**Ukraine’s Kyiv School of Economics Buys Exclusive Golf Club for $18 Million, Plans to Open It Up as a Public Campus**
In a major investment in education, the Kyiv School of Economics (KSE) has purchased a exclusive golf club in Ukraine’s capital city for $18 million. The golf club, which was once reserved for Ukraine’s corrupt political elite, will be transformed into a 15,000-square-meter open campus as part of a larger $40 million educational investment.
The new campus, which is expected to open next year, will focus on expanding KSE’s STEM programs to train engineers, mathematicians, and tech professionals needed for Ukraine’s defense, recovery, and economy. The campus will also be open to the public, with plans to include an outdoor cinema in the summertime.
**A Symbol of Corruption Becomes a Hub for Education**
The golf club, which was built in the early 2000s, has a history of being associated with Ukraine’s corrupt political elite, including ex-President Viktor Yanukovych. However, after the 2014 revolution ousted those officials and Ukraine shifted toward Europe, the golf club languished for years.
“We’re very capitalist, but we’re going to be socialists on this: Open it,” said KSE director Tymofiy Mylovanov at a picnic event on the grounds last Sunday. Over 2,000 students, alumni, and locals attended the event, marking a new chapter in the site’s history.
**KSE’s Ambitious Plans for Education**
KSE has been growing rapidly since the start of the full-scale invasion, with programs in psychology, memory studies, law, urban science, cybersecurity, and artificial intelligence resonating with students who stayed in Ukraine despite the war. The university has quickly outgrown its current building, which it bought in 2020 for $5 million.
“We bet on Ukraine’s survival against Russia’s full-scale invasion — and its need for engineers to contribute to the war effort and rebuild,” said KSE rector Andriy Yurkevych. “Our goal is to create a new generation of Ukrainian leaders who can drive real reform in the country.”
**Partnership with Olin College**
KSE is partnering with Olin College in the U.S. to co-create a new, interdisciplinary engineering program. The partnership aims to build an interdisciplinary team that will design courses collaboratively and try “something completely revolutionary for engineering education and maybe even for higher education — anywhere.”
“We want to create a new model of engineering education that focuses on creativity, innovation, and problem-solving,” said Rebecca Brosseau, who is part of the team developing the new program.
**A Role Model for Ukraine’s Education System?**
When asked whether KSE wants to be a role model for Ukraine’s education system as a whole, Mylovanov replied, “I just want more people in what I call the ‘anti-despair’ movement,” by doing something small, but something real.”
KSE’s approach is a far cry from Ukraine’s often inefficient, outdated, and even corrupt public education system. Brik believes that at the current moment in Ukraine, only private institutions have the flexibility to drive real reform.
“I would even put it in a very provocative way — if you gave $1 million to a public university right now, nothing would happen; but if you gave $1 million to us or the Ukrainian Catholic University, you would see something meaningful the same year,” Brik said.
