Can SET University become Ukraine’s founder factory?

Ukraine has long been recognised for its world-class engineering talent, however, Russia's invasion of Ukraine — and the preceding years of COVID-19, which impacted most students globally — have made education even more challenging as infrastructure has been destroyed, thousands of specialists have been displaced, and the need to foster Ukraine's economy through innovation has never been more urgent.

SET University is a Kyiv-based institution rethinking the traditional model of higher education by combining science, entrepreneurship, and technology. 

Founded in December of 2021 (two months before Russia's full-scale invasion of Ukraine), it is built on the belief that education can rapidly scale impact and empower Ukrainians not only to develop strong technical skills but to turn those skills into products, companies, and solutions with global relevance. 

I spoke to  Iryna Volnytska, President of SET University, to learn all about it.

A dual track: tech + entrepreneurship

Unlike conventional universities, where students graduate with theoretical knowledge, SET focuses on real-world application. Master's students build a startup instead of writing a thesis, supported by international lecturers, founders, and industry mentors.

Volnytska is not a traditional president, any more than SET University is a conventional higher education institute. 

Following a career in business, including a role as CEO of a large tech company, she decided to travel to Myanmar in search of meaning and lived in a Buddhist temple for a while. 

She revealed, "That's where I understood that only education can scale impact fast.

Many terrible things in the world would never happen if people had stronger critical thinking skills."

Breaking the Soviet education legacy

Originally from Ukraine, Volnytska wanted to create an impact at home. She asserts:

"People assume Ukraine has a strong STEM education because we have strong engineers — but that's a myth. We inherited a Soviet legacy where entrepreneurship was literally forbidden; you could go to jail for it.

We had great STEM professors once, but many moved to tech because the salaries were incomparable — $4,000 a month in tech versus $300 in academia.

As a result, we produced engineers, but not products. The added value always left Ukraine — usually to the US, because 90 per cent of startup capital comes from there."

With SET University, her goal is to build not just a tech university, but a university that teaches how to turn technology into business, so value stays in Ukraine.

The university was registered just two weeks before the full-scale invasion. At the time, Volnytska was travelling from Asia to Ecuador and got stuck at Miami Airport. She recounts that when she returned to Ukraine, she launched the university two months later. 

"I knew this war would be hybrid — digital — and education would be crucial. Infrastructure was destroyed, people needed reskilling, cybersecurity became vital, and we had to learn to build products, not just code."

Build a startup instead of a thesis

SET University's Master's programmes run for 1.5 years and are built around a dual model that blends advanced technology education with entrepreneurship. 

On the technical side, students gain hands-on expertise in areas such as AI, cybersecurity, software engineering, and emerging technologies, taught by a mix of international lecturers, founders, and industry practitioners. The focus is on real-world application rather than theory, with case studies, practical labs, and exposure to current industry challenges.

What makes the programme unique is that instead of writing a traditional thesis, students are required to build their own startup or product as their final project.

The entrepreneurial track functions like an accelerator: students identify a problem, validate it with users, design an MVP, develop a business model, and pitch to external experts or investors. While not all graduates will become founders, they leave with strong product thinking, problem-solving, and communication skills — the capabilities needed to build or scale tech solutions. 

Although the format is innovative, the Master's is officially licensed and accredited by the Ukrainian Ministry of Education. SET also maintains academic standards comparable to those of European institutions, ensuring that graduates earn a recognised degree.

Entrepreneurship under pressure: "We don't have a choice"

Across all of its programmes, SET University has already launched dozens of student startups. Beyond the Master's, it also runs bootcamps, hackathons, and ideathons —" we spark entrepreneurship," asserts Volnytska.

"Many of these initiatives lead to startups with impact not only in Ukraine, but globally. 

Due to Ukraine's numerous issues, we continually seek technological solutions."

I was curious how the university fosters entrepreneurs, given that, unfortunately, startup success rates – everywhere — are rather low.  Volnytska asserts:

"True — we're not born entrepreneurs, and success rates everywhere are low, not only in Ukraine.

But here, motivation is ten times stronger because we don't have a choice.  Almost every engineer is building something — especially related to defence or supporting the country,"

SET University's main audience is software engineers with around five years of experience — many already hold a Master's degree, and therefore the program effectively becomes a degree one.  "

They want to launch a product or develop a product mindset. Not all will become founders, but they'll learn problem-solving, communication, pitching, and product thinking — skills they can apply anywhere," shared  Volnytska.

Microcredentials and accelerators for wider impact

SET University also offers microcredentials focused on specific tech skills, including solution architecture, AI, and more, as well as industry-specific entrepreneurial boot camps in Ukraine.

Ukrainian science is struggling, so the university launched the "Science to Market Accelerator" with UC Berkeley to help professors across Ukraine monetise their research and turn it into startups, a novel approach for Ukrainian academia.

The University is supported by a growing network of philanthropic, academic, corporate, and government partners who share its mission to strengthen Ukraine’s innovation ecosystem. The Tokarev Foundation plays a key role as an institutional partner, funding scholarships for veterans, women, and high-performing technologists, helping ensure access to education for those with the potential to drive change. The University also works closely with USAID’s Competitive Economy Program in Ukraine to foster tech-driven economic resilience.

Volnytska explained that the University also co-founds startups with its lecturers:

"One of our professors built cybersecurity at Tesla and Uber.

After Russia hacked his alma mater, he co-founded a cybersecurity startup with us, connecting Ukraine and his US university. We now have legal entities in both countries."

Locally, SET benefits from Ukraine’s DIIA.The city's legal framework, which supports IP protection and an attractive tax model for startups, further enables its students and spinouts to build businesses that can scale within Ukraine.

She admits that IP protection has always been a challenge — investors don't want Ukrainian-based IP due to corruption risks. 

"That's why the government created DIIA.City, a legal framework protecting IP and offering one of the most efficient tax systems in the world. We pay only 5 per cent tax on salaries. For business, it's extremely efficient to build in Ukraine."

The challenge of building a University in war time

Volnytska admits that building a uiversity during a war is incredibly hard. Higher education is expensive, and students often struggle to afford it. 

Further, companies often donate to war efforts rather than education, and fundraising abroad is also challenging because they prioritise humanitarian aid.

"Right now, I'm focused on fundraising because we want to scale impact. We need to build hardware and cybersecurity labs.

Ukraine is the most cyber-attacked country in the world — we must turn our experience into expertise and then monetise it.

Around 40 per cent of our students receive full scholarships, but tuition covers only 10–15 per cent of costs. So scaling requires investment."

How you can help

According to Volnytska, there are many ways that those of us living outside of Ukraine can help.

She asserts,

"It starts with something as small as the milk in your morning coffee. If it's produced in Ukraine, you're helping. It is extremely hard to create value inside Ukraine and even harder to export it."

Further, partnerships are crucial, and SET University welcomes lecturers, mentors, and partners who can support its curriculum or open doors. 

Or, companies can enrol in B2B microcredentials — especially in cybersecurity. 

"Honestly, I haven't seen a better cybersecurity course because ours is based on real attacks from the frontline. We can train companies using real-world attack scenarios, not textbook theory," shared Volnytska.

In September last year, SET University partnered with a US-based startup, Hilltop Technologies, to launch SET Cyber Labs. The new cybersecurity startup provides 24/7 tailored solutions for businesses, non-profits, and academic institutions.