ABSTRACT VIEW
DISRUPTED DREAMS: HOW CONFLICT HINDERS ACCESS AND COMPLETION IN HIGHER EDUCATION
P. Fidalgo1, J. Thormann2, O. Kulyk3
1 Emirates College for Advanced Education (UNITED ARAB EMIRATES)
2 Lesley University (UNITED STATES)
3 Oles Honchar Dnipro National University (UKRAINE)
The study addresses how the conflict has affected higher education in Ukraine and explores how it has impacted higher education. Its objective is also to clarify consequences for instructors and students and supply guidance for recovery. The findings indicated a clear trend in favour of remote learning techniques. The findings also revealed several challenges educators and learners need to overcome, including psychological issues, a lack of motivation, and technological issues like power and Internet outages. Along with these topics, the participants discussed safety problems, task management, communication barriers, and attendance challenges. The literature review supports practical solutions to issues brought on by conflict both during and after the conflict. Some suggested strategies to counteract the harmful consequences of conflict are financial support, international cooperation, and online mental health services. This study aimed to increase our understanding of the wider implications for educational systems facing similar problems.

Description of the research:
This study addresses four major research issues and explores how the conflict has affected higher education in Ukraine. Its goal is to clarify the consequences for instructors and students and provide guidance for the recovery process. Questions address how war has influenced teaching and learning, how faculty and students continue to adapt to the changing situation, and how student and faculty responses have matched. In the selection of the participants for this research, various Ukrainian HEIs were selected because they were accessible during the conflict, and a convenience sample method was used. Because of their accessibility amid the conflict, participants were drawn from various Ukrainian higher education institutions (HEIs), and a convenience sample method was used. The researchers created surveys distributed online using Google Forms to gather qualitative and quantitative data from instructors and students in the fall semester of the 2022–2023 academic year.
A mixed-methods approach was used for the data analysis, with summative content analysis being used for qualitative insights and descriptive statistics for quantitative data. The responses to open-ended questions were translated and analyzed using WebQDA software to identify recurrent themes related to how war affects education in HEIs. Analyses included coding, word and text searches, and matrix comparisons between teacher and student responses. Results are presented in graphs and quotes from participants, offering insightful information about the challenges teachers and students face and pointing out the difficulties of teaching and learning in an environment of conflict.

Keywords: Armed Conflict, Distance Education, Higher Education, Ukraine, War.