Sergey Tokarev: New tech university to open opportunities for Ukraine

In September 2022, a new technological university opens its doors to everyone who wants to get an IT education combined with entrepreneurial experience. SET University is launched by an IT investor and the founder of technology company Roosh Sergey Tokarev and the Kyiv School of Economics (KSE).

SET stands for Science, Entrepreneurship, and Technology. According to Sergey Tokarev, this name reflects the mission and the value of the institution: to provide students with all the skills and knowledge to change the country with help of science, technological developments, and entrepreneurial approach. The goal of the university is to graduate IT specialists that would also be IT entrepreneurs.

“My global goal is to change the mindset in the Ukrainian technology industry from outsourcing to production and create a new economy. Generate ideas, create technologies and projects within the country,” Sergey Tokarev said.

As part of the study, SET university students will learn how to pitch their ideas, develop a detailed business plan, and plan the launching process of a business. To get a master’s degree, students will have to present an innovative idea and turn it into a startup.

It will also be possible to get funding for student startups within a university-based venture capital studio.

The idea of establishing such a university came up to Tokarev when he faced a lack of IT specialists when developing his business and helping his portfolio companies. There is a great number of IT specialists in Ukraine yet many of them got outdated knowledge in the universities and lack practical skills. Therefore, many IT companies have to retrain their new employees before admitting them to real projects.

SET University plans to solve this issue. The students will be able to have internships in IT companies, study real cases with business owners, and, thus, the university founders believe that 100% of students will be able to get a nice job right after graduating or even earlier.

As for the majors, Sergey Tokarev explains that the final list is still under consideration yet there will be all the most relevant directions, such as Artificial Intelligence, Data Science, Cybersecurity, and others.

The new university provides different models of covering the expenses of education. Apart from the usual tuition-based model, it will be possible to get grants and scholarships from IT companies and the university founders, and also use the benefits of the income share agreement model. Such a model allows a student to study for free and pay for the education later once he or she gets a job in an IT company.

The presentation of the SET university was on December 7, 2021, in Congress and Exhibition Center “Parkovy” in Kyiv, Ukraine. The founders explained the goals and plans of the new institution.

“We want universities to become an open platform for every participant of the IT market. We would like companies to send us their specialists to share knowledge and to look for our graduates,” Sergey Tokarev said.

According to the Roosh founder, Ukraine has all the opportunities to become a tech center in Europe, and the SET University will do its best to help the country achieve this goal as fast as possible.