7 participants of UCU Business School master’s programs, including Key Executive MBA, MSc in Technology Management, MA in Human Resources and Organization Development, had the opportunity to join the one-year MBA curriculum at Ivey Business School of Western University.
All this was made possible by many years of close cooperation between the UCU Leadership Center and the Ivey Business School Leadership Institute.
The UCU Leadership Center is operating in partnership and cooperation with the Ivey Business School Leadership Institute. In particular, the professors from this university Gerard Saites, who is also the executive director of the Ivey Business School Leadership Institute, as well as Lucas Monzani, are visiting lecturers of LvBS. For the last 6 years, there has been a lot of joint research, conference presentations, case studies and teaching.
According to Natalia Oboznenko, Academic Director of the UCU Business School, on February 22-23, Gerard Saites, together with Andriy Rozhdestvensky, head of the UCU Leadership Center, taught at the MSc in Technology Management program. The next day, everyone realized that Ukraine had been attacked, and this came as a big shock to our partners. In the early days, UCU Business School received a letter from Gerard with support for Ukraine and the school in general and an offer of assistance from Western University, including 10 full scholarships for LvBS participants for one year of study at Western Ivey Business School. “It was Gerard who actively spread information about the situation in Ukraine and actively involved colleagues in the help, for which we are grateful, and which is an example of our partnership. The university immediately launched a fundraising campaign to cover these 10 scholarships. The university managed to raise funds through the Academic Asylum Fund, – says Natalia Oboznenko. – For our part, we began to select participants, but immediately there was a problem that only women can use this opportunity, because men are prohibited from leaving Ukraine.
The second criterion was fluency in English.
And most importantly, we considered the learning results and potential outcomes that participants will receive and how they will implement this knowledge in the future in Ukraine. Ivey, for its part, gave us a complete carte blanche in the selection of participants and approval of all submitted candidates. For us, it is also a sign of trust due to many years of cooperation.”
Ivey Business School of Western University also addressed the Kyiv-Mohyla Academy with a similar proposal. As a result, 7 participants from LvBS and 5 from NaUKMA were selected for the program -a total of 12 people.
“We selected participants from the three master’s programs – Key Executive MBA (3), MSc in Technology Management (2), MA in Human Resources and Organization Development (3). The first group of three people – Alina Byshynska, Ulyana Kulchytska and Oksana Kosendyak – have already left for school. The rest will join later. The program itself began in March, but our students can join at any stage and take the relevant courses. They remain LvBS students and will receive a diploma from the UCU Business School, but they will be given academic credits,” said Natalia Oboznenko.
In a comment to Ivey, Uliana Kulchytska said that she always wanted to get an MBA degree. Having worked for 20 years in the field of personnel management in companies such as Nestlé and METRO, Uliana is now the HR Director of UCU and is studying for the MA program in Human Resources and Organization Development LvBS. Her goal is to return to Ukraine, armed with the skills and experience to help the country build a strong future.
According to Natalia Oboznenko, this cooperation with Ivey Business School for UCU Business School is a show of support and solidarity. “After receiving this offer, we immediately tried to understand how to use it for the benefit of students. Especially at a time when studies at the Business School were temporarily interrupted due to the war. This is definitely a very valuable experience for the participants, they will be able to compare the academic part, the format of education and it will also enrich our academic experience, will attract new teachers.
UCU Business School, for its part, will support them at all stages and monitor their success and results.
In general, for us such an initiative is the beginning of cooperation in a new format and with new experience. Our goal is to consolidate this exchange of students between our institutions on a permanent basis,”- explained the academic director of LvBS.
According to Andrew Rozhdestvensky, cooperation between the centers is quite long and dates back to 2016. “We are conducting joint research, we have spoken together at conferences, we have established a close relationship. And it is very important to understand that people with whom you work closely do not abandon you when trouble begins. My special thanks to Gerard Saites, who is the main voice of Ukraine at Western Ivey Business School.”
Andriy Rozhdestvensky also reminded that the UCU Leadership Center is based on the concept of “Leadership based on character” developed by researchers from Ivey Business School. This model is also used by many units of the Armed Forces of Ukraine through the cooperation of the Leadership Center together with the Return Alive Foundation.
“Our collaboration with the Ivey Business School Leadership Institute continues; given that the war has begun, we have developed several interviews for Gerard’s next book, and we continue to work on data collection and crisis leadership research based on a model invented by Ivey Business School and developed in the Ukrainian context on the basis of the research.
Read more about the first days of our students’ studies abroad on the Ivey Business School website.
