Natalia Oboznenko, Academic Director of the UCU Business School, speaks about the life of the community in the new realities. Despite military aggression, regular shelling, and large-scale power outages, the UCU Business School continues to teach.
“We could tell you about the daily missile attacks reported by numerous apps in public spaces, about the constant readiness to spend several hours in a shelter without electricity, mobile connection, or internet. We could then share the agenda of our meetings — about preparing for an apocalyptic winter without electricity and heating, discussing the urgent purchase of charging stations, generators, rechargeable lamps, electric kettles and power banks, Starlinks, and everything else that helps preserve energy, connectivity, and warmth without access to the power grid. But we would not dwell on all these details. This is how an ordinary Ukrainian family lives, how every Ukrainian organization survives, how the UCU Business School operates. And now we have learned that this is how any country in the world lives during war — on the edge of unpredictability, danger, and uncertainty, while searching for ways to preserve human dignity and a minimally necessary level of comfort,” Natalia said.
According to the Academic Director, the UCU Business School has received significant support from international partners: “On February 22–23, the Master’s program MSc in Technology Management hosted a ‘Leadership’ module delivered by Professor Gerard Seijts from Ivey Business School, Western University (Canada). Two weeks after February 24, we received a letter from Gerard with a very substantial proposal: he initiated a fundraising campaign among private Canadian donors to provide ten scholarships for Ukrainian students. Today, Professor Seijts is preparing a study on the roots of Ukrainian leadership; he also delivered a keynote address at our School’s Alumni Leadership Day and is actively involved in explaining the causes of this conflict and the nature of leadership. Leadership has many forms, and Professor Seijts’s active stance is one of the most vivid examples.”
The UCU Business School has also been supported by the European Foundation for Management Development, POLIMI, DePaul University, the University of Fredericton, Wharton, and others. “EFMD was the first professional association of business schools to respond to the outbreak of the war in Ukraine, and its statement was the clearest and most immediate. Our European colleagues offered a wide range of free opportunities for Ukrainian business schools. Fortunately, starting from February 24, many universities and business schools opened their online courses to Ukrainian students. Among others, I would like to highlight POLIMI, DePaul, and UFred, which worked closely with our managers and international offices to identify suitable courses, adapt curricula, and convert credits and contact hours to our local credit system,” Natalia noted.
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