There is a growing desire among mid-level managers to obtain an MBA degree with an eye on moving into top management positions.
Ukraine’s increasingly competitive business environment has been driving demand for highly skilled professionals wielding business administration degrees, reflecting the greater premium that employers in the country have been placing on efficient Western-style management, and productivity.
According to business education experts, while multinational companies operating in Ukraine account for most of the demand for Ukrainian specialists in business administration, an increasing number of Ukrainian companies have been recognizing the benefits of hiring professionals holding a master’s degree in business administration.
However, experts say that for the most part, Ukrainian employers still largely undervalue the worth of MBA degrees, preferring to hire candidates with raw management experience over those holding management diplomas.
Among the latest trends in the higher business education sector in Ukraine, experts point to a growing desire among mid-level managers to obtain an MBA degree with an eye on moving into top management positions after receiving their diplomas.
According to business education specialists, there are only 10 business schools with MBA programs operating in Ukraine today. Four of these – the German-based Institute of International Business Relations (IBR), the Kyiv-based International Management Institute, the MBA program of the University of Central Lancashire (Great Britain) and Kyiv’s National Academy of Management, and British-based Open University Business School – were established with the help of Western investments.
Despite their small number, Ukrainian business schools have been moving forward with the introduction of new programs, which, along with several other factors, help make them more attractive to Ukrainian candidates weighing their options whether to study and earn their MBAs locally or abroad.
Apart from considering the cost of an MBA, which often is five to six times lower for Ukrainian MBA programs compared to similar Western business education programs, business education insiders say that Ukrainian MBA programs are better tailored to serve the realities of doing business in Ukraine.
“The foreign market has different specifics, namely, it is much more mature and, consequently, the approaches [to managing business] and even the subjects studied are different,” said Alyona Vorobyova, the marketing director for Kyiv-Mohyla Business School (KMBS), Ukraine’s top business school according to research conducted last year by the monthly Delovoy Zhurnal (Business Magazine).
“An MBA education in the West is much more systematic. Students there have a more precise vision as to what exactly they need this education for,” Vorobyova said.
She added that the Ukrainian business environment is more dynamic compared to Western Europe, which has encouraged business education institutions in Ukraine to devise more daring, experimental and innovative MBA programs.
As an example of business education’s dynamic development in Ukraine, Vorobyova named KMBS’ recently introduced President MBA (PMBA) program designed specifically for successful Ukrainian business owners, in addition to the school’s established Executive MBA (EMBA) program for top managers.
“Whereas traditional Western EMBA programs have been geared toward managers seeking to ‘fast-track’ their careers, KMBS’ President MBA caters to a very different audience – those who have already achieved success through many years of dedication, skill, and hard work, and are now seeking to broaden their horizons while honing their management skills,” said Mykhailo Vynnytskiy, a professor with KMBS and the author of the program.
“The central idea of the PMBA program is to help successful entrepreneurs grapple with a single, simple, but very deep question: ‘What next,?’» Vynnytskiy said.
At the same time, some business education specialists say that while it is possible to find quality MBA programs in Ukraine, they are difficult to evaluate, since the structure of those programs often differs from those in, say, Western Europe.
“There are good Ukrainian programs offered. Many of them take their logic, formats, study materials, and so on, from Western ones. What varies is the overall quality,” said Nick Latushkin, country manager with IBR, a private German business school that runs MBA programs in Germany, Hungary, Ukraine, Israel and India.
“So far, there are no MBA quality standards in Ukraine. Therefore, different program parts could be of different quality,” Latushkin said.
He added that it is simpler to evaluate the quality MBA programs that meet European MBA quality standards, since they differ little in terms of what they offer.
Latushkin said that interest among Ukrainian companies for MBA-educated professionals to manage their businesses has been on the rise, adding that IBR’s graduates are equally in demand among Ukrainian companies and international companies doing business in Ukraine.
Since more Ukrainian companies have been recognizing the benefits of employing MBA-endowed managers, this has been providing more Ukrainian MBA graduates with incentives to apply their knowledge and skills in the country, rather than finding work abroad.
“Our student intake in Ukraine is growing 30 percent per every academic year,” said Latushkin.
“About 80 percent of our students from Ukraine stay and work in Ukraine at top management positions. The remainder – about 20 percent – go abroad for international contracts,” he added.
Looking ahead, business education specialists forecast a growing demand among businesses operating in Ukraine for higher business administration qualifications among their managers. They also predict that tougher competition among businesses will stimulate demand for the presence of top international business schools in Ukraine.
“Demand and competition will continue to grow,” said Latushkin. “Soon enough, Ukrainian employers will start differentiating between quality and none-quality degrees, as any MBA program will be judged by its practical outcome.”
While Ukrainian-based MBA programs are still few, the costs to enter them have generally been on the rise. Though the cost to enroll in an MBA program in Ukraine is still well below enrollment fees in the West, some Ukrainian MBA programs cost from $16,000 to $20,000 to complete.
According to specialists, the cost of an MBA diploma in Ukraine has been rising by approximately $2,000 a year.
