The university supports Ukrainian students with a wide range of measures. The students studying in self-paid study programmes are exempted from paying tuition fees, they are awarded a monthly scholarship of 450 euros until the end of the academic year, also need-based allowances and psychological counselling are provided to students.

At the same time, preparations are being made for the admission of new students. At present, the university is in principle prepared to fill a significant amount of student places in programmes taught in English with Ukrainian citizens, who meet the academic thresholds for commencing studies at Tallinn University of Technology, or for continuing their studies that were interrupted in Ukraine. The university has established a scholarship fund to support international students who are Ukrainian citizens. Everyone can donate to the foundation Development Fund of Tallinn University of Technology by adding the keyword “Ukrainian students” in the details. The university’s decision to provide free education this year only to the citizens of Ukraine and OECD member countries is also aimed at supporting Ukrainian students.

At the meeting held on 22 March, the Senate of Tallinn University of Technology also decided that in the 2022/2023 academic year, citizens of the Russian Federation or Belarus who do not hold a residence permit or long-stay visa of one of the Member States of the European Union, and who are not studying in Estonia and who have not been granted international protection by the Estonian state, cannot apply for studies at the university. The same applies to researchers. The decision does not concern citizens of the Russian Federation or Belarus living in Estonia, nor the citizens of these countries already studying or working here.

Besides supporting Ukraine, there is another reason for making the decision regarding the next academic year: the fields of the study programmes taught in English, and research carried out at Tallinn University of Technology, such as Cyber Security, Cyber Security Engineering, E-Governance Technologies, Power Engineering, etc, include highly sensitive information and are based on the examples of Estonia. Therefore, the university must be absolutely sure of the motives of the students – this has also been recommended by security experts from outside the university.

Tallinn University of Technology hopes that there will be peace in the world soon and that work can continue as it used to – in a peaceful international environment, by supporting also the civil societies of totalitarian countries through actions and attitudes. In 2020, for example, Tallinn University of Technology was proactively prepared to admit all Belarusian students who were rejected or repressed in their homeland.

Information on Ukraine is provided on the university’s external website at taltech.ee/ukraina and taltech/en/ukraine.