The pause on all US aid to Ukraine ¨C following the extraordinary Oval Office bust-up between Donald Trump and Volodymyr Zelensky ¨C will have ¡°extremely negative¡± effects on the country¡¯s universities, it has been warned.

Serhii Kvit, president of the National University of Kyiv-Mohyla Academy, told?Times Higher Education?that the termination of US assistance, along with military aid, has direct consequences for higher education.

Funding to his institution¡¯s multi-year $1 million (?776,000) US Agency for International Development project aimed at teaching legal English to parliamentary staff, which promotes the Westernisation integration of Ukrainian rule-making, will now be paused.

¡°The pause in providing American assistance to the Ukrainian higher education sector has an extremely negative effect not only because a full-scale war for the survival of Ukrainian state independence, Ukrainian nation, and Ukrainian identity as such continues,¡± Kvit said.

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Following the heated televised argument between the two leaders, the White House said it was ¡°pausing and reviewing [its] aid to ensure that it is contributing to a solution¡± for peace.

It was unclear how long the pause in aid will last. The US has contributed more to the?Ukrainian war effort against Russia?than any other nation.

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Tymofii Brik, rector of the Kyiv School of Economics, said that US financial assistance was ¡°crucial¡± for Ukraine¡¯s budget stability, with a significant part of it paying for salaries within the Ministry of Education and Science.

Initiatives such as?¡°PEACE in Ukraine¡±, to?which the US has contributed over 80 per cent of the $25 billion fund, has allowed Ukraine to maintain financial stability and continue delivering essential services such as education, he added.

¡°US universities¡­have supported Ukraine through fellowships and scholarships. Cuts to US educational funding may threaten these initiatives in the future,¡± Brik added.

Kvit, a former education minister, said there were also indirect negative consequences on the many academic projects on economic reform and anti-corruption being paused ¨C and on trust.

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¡°Ukrainian universities and in particular Ukrainian civil society, in which?members of the academic community play an important role, defend Western values in the fight against Russian aggression,¡± he said.

¡°I very much hope that the political turbulence in the United States will soon subside, and we will be able to resume fruitful and constructive cooperation.¡±

Olga Onuch, the English-speaking world¡¯s first professor of Ukrainian politics, said that US industry has benefited from?Ukrainian science and technological innovation.

The professor in comparative and Ukrainian politics at the University of Manchester warned that cutting funding to higher education institutions where liberal democratic values were often very purposefully taught was also against American soft power interests.

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¡°Financial and in-kind support, including exchanges and collaborative projects between American institutions and Ukrainian institutions, does not [reap] benefits only in Ukraine, but also in the US,¡± she said.

¡°Such collaborative efforts help develop the next generation of partners for America. America can be a leader in this field or can leave it open to competition from other actors that often do not have the best interest of America and its Euro-Atlantic partners in mind.¡±?

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patrick.jack@timeshighereducation.com