ON THE ISSUE OF ORGANIZING SCIENTIFIC ACTIVITIES OF EDUCATION SEEKERS IN UKRAINE UNDER MARTIAL LAW

The organization of scientific activity of education seekers is a complex process that involves the need to find effective solutions for motivation, stimulation, mentoring and inspiration. One of the leading driving forces in the field of organizing scientific activity of education seekers are various scientific societies operating based on higher education institutions of Ukraine. One of such organizations is the School of Scientific Leadership of the Kharkiv National University of Internal Affairs, which is a voluntary association of education seekers and directs its activities to improving the scientific, creative and social development of active education seekers of the university. With the beginning of the full-scale invasion, the School of Scientific Leadership prepared unique publications aimed at expanding the understanding of the multifaceted personality of both the Ukrainian defender (military serviceman, policeman, cadet) and the Ukrainian young researcher who is capable not only of effectively performing service and combat tasks, but also of critically reflecting on their own experience, existing problems and challenges, offering their own progressive ideas for solving them.

The organization of scientific activity in the conditions of a full-scale armed invasion is an extremely complex and multifaceted process that requires the coordinated activity of several state and non-state institutions, starting from the specialized committees of the Verkhovna Rada of Ukraine and ending with a separate institution of higher education. This process requires a comprehensive and interdisciplinary consideration, because scientific activity finds its expression not only within the framework of dissertation research, scientific articles or speeches at conferences, but also is embodied in progressive ideas proposed by practitioners, existing problems that are highlighted in citizens' appeals to public administration, as well as in the initiatives of the younger generation of students, who carry within themselves ways of overcoming current challenges beyond any institutional, organizational, legal or other barriers imposed on them over the years by the academic environment or established approaches in science or practice.

Apt in this context is the quote by Henry Ford: “Everyone who stops learning grows old, whether at 20 or 80, and everyone who continues to learn remains young. The most important thing in life is to keep the brain young” [1]. At the same time, agreeing with the outstanding businessman and thinker, it is also important to constantly update approaches to the functioning of enterprises, institutions and organizations, which scientific activity helps in.

Unfortunately, under martial law in Ukraine, scientific activity has faced many challenges associated with the relocation of scientific institutions and higher education institutions - centers of science, to other regions, as Ukrainian researchers suffer from constant shelling. A significant number of scientists and their families have gone abroad, while continuing to maintain constant contact with the Motherland. In this context, holding conferences, competitions, and scholarship programs is of particular importance, an example of which is the International Research Scholarship Program in Regensburg for 2025. Thus, the organization of scientific activities of students in Ukraine under martial law is a unique process in the global context, which requires constant generation of ideas and the development of effective solutions based on them in close partnership between both domestic and foreign scientists.

At one time, the prominent German politician Konrad Adenauer argued: “We all live under the same sky, but not all have the same horizon” [2]. In the conditions of martial law in Ukraine, such a “horizon” is significantly narrowed due to a number of challenges and restrictions. At the same time, it is precisely due to proper organization that the scientific activity of students in Ukraine under martial law continues its further development and formation. In this context, it is necessary to emphasize the leading role of the management of higher education institutions, their specialized departments for the organization of scientific activity, the training of postgraduate students (adjuncts), scientific libraries, as well as scientific societies, legal clinics, public organizations that participate in scientific life, join scientific and practical conferences, round tables, forums and other events.

Among this diversity of subjects, it is necessary to single out various scientific societies that operate on the basis of higher education institutions of Ukraine. One of such organizations is the School of Scientific Leadership of the Kharkiv National University of Internal Affairs, which is a voluntary association of education seekers, which is part of the Scientific Society of Students, Cadets, Trainees, Postgraduate Students, Adjuncts, Doctoral Students and Young Scientists of the University, and directs its activities to improve the scientific, creative and social development of active university education seekers who seek to improve their personal development, have an active civic position and high performance in their studies [3]. Scientific activity allows students and cadets to position themselves as active participants in the scientific life of the country, state-building processes, with their ideas, decisions, non-standard approaches, and their own projects to influence the vector of state development.

At the same time, the experience of the School of Scientific Leadership in organizing the scientific activities of cadets in the first weeks and months of a full-scale armed invasion of Ukraine may be quite interesting for the international scientific community. In such conditions, many cadets of the Kharkiv National University of Internal Affairs faced significant stress, the need for immediate relocation to other regions of Ukraine, and service in police departments, including in areas close to the zone of active hostilities. In such conditions, an initiative was taken to prepare a collection of creative works of the participants of the School of Scientific Leadership, which included essays written during the Russian-Ukrainian war by cadets-participants of the School, which conveyed emotions, life experience, memories of service, as well as ideas, life guidelines and moral attitudes formed by the cadets during the period of martial law [4].

The uniqueness of this initiative in the context of organizing scientific activity in such conditions lies in the fact that in the process of self-reflection and analysis of events around, cadets reduce the level of stress and anxiety, direct their intellectual efforts to critically comprehend their own tragic experience, which is valuable, given the need to document events related to the creative and cognitive activities of the population of Ukraine. The cadets wrote their essays while staying in basements and shelters, with difficult access to the Internet and communications.

Another publication of the School of Scientific Leadership, which was dedicated to the organization of scientific activity of education seekers in martial law conditions, was “Cadets’ Science Through the Ashes of War”. The pages of the publication present the stories of students who are participants of the School of Scientific Leadership and who lost loved ones in the war. In the project, the students dedicate their literary work to  the Russian-Ukrainian war, to the university graduates - active police officers who provide assistance to the civilian population - and document war crimes. Under conditions of martial law, it is important to maximize the coverage of the publication through various platforms, conferences or discussions of the stories of individuals. 

In this context, the stories of cadets as representatives, on the one hand of the security and defense forces of Ukraine, and on the other, of the younger generation, the student community, who are not indifferent to scientific activity, are quite unique. The systematization and understanding of these stories are the basis for the development of new approaches to the organization of the educational process in leading universities in the world. 

The organization of scientific activities of education seekers in conditions of martial law, especially in the first days of its introduction, at the School of Scientific Leadership of the Kharkiv National University of Internal Affairs was aimed at generating ideas of the young generation of defenders of Ukraine, reducing their level of stress and anxiety, as well as positioning the personality of the young researcher-cadet as a full-fledged participant in the scientific life of Ukraine and the world.

1. Henry Ford: "Everything can be done better than it has been done before" // Dnipropetrovsk Regional Universal Scientific Library named after the First Teachers of the Slavs Cyril and Methodius. Retrieved from https://www.libr.dp.ua/punktyr_bibl_ford.html.

2. Konrad Adenauer > Quotes // Goodreads. Retrieved from https://www.goodreads.com/author/quotes/850000.Konrad_Adenauer.

3. School of Scientific Leadership // Kharkiv National University of Internal Affairs. Retrieved from https://univd.edu.ua/uk/dir/4243/shkola_naukovogo_liderstva.

4. Unique publications of the School of Scientific Leadership // Kharkiv National University of Internal Affairs. Retrieved from https://univd.edu.ua/uk/dir/4242/unikalni_vydannya_shkoly_naukovogo_liderstva.