University without walls: Wellbeing lessons from Ukrainian war zones

Presented by Professor Yana Sychikova and Professor Igor Lyman in collaboration with Future Campus

Content Warning:

This lecture will discuss themes such as war, issues for students during war, experiences of trauma and may include other confronting themes. This lecture may not be suitable for children or all people. Attendee, viewer and parental/carer discretion is advised.

Resilience and reimagining the University Without Walls: Wellbeing lessons from an active war zone

In this lecture, Professor Yana Sychikova and Professor Igor Lyman share critical insights into wellbeing, resilience, and higher education leadership drawn from sustaining a Ukrainian university during occupation, displacement, and ongoing conflict. Based on research across 40 displaced universities and their lived experience of leading without physical campuses, they argue that wellbeing is not an adjunct to educational continuity, but the central organising principle that enables teaching, research, and community life to endure under extreme conditions.

The session is introduced by reflections from Professor Marek Tesar, whose work on educational borderlands frames the university as a relational, ethical, and lived space. A panel of Faculty of Education wellbeing experts and scholars will respond to the Ukrainian experience, exploring its implications for wellbeing, trauma-informed practice, and resilience within Australian universities.

Date: Thursday 26 February 2026

Time: 5.30pm Refreshments | 6pm - 7.30pm Presentations

Venue: Q230 Theatre
Level 2, Kwong Lee Dow Building (Building 263)
234 Queensberry St, Carlton.

Please only register for a seated ticket if you are sure to be attending in person. Another ticket type is available to receive a copy of the recording for those who are unable to attend in person.

KEY PRESENTERS:

Yana (Яна Сичікова) Sychikova (Suchikova) is a researcher and science policy leader working at the intersection of nanomaterials science, research integrity, open science, and responsible innovation. With a background in semiconductor nanostructures and oxide heterostructures, her current work focuses on research governance, ethics of emerging technologies, and AI in science.

She serves as Vice-Rector for Research at a Ukrainian university operating as a “University without Walls,” coordinating research strategy, international collaboration, and research ethics under wartime conditions, and engaging actively at national and European policy levels.

Igor Lyman is a Ukrainian historian and academic leader specialising in international and regional history, urban and social history, historiography, and the modernisation of education.

He is a Doctor of Historical Sciences, Professor, Head of the Department of History and Philosophy, and Coordinator of International Relations at Berdyansk State Pedagogical University.

Igor has published extensively across multiple languages and presented his work internationally. He co-founded the Ukrainian Science Diaspora initiative and serves on national expert bodies shaping higher-education quality and research policy.

His research and leadership connect historical scholarship with academic collaboration and institutional resilience.

PANELLISTS:

Professor Nikki Rickard is a registered psychologist and Research Director for the Centre for Wellbeing Science in the Faculty of Education, where she also leads the Digital Wellbeing Communities Research Hub. Her research is interdisciplinary, spanning psychology, education, music and digital health. She is passionate about empowering young people to self-manage their social and emotional mental health and wellbeing through youth-friendly interventions that are safe, inclusive, engaging and effective.

Associate Professor Tom Brunzell is an internationally recognised leader in trauma-informed education and wellbeing sciences at the University of Melbourne, Faculty of Education. He examines the impacts of trauma-informed pedagogies through the interdisciplinary integration of the sciences of learning, engagement, and wellbeing, with a particular emphasis on trauma-informed school and education leadership to support both student and staff outcomes. His research and practice indications frequently contribute to the empowerment of communities contending with educational inequity.

Associate Professor Catherine McClellan is Enterprise Fellow, Assessment and Evaluation Research Centre, Faculty of Education. She specialises in research and evaluation methodology at the University of Melbourne, Faculty of Education, AERC. Her work focuses on the evaluation of and supporting improvement in teacher classroom practices through observation and coaching. This work has led to an emphasis on understanding how human markers evaluate complex performance assessment tasks. Her background in assessment spans educational survey assessments at the state, national, and international levels as well as individual proficiency examinations for course completion, tertiary admissions and credit, and professional licensure, with service as an advisor to and board member of peak bodies internationally.

FACILITATORS:

Dr Rachel Colla is a wellbeing, motivation and performance specialist, whose work has spanned multiple sectors including corporate, health, education, and not for profit. Rachel is an experienced facilitator and coach with expertise in wellbeing, goal setting and achievement, and leadership development.

Prior to her work in organisational settings, Rachel worked as a psychologist in the education sector, promoting flourishing for individuals managing psychological distress and mental illness.

Her work in schools is now focussed on consulting at an organisational level to create the conditions for the whole community to thrive. She is also the designer of the innovative Hope Labs approach, a curriculum that fuses systems science, wellbeing, and neuroscience of learning.

Tim Winkler is the Director and Publisher of Future Campus, a respected independent news, insights and events platform for the higher education sector in Australia and beyond.

Tim began his career as a journalist working in Melbourne and the UK, and served as a Ministerial Media Adviser for two years before moving to the higher education sector. After senior roles at ANU and Monash University, he set up Twig Marketing in 2010 and has since worked with 35 tertiary institutions across Australia on market research, marketing, recruitment, organisational change and strategy.

He founded Future Campus in 2023, providing an independent platform for news, analysis and opinion, convening a range of events to bring sector thought leaders together, exploring opportunities and challenges in higher education.

His work supports collaboration, engagement and practical solutions across institutions, and underpins Future Campus’s mission to inform and advance tertiary education.

VENUE INFORMATION:

There are two entrances available to the Kwong Lee Dow Building via Queensberry St or Leicester St. Please see images below.

Please take the lifts to Level 2. Stairs are also available.

Parking:

On-street parking may be available in Barry St, Leicester St and surrounds. Alternatively, public parking can be found at University Square Car Park. The entrances are at 244 Bouverie Street or 206 Berkeley Street. A map can be found here: https://maps.unimelb.edu.au/parkville/building/107

Tram:

The closest tram stop is stop 4-Queensberry St/Swanston St, Melbourne - Serviced by routes 1, 3/3a, 5, 6, 16, 64, 67, and 72.

Alternatively, stop 9-Pelham St/Elizabeth St. The event venue is then a short walk along Pelham Street and down Leicester St.

View of the entrance to Kwong Lee Dow Building via Queensberry St (with stairs)

View of the entrance to Kwong Lee Dow Building via Leicester St (ground level entrance, no stairs)

Inside the Q230 Theatre, seats 198

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