ServU

ServU: Service-learning in Higher Education for Ukraine's Recovery

From 2023 until 2026 the KU Leuven Service-learning team is a partner in the Erasmus+ project "Service-learning in higher education for Ukraine's recovery" - ServU in short. ServU strives to foster synergies between Ukrainian higher education institutions and local territorial communities to jointly contribute to the recovery of Ukraine through the implementation of Service-learning education. In this way, students and representatives of the communities should become more responsible citizens who take innovative and experiential approaches to making changes at local level. ServU proposes an innovative approach to stimulate the acquisition and development of citizenship competences among students, considering the needs of three types of local territorial communities (LTCs) affected by the war:

1) territories with a large number of internally displaced people
2) liberated territories
3) territories in close proximity to the front lines, whose infrastructure has been significantly damaged.

The ServU consortium came about partly through the UNISERVITATE network.

Project objectives

To adapt the Service-learning methodology for wartime and recovery
To remodel the Community Needs Assessment (CNA) for wartime & recovery, considering 3 types of Local Territorial Communities affected by the war
To develop active citizenship competences through teaching of Service-learning courses
To activate collaboration between the European Union, Ukrainian HEIs, and local territorial communities (LTCs) in their efforts for recovery of Ukraine through the implementation of Service-learning courses
To create a Ukrainian Service-learning Resource Platform for knowledge sharing, transfer of best Service-learning practices, and networking

Project partners

ServU is co-ordinated by

Ukrainian Catholic University (UCU), in cooperation with
2 Ukrainian universities
- Sumy State University (SumDU)
- Dnipro University of Technology (DniproTech)
and 3 non-Ukrainian universities
- KU Leuven (Belgium)
- Università LUMSA (Italy)
- Katholische Universität Eichstätt-Ingolstadt (Germany)

Project kick-off in Lviv

ServU officially kicked-off during a three-day conference at UCU in L'viv, at the end of November 2023.

Role of KU Leuven in the project

The KU Leuven Service-learning teams participates in every work package and is coordinating the one on “Service-learning Course Development”, starting in February 2025. Within this WP they will

Select academic courses based on the identified needs of LTCs;
Establish international teaching tandems with Ukrainian and European lecturers;
Develop syllabi tailored to address the identified needs;
Pilot 6 Service-learning courses in Ukraine.

In February 2026, the seminar “Impact of Service-learning Pedagogy in Wartime and Recovery” will be held at KU Leuven, Belgium.

Contact

Would you like to learn more about ServU or suggest a collaboration? Feel free to get in touch with Kathia and/or Marie-An, the colleagues of the KU Leuven Service-learning team who are working on ServU.

ServU KU Leuven team

Van Dalecollege
Naamsestraat 80 - box 5008
3000 Leuven
office: 01.90

contact

Find out more about the project through the official website, or follow us on Facebook or LinkedIn.