September 1, 2022, was an exciting day. We welcomed five talented students of Kherson State Agrarian and Economic University (KSAEU) in Kiel. A joint Kherson-Kiel committee had selected them from all applicants based on academic merits, taking aspects of gender equality and diversity into account. This marked a huge milestone for our project at Kiel University; things were getting real!
For the five scholarship holders it offered the opportunity to continue their online studies at KSAEU from a safe place – all while getting a taste of Germany and experiencing Kiel University up close. The scholarships included travel allowances, housing and living expenses, and enrolment fees.
In September we also selected the students to be awarded 66 online scholarships, providing financial support of 200 € per month to students who continued their online studies at KSAEU from Ukraine. The aim of these scholarships was to compensate for the loss of other funding sources caused by the war. Hence, selection was based on demonstrated financial need, taking academic merits and aspects of gender equality and diversity into account. We were glad to see from the communication with the selected students that the scholarships really made a difference.
