The Open International University of Human Development “Ukraine” — usually shortened to University “Ukraine”, and listed on the Ukrainian government’s study portal as a private higher education institution — was created in 1998 with an unusual purpose: to be a university that admitted people other universities did not.
One thing to be clear about first, because it saves people time. This is not a medical university. It is a broad, multidisciplinary institution, and while it teaches subjects in the health and rehabilitation field, it does not offer the six-year Medicine degree that most people mean when they search for MBBS in Ukraine. If that is what you are looking for, start with medical universities in Ukraine instead.
Everything below comes from the university’s own site and the Ukrainian government’s study portal, with the source of each figure noted.
How It Started
The founders held their first organising meeting on 30 June 1998, and the university was formally established the following February. The founding coalition was the distinctive part: it included the Kyiv City State Administration, the Ukrainian Union of Disabled, the Ukrainian Association of the Deaf and other civic organisations — a university founded jointly by a city government and by disability advocacy bodies.
By 12 July 1999 its admission board had enrolled 1,616 first-year students, and branches opened in twenty cities across Ukraine in that same year. For a university barely a year old, that is a remarkable rate of expansion, and it set the pattern of nationwide reach the institution still has.
The government portal describes it as the first and only Ukrainian university that opens its doors to all people, including people with disabilities. That founding principle, rather than any particular subject speciality, is what the institution is actually known for.
Scale and Structure Today
According to the Ukrainian government’s study portal, the university operates 39 educational subdivisions across 16 regions of Ukraine and teaches over 13,000 students, offering more than 50 specialities at every level from junior specialist through to doctoral degree.
The portal lists subject areas including law, international relations, philology, journalism, biology, pharmacy, psychology, accounting, management, software engineering and food technologies. The university’s own structure is organised around institutes rather than faculties — among them the Institute of Economics and Management, the Institute of Social Technologies, the Engineering Technologies Institute, the Institute of Philology and Mass Communication, the Institute of Law and Public Relations, the Institute of Computer Technologies, and a Faculty of Biomedical Technologies.
For a student in the health field who is not pursuing a medical degree, the physical rehabilitation, pharmacy and biomedical technology routes are the relevant ones here.
Admission and Language
The government portal records that instruction is available in Ukrainian and English, and gives application deadlines of 15 December and 1 March. It also records that the university’s educational activity in training foreign citizens is carried out under a licence from the Ministry of Education and Science of Ukraine.
Confirm the language of instruction for your specific programme directly with the university before applying — a university offering English-medium study across some programmes does not mean every programme runs in English.
Current Status
The university is operating. Its main site published a first-year induction announcement for 2 September 2026 marking the start of the new academic year, alongside a regular stream of departmental news, open-day announcements and international programme notices through 2026.
We should flag one practical difficulty. The university’s English-language site was returning database errors at the time of writing, which makes it hard for an international applicant to research independently. Its main Ukrainian-language site works normally. If you are considering this university, expect to ask questions directly rather than rely on the English pages, and we can put those questions for you.
What We Could Not Verify
In keeping with how we treat every university on this site:
- We could not obtain a published tuition schedule for international students. The government portal’s entry for this university does not carry fee figures, and the English site was unavailable. We are not going to estimate one — ask us and we will request it in writing.
- We could not find a current figure for international student numbers, as distinct from total enrolment.
- Sources differ slightly on the exact composition of the founding coalition, so we have listed only the founding organisations that appear consistently.
Studying in Kyiv
The university is headquartered in Kyiv, with its branch network extending across sixteen regions. Kyiv is far from the front line and functions as a working capital city, but it is subject to air raids and you should read your own government’s travel advice before deciding. Our guide to studying in Kyiv covers the city itself, and our accommodation page explains how we help with housing.
How Study in Ukraine Today Helps
We prepare and submit your application, obtain your official invitation letter, and guide you through the Ukrainian Type D student visa requirements. Read the admissions requirements first and assemble a complete document package, since incomplete files fail later at the university or the embassy.
If your language or academic preparation is not yet sufficient for direct entry, see our guide to the preparatory course in Ukraine.
When you are ready, apply online and tell us which programme you are considering — for this university in particular, we would rather get you written answers than let you rely on a broken English website.
