Ukrainian Free University in Munich gives students unique view of their homeland
Ukrainian civil law?
Certainly not in the Soviet Union, where university students more often than not found that free-thinking was a liability rather than an asset, and where the all-pervasive influence of communist ideology deeply colored the higher education system.
Last in a six-part series
Instead, the little-known (in the USSR) Ukrainian Free University (UFU), based in Munich, Germany, offered probably the best environment for the unfettered academic study of all things Ukrainian.
Founded in January 1921 in Vienna and transferred to Munich in 1945, the UFU is indeed a unique academic institution. It was established amid the ruins of the Austrian-Hungarian Empire by a group of scholars, writers and journalists. At that time, they judged there to be no truly Ukrainian university on the territory of Ukraine.
Now, with a revised curriculum, an ongoing publication program, and its cooperation with the Ludwig-Maximilian University in Bavaria, UFU may well become an important center for Ukrainian studies – not just for Bavaria, but for all of western Europe.
And now that institution has something it lacked during the years of Soviet power – Ukrainian students. One of the first to study there was Ivan Bilas, 47, now a Verkhovna Rada deputy, and head of parliament's committee for the legislative support of law enforcement.
'Under communism, the university was branded the hornets' nest of bourgeois ideology,' Bilas said. 'The overwhelming amount of research work done at the university concentrated on the study of political, economic and social issues in Ukraine. Such research revealed the shortcomings of the Soviet system. Certainly, the communist leaders were discontent with the findings of independent thinkers.'
For many years, scholars in Ukraine had no idea of the existence of such an educational establishment. But with the start of perestroika in 1985, information began to seep under the Iron Curtain.
'As a law student at Lviv State University, I heard about the UFU from my professor, Volodimyr Kulchitsky, in 1986,' Bilas said. 'I wrote a letter to Dmytro Vintonyak, a UFU faculty member, and visited Munich in August of 1991.'
During UFU's first academic year in Munich in 1945, over 600 students enrolled in the university's two faculties: the Faculty of Law and the Faculty of Law, Economics and Social Sciences. Through the maintenance of high academic standards, the university gained official recognition from the government of Bavaria in 1950, at which time it received the right to award master's degrees and doctorates.
Admission to the university is on a competitive basis, but Bilas managed to secure a place on his first try.
'In 1991, I applied to study for a Ph.D. and was admitted ahead of 30 other applicants.'
At that time, the make-up of UFU's student body was undergoing a rapid transformation. Prior to 1991, the university served the Ukrainian diaspora, but now the vast majority of its students come from Ukraine.
But the Ukrainian diaspora continues to support the university. The Ukrainian Free University Foundation in New York offers scholarships to qualified students from Ukraine and abroad. In the case of Bilas, the scholarship was large enough to cover both his living expenses and pay his tuition fees. However, students from Ukraine must now pay more of their way, as the government of the Federal Republic of Germany stopped subsidizing the UFU in 1997.
The Ukrainian Free University offers courses during summer and winter semesters. Although a fluent knowledge of Ukrainian is a must, German and English have recently been added as languages of instruction. But as in the past, the university offers students a chance to research subjects frowned upon, if not outright forbidden, under communism.
'Courses like Sociology, the Political History of Ukraine and the History of Ukrainian Statehood were not taught in the USSR,' Bilas said. 'Through my studies in Munich, I could compare and analyze different legal systems.'
Bilas' thesis centered on the repressive legal apparatus used by the Bolshevik state. Back in Ukraine, in the ashes of that former state, Bilas says he's trying to apply the knowledge he acquired in Munich to the task of developing Ukraine's legal system.
He's in a unique position to do so, being as he is the head of parliament's committee for the legislative support of law enforcement, a position he assumed in February.
'The Verkhovna Rada has already passed three laws that were submitted to it by the committee for discussion,' Bilas said.
However, as Bilas is first to admit, a lot still has to be done to reform Ukraine's legal system.
'Ukraine doesn't really have a proper legal system yet,' he said. 'Every country needs [legal] transparency to boost democratic reforms.'
A former instructor at Lviv Militia School, Bilas understands that one area for improvement in Ukraine in this regard is the people's attitude to law enforcers – the militia.
'In the West, the policeman stands for decency, while a militiaman in Ukraine is associated with corruption,' Bilas said. 'The role of the militia has to change from being a means of repression, to being a means of enforcing the law.'
Although a staunch nationalist, Bilas is thankful for his time at the UFU – even if one of Ukraine's best universities isn't actually in Ukraine.
'As a result of the studies in Germany, I has shaken off a few stereotypes I used to hold,' said Bilas. 'I wish every Ukrainian had the chance to get professional experience overseas and become more broad-minded.'
