About us

Ukraine’s place in the world in the twenty-first century will depend on its successful transition, stability, and implementation of changes in its economy and society. In economically developed countries, it has been shown that the level of business and management education is one of the most important factors determining economic competitiveness. Availability of managerial and organizational talents in the workforce is a requisite for a country to be successful in the global economic community.

Ukraine’s educational system, which previously supported a centralized economy, has thus far failed to prove itself effective under the current conditions. The dynamic development of business in the context of globalization requires correspondent changes in business education. These changes demand constant adaptation, risks, significant investments, jointly conducted research devoted to development, and implementation of new training programs. One or two educational institutions could never bear the burden of implementing such drastic change and reform to the entire system. In order to accomplish the complex tasks related to enhancing management and business education, to introduce new high quality standards, the efforts of educational institutions have to be concentrated and coordinated.

This was the impetus to create a Ukrainian Association of Management Development. During the First, Second and Third International Conference “Building Management Education in Ukraine”, conducted by Consortium for Enhancement Ukrainian Management Education (CEUME), one of the key topics of discussion was the importance of leading institutions of higher education working together toward shared goals. A survey conducted during the Third conference indicated that over 80 percent of participants favored the creation of an independent association comprised of state and private institutions providing business and management education. Reasons varied, but over 40 percent of participants identified a motivation as the need to better coordinate efforts in communicating with and surveying Ukrainian businesses to develop knowledge and skills required to design curriculum and trainings that satisfy their need for qualified specialists. Nineteen percent of the participants identified the necessity to counter the existing state monopoly on issues of institutional accreditation and tendency towards increasing overall regulation. Another area of responsibility is facilitating dialogue between educational institutions, joining international educational community, and providing methodological and organizational support focused on training administrators and faculty.

The majority of conference participants, which included leading rectors and administrators of Ukrainian educational institutions, agreed that:

• An Alliance of educational institutions is crucial for the success of educational institutions and their faculty, as a catalyst of more dynamic professional development.
• An Alliance of business schools and higher management educational institutions is a basic necessity for Ukraine and Ukrainian business, as a signal of professional cooperation and maturity of specific scientific-consultative and educational services for businesses and organizations of Ukraine.

The Ukrainian Association for Management Development and Business Education (UAMDBE) was officially founded on July 11, 2002. A total of 36 educational institution and business schools of Ukraine took part in the Statutory meeting establishing the association. The regional structure of the Association reflects the distribution of higher educational institutions in Ukraine. On February, 14, 2003, during the Second UAMDBE Assembly 8 new members were approved from Zaporizhzya, Kharkiv, Odessa and Kiev. During Third Annual Assembly 3 members were rejected and 7 new members were approved from Kiev, Khmelnitskiy, Donetsk, Dniprodzerzhinsk and Rovno. UAMDBE currently consists of 48 members: 19 - state higher educational institutions, 28 – private business schools and 1 training institution. Sixteen of the 27 regions of Ukraine are represented, particularly Kyiv region represented by nine members; Kharkiv – seven members; Lviv represented by five members; Donetsk – five members; Odesa represented by three members; Dnepropetrovsk, Zaporozhiye, Ternopil, and Cherkassy – with the two members each; Crimea, Poltava, Alchevsk, Kirovograd, Rovno, Khmelnitskiy, Dniprodzerzhinsk, Nikopol, Berdiansk, Zhovti Vody and Kherson – each have one member.

Common interests of the members
Information, knowledge and experience exchange, active cooperation in the area of combining theory and practice, joint training programs for faculty, and development of methodological materials are among the most important components identified as common interests of the members. Issues that unite association members include developing solutions for problems of business and education, establishing partnership relations with educational institutions abroad, lobbying on behalf of association membership, and ensuring compatibility of Ukrainian business education standards with internationals ones. It is an issue of a high priority to facilitate the activities in all of the above-mentioned areas throughout all regions of Ukraine.