A new American University will open its doors in Kyiv next year to offer U.S.-style education to students from Ukraine and beyond.
Initially, those doors will only be metaphorical: At the moment, the university lacks a building and all higher education in Ukraine is currently online due to the COVID-19 pandemic.
But the university, a collaboration between Arizona State University and local educational institutions, promises to bring new opportunities for a high-quality education to students in Ukraine, according to former U.S. Special Representative for Ukraine Negotiations Kurt Volker, one of the founders of the project.
On Dec. 14, he unveiled the project during an online meeting held in Kyiv and moderated by Morgan Williams, CEO of the U.S.-Ukraine Business Council (USUBC).
The university will begin offering executive education in fall 2021 and open to early graduate and undergraduate students in 2022.
Once the university’s website is ready, students from Ukraine and surrounding countries will be able to apply to what will be, according to organizers of the meeting, “the forefront of universities in eastern Europe.”
Open curriculum
According to Volker, the university will not only help students but also Ukraine as a whole: The country needs strong leaders to drive its transition to democracy.
“We want to make education inclusive and innovative to help Ukraine’s education for the years to come,” Volker said.
Ukraine has 1.2 million students, but 87% of the country’s employers don’t believe higher education in Ukraine meets the challenges of the 21st century, according to a recent study by accounting giant Ernst & Young.
The goal of the American University will be to adapt education to the modern world and create highly qualified professionals to work in Ukraine’s growing market.
The university will be fully digital, and students will have access to its online library until the location of the campus has been decided.
Both Ukrainian and English will be used in university instruction, but its president will have to speak Ukrainian.
The project will cost $26 million. By 2026, the university will host 3,900 students and bring in $25.8 million in revenue, according to estimates.
It is critical for Ukraine to have access to American degrees and American-style education, Volker said.
According to a survey conducted by Ernst and Young in 2019, 91% of Ukrainian students would take the opportunity to study in English at a Ukrainian-American university based in Ukraine.
This is why the project will be a “new generation university” with a curriculum covering subjects like the humanities, engineering, medical studies and corporate training, said Cagri Bagcioglu, regional director of Cintana Education, an education-focused investor fund based in Arizona that is supporting the American University project.
Arizona State University will help achieve that goal, according to Stefanie Lindquist, ASU’s senior vice president. One of the largest universities in the United States, ASU has a global footprint and broad international engagement. In recent years, some of its scientists even helped NASA to design a satellite to study asteroids near Jupiter, she said.
The new American University’s curriculum will be built with the help of deans from Kyiv’s most prominent universities: Taras Shevchenko National University and Kyiv Mohyla Academy.
Any student who studies at the American University in Kyiv will be able to come to Arizona for his or her last year of studies, Lindquist said.
The American University in Kyiv will be funded by private investors, at least initially, including Rick Shangraw, CEO of Cintana Education, which has designed 70 university models all around the world.
Business-driven university
For Serhii Voitsekhovskyi, a member of the board of directors at the BGV/ATB Group, one of Ukraine’s largest retailers, the point of the project is to find good specialists.
“We need to know how to develop highly qualified manpower in the country,” he said.
Karlo Goginava, a consultant on the project and managing director at Wings and Freeman, a capital and investor’s bureau based in Tbilisi that has an office in Kyiv, believes that privately-owned universities can help raise the level of education in the country.
For him, better education means better jobs and, by extension, a stronger economy. Ten years ago, 90% of universities in Georgia were public. Now, 60% are privately owned, which has led to higher-quality education and more skilled specialists, he said.
Goginava said feedback from business was crucial for ensuring that the American University’s curriculum will help students work in Ukrainian companies. He called for tailor-made education to fit the needs of businesses.
“You need those big players in Ukraine to be a part of the story because those companies will benefit from highly qualified manpower,” he said.
However, it will take at least two years for the first undergraduates to apply to the university.
“We’re starting with a blank sheet,” Goginava said.
Editor’s Note: This story initially stated that the university would open in spring 2021. It has been corrected to reflect the fact that the university will begin instruction in fall 2021.
