British Ambassador to Ukraine Leigh Turner (right) welcomed on Jan. 19 the opening of the Ukrainian branch of the Edinburgh Business School, offering internationally recognized masters of business administration degrees from the Heriot-Watt University.

The school has enrolled the first batch of 35 students. Classes were scheduled to start on Feb. 3 in Kyiv. The school’s director and founder, Keith Lumsden (left), promised “new opportunities” to future graduates. “The program is difficult and studying will be tough, but those who take this path and pass all exams will have an opportunity to start a new life,” Lumsden said. Its degree for Ukrainian freshmen will cost $24,000 for an English-language course, and $20,000 for a Russian-language course. Ukraine is the first country in the former Soviet Union to get the option of on-site learning, as well as correspondence courses the school runs. The school has more than 8,000 active students globally and 12,000 alumni since its opening in 1997. Ukraine already has close to one dozen schools offering MBA and other post-graduate degrees, but only a few of them issue internationally-recognized diplomas.