Ivey Business School nearing conclusion of program that brought Ukrainians to London Ont.

Both Ukrainian students and the faculty say a special academic program at Ivey Business School has been an amazing experience over the past 10 months.

While the circumstances for coming to Western University’s business school are not what Oksana Kosendiak could have possibly imagined, both she and the faculty say a special academic program has been an amazing experience over the past 10 months.

Kosendiak is one of 10 Ukrainian university students that came from Ukraine to the Ivey Business School through the Ivey MBA Ukrainian Student Academic Shelter Program over the past year. The unique program was created in response to the Russian invasion of Ukraine in February 2022.

Now that the program is wrapping up with the conclusion of the winter term later this month, Kosendiak says the time spent in London, Ont. has been a “life-changing experience.”

“I feel like I’ve gained a lot of knowledge and experience I can use in the future in rebuilding Ukraine,” Kosendiak told Global News.

Kosendiak first arrived with five other Ukrainian students last May, with the four other students joining later in 2022. The post-graduate students were selected through pre-existing relationships Ivey has with two Ukrainian universities: Lviv Business School of Ukrainian Catholic University and the National University of Kyiv-Mohyla Academy.

Adam Fremeth, an associate professor and the MBA program director at Ivey, says the academic shelter program was successful from their perspective in offering the students a place to continue their studies.

“That’s really job number one, ensuring that these students are going to be able to succeed academically and hopefully purse their professional and personal goals despite the war that continues to persist in Ukraine,” said Fremeth.

As part of the special program, the Ukrainian students had access to free tuition for a year plus housing, learning materials and a monthly stipend to pay for food. But while many of the worries a student has outside of class were assisted with, Fremeth says inside the classroom, the Ukrainians were treated the same as other students.