The UK’s Higher Education Minister has visited our campus to show her support for an education and recreation summer camp for Ukrainian young people.
Baroness (Jacqui) Smith visited our Physics Department to meet young participants in a three-week residential summer school organised by the charity fund Tomorrow, UAPhysicsOnline and OneUkraine gGmbH and in coordination with Ukraine’s Coordination Headquarters for the Treatment of Prisoners of War.
The Minister saw young people undertaking scientific experiments and spoke with them about their experiences, both at home in Ukraine and at the summer school.
About the camp
The summer camp, which is now completed, saw 170 Ukrainian teenagers aged 13 to 17 take part in STEM-focused teaching and practical experiments.
The participants also visited local points of interest including Beamish museum, the Life Science Centre, Newcastle, and South Shields; took part in sports and exercise; and had opportunities to access counselling.
It was incredibly inspiring to meet the Ukrainian young people and to hear about the opportunities being provided for them to develop their physics and language knowledge alongside the personal development that a Summer Camp like this provides. Well done to the dedicated team at the University of Durham for enabling this important initiative and my very best wishes to such a talented and enthusiastic group of students.
I have seen there are people who care about us, which is great. In the future I hope to have more opportunities like this. I’ve felt a lot of care and love. I want to be heard and be a voice for those who can’t be heard.
Baroness Smith was joined on the visit by City of Durham MP Mary Foy. The summer camp was also separately visited by Valerii Zaluzhnyi, the Ukrainian Ambassador to the UK.
Partnering with Ukraine
The camp is part of our long-term commitment to Ukraine, which is focused on increasing resilience and rebuilding capacity in Ukraine’s higher education sector. We are twinned with Zaporizhzhia National University (ZNU) in Ukraine, a partnership which spans research collaboration, joint educational provision, student mobility, professional services capacity building, joint events, and practical support.
It was our pleasure to be able to host this summer camp, and we are very pleased that Baroness Smith found time to visit to show her support.
Our hosting the summer camp was a result of work between Professor Carlos Frenk, Ogden Professor in our Department of Physics and Institute for Computational Cosmology, and Professor Oleksii Boyarsky, of Leiden University, in the Netherlands, who is a founder of the charity fund Tomorrow.
We are sincerely grateful to Durham University and Professor Carlos Frenk for their generous invitation. Although the journey was long and the visa process rather extensive, the inspiring atmosphere of Durham University’s beautiful campus greatly contributed to setting the right mindset for all participants. It enabled us to successfully achieve the main goal of the event: to show children that science and education can empower them and open many new opportunities in their lives.
Find out more
- Explore our response to the Ukraine war and our partnership with ZNU- Discover our world-leading Department of Physics
Baroness Smith (centre) meets University leaders and summer camp organisers
Baroness Smith and Mary Foy MP with summer camp participants
Baroness Smith with Professor Carlos Frenk, Mary Foy MP, Professor Claire O'Malley and Professor Oleksii Boyarsky
Olekiy Mikuleunko and Maksym Pashko teaching during the summer camp
/prod01/prodbucket01/media/durham-university/central-news-and-events-images/83431-1920X290.jpg)