available on a competitive basis for those BA, MA, and PhD students who wish to implement a special empirical or theoretical project in addition to their course work in IUFU, drawing on their academic background, previous work, current thesis project, and relevant to the current situation, and/or related to the themes of the courses.

Students receiving research funding will be required to submit a paper of 5000-6000 words based on their research at the end of the semester. The best papers will be published on Visible Ukraine. Research scholarships can only be offered as part of one of the courses. Those who receive the grant are required to participate in the course and the mentoring sessions.

Those who wish to apply for a research scholarship should also include in their applications a concise project proposal (between 400 and 800 words), containing a title, describing the main lines of the envisioned research project and its desired outcome, including references to the relevant sources and secondary literature on the topic. The applicant should indicate within which course the research project is planned to be implemented.

In-person and small-group mentoring, helping the students to develop their research projects and reflecting on the thematic lectures is open for all, and will be conducted by doctoral students and postdoctoral scholars from CEU and other partner institutions. Participation in mentoring sessions is obligatory for students who receive research stipends.