A Google search for “MBA in Ukraine” yields more than 100 various offers, yet the market leaders remain consistently the same: Kyiv-Mohyla Business School, Lviv Business School, International Management Institute, Edinburgh Business School in Kyiv, KIBIT Business School and International Institute of Business.
There is a newcomer is on the scene, however. The Kyiv School of Economics, Ukraine’s major English-language business school, will launch a master of business administration program on Sept. 1. It will be done in cooperation with U.S.-based Houston University.
“Thus, our students will receive internationally recognized diplomas,” KSE newly appointed dean Yuriy Logush told the Kyiv Post.
“Besides, several state universities each year announce the start of MBA programs,” says Volodymyr Pavelko, MBA programs director for Kyiv-Mohyla Business School. According to him, there are nearly 100 educational institutions that offer a range of MBA programs.
The menu of degrees is usually restricted to three items: General MBA, Executive MBA (for top-managers and business owners) and specialized MBA programs. They last from eight to 25 months and cost from $5,000 to $27,000 for an academic year. Standard MBA programs include courses in finance, management, human resources, marketing, public relations and other related subjects. Some schools offer specialized programs in the second year that provide immersed study in agribusiness, information technology, advertising or entrepreneurship.
MBA students usually are aged between 25 and 55. “We do not teach anyone without preliminary experience in business,” explains Pavelko.
Nobody knows for sure how many MBA graduates Ukraine has got. “Lots of institutes or business schools do not disclose figures of graduates or people who left the program,” says Dmytro Bondar, head of MBA Srategy, a preparatory center for MBA applicants.
Last year KMBS had 65 students graduate. Meanwhile, the International Management Institute, established in 1990, states that it had some 1,500 graduates in 23 years.
When choosing a suitable MBA program in Ukraine, aspiring participants typically pay attention to the academic brand and certificates issued by such organizations as Association of MBAs, an international certification body. Word of mouth is a powerful force on the market, too.
“A person whom I trust advised me to study at the Kyiv-Mohyla Business school. Afterwards I attended the MBA Open Day event and was really impressed by the lecturers,” says Yuriy Senchuk, director of Olam International agribusiness company for Ukraine, Russia and Belarus.
KSE’s Logush preferred hiring job applicants with MBA degrees when he headed Kraft Foods Ukraine and when he worked at Myronivsky Hliboproduct agriculture giant.
Ukrainian entrepreneurs and managers usually gain their experience in an uncompetitive environment, so when they face real competition, they clearly lack knowledge, he adds.
Yuriy Shevchuk, a KMBS graduate, admits that business education helps a student prioritize values. “You may have great professional experience, but if you do not have your own values, that is a big disadvantage,” he mentions.
Journalist Oleg Gavrysh is currently enrolled in the MBA program at Edinburgh Business School in Kyiv. The program cooperates with Heriot-Watt University in Edinburgh. “The MBA degree allows you to systemize your knowledge and apply for better paid jobs. According to the research data, 70 percent of MBA students get promoted after receiving their degrees,” Gavrysh says.
Edinburgh Business School provides an opportunity to study in English and Russian which is seen as an advantage.
“I have a degree in finance from Kyiv Polytechnic Institute, but with an MBA degree I can apply for a job not only in Ukraine, but in any European country, U.S. or Canada,” the Edinburgh Business School student says.
However, there is probably as much skepticism around about MBA as enthusiasm. “An MBA gives you the opportunity to get fundamental knowledge about business, but it is not a magic pill,” says Leonid Bershidsky, a Russian journalist and media manager, who founded several projects, such as Vedomosti, Forbes Russia and Slon.ru.
MBA programs are too expensive and will never pay back, says Hlib Vyshlinsky, deputy managing director for GfK Ukraine, one of the country’s leading marketing and sociology research organizations. “I think, you’re simply wasting your money if you enroll in an MBA program,” he says.
But if your employer pays for your MBA, then go for it, says Vyshlinsky.
It is still difficult for Ukrainian MBA programs to compete with analogous Western programs. Anybody with a Western MBA degree can find a six-figure job, while it is absolutely impossible to find such a job in Ukraine, says Kostyantyn Magaletskyi, Horizon Capital venture fund partner. “That is why a lot of Ukrainian graduates of Western programs never return to their home country,” he says.
Around 200 Ukrainians have already received their MBA degrees abroad, according to Dmytro Bondar, head of MBA Srategy, a preparatory center for MBA applicants.
Kyiv Post staff writer Vladyslav Golovin can be reached at [email protected].
