In a First, Adventist Theology Program in Ukraine Gets Full Accreditation

For the first time in Ukraine, a Protestant theology program has received full state accreditation.

The bachelor’s degree program in theology at the Ukrainian Institute of Arts and Sciences (UIAS), a Seventh-day Adventist institution in Bucha, was accredited by Ukraine’s National Agency for Higher Education Quality Assurance for five years, the maximum accreditation period.

For Valentyna Kuryliak, who leads the program and oversaw the accreditation process, the achievement is the result of a nine-year journey that required developing faculty, creating Ukrainian-language teaching materials, and adapting an Adventist theology program to national higher education standards.

“We practically had to build the path from scratch,” Kuryliak said.

Kuryliak’s connection to the program is also personal. She graduated from it in 2016, when it operated solely as a church educational program.

“At that time I was also studying at state institutions, and I already understood that our program needed to receive state recognition,” she said.

That conviction eventually led her to take responsibility for guiding the program through government licensing and accreditation, a process for which, she said, there was little precedent within Adventist theological education in Ukraine.

From Church Recognition to State Accreditation

In Ukraine, licensing and accreditation are separate stages in the recognition of a higher education program. The Ministry of Education and Science licenses educational programs, while the National Agency for Higher Education Quality Assurance evaluates them for accreditation.

UIAS received its license for the theology program in 2021. State accreditation followed after the institution demonstrated that its curriculum, faculty, academic resources, practical training, and quality-assurance procedures met national standards.

The process was particularly significant because theology itself is relatively new within Ukraine’s state higher education system. Theology was added to the official list of academic disciplines in 2015, while the national higher education standard for the field was approved only in late 2021.

Historically, Protestant seminaries in Ukraine had also operated largely outside the state educational system.

“For decades Protestant seminaries worked autonomously and did not trust the state educational system,” Kuryliak said. “That attitude was shaped in part by the experience of the Soviet period.”

The accreditation brings an Adventist theology program fully into Ukraine’s national higher education system while allowing it to retain its denominational identity.

Why Accreditation Matters for Students

State accreditation has practical implications for students preparing for pastoral ministry.

Graduates receive a state-recognized degree that allows them to continue into master’s programs at Ukrainian universities. UIAS has also launched a master’s degree program in theology according to national higher education standards and is enrolling its first students.

The issue has taken on additional significance during Russia’s full-scale invasion of Ukraine. Under current Ukrainian regulations, students who meet the legal requirements and study in accredited higher education programs may qualify for an educational deferment from military mobilization.

For Kuryliak, the circumstances added urgency to the accreditation process.

“I often asked myself whether it was worth continuing,” she said. “But I kept thinking about the students. If we did not receive accreditation, how would they finish their education? That sense of responsibility did not allow me to stop.”

Building a Faculty for a New System

One of the greatest challenges was assembling a faculty that met national academic requirements while maintaining the program’s focus on preparing Adventist pastors.

Ukrainian higher education standards require instructors to demonstrate qualifications and scholarly work relevant to the subjects they teach. This includes appropriate education, academic publications, professional development, and documented expertise.

Meeting those requirements was particularly challenging for Ukraine’s relatively small Protestant academic community. Russia’s full-scale invasion and the resulting migration further reduced the pool of available specialists.

At the same time, the church wanted theology professors to understand pastoral ministry and the practical realities that graduates would encounter in local congregations.

“Combining these two sets of requirements was not easy,” Kuryliak said. “Some specialists had to be prepared for this work over several years.”

The process also required UIAS to reconsider how individual courses were staffed. In some Western seminaries, for example, a New Testament scholar may also teach biblical languages. Ukrainian academic requirements call for a closer correspondence between an instructor’s academic qualifications and the discipline being taught.

For a small denominational institution, finding specialists who met those requirements while also understanding the Adventist context became one of the most demanding parts of developing the program.

Creating Ukrainian-Language Adventist Textbooks

Another challenge was the availability of textbooks.

For years, Adventist theological education in Ukraine had relied heavily on Russian-language theological literature, including resources produced at Zaoksky Adventist Seminary in Russia.

Russia’s full-scale invasion fundamentally changed that situation. UIAS needed Ukrainian-language academic resources that met national educational requirements while reflecting the theological identity of the Seventh-day Adventist Church.

Simply translating Western textbooks was not always possible because of copyright restrictions and differences in academic requirements. Resources produced by other seminaries could not always meet the program’s needs because theological education also has a denominational dimension.

“Essentially, we had to create everything anew,” Kuryliak said.

The Seventh-day Adventist Church in Ukraine provided financial support for developing new teaching materials. As a result, the accreditation process also contributed to the development of Ukrainian-language Adventist theological literature.

An Independent Evaluation

UIAS had previously undergone evaluation by the Adventist Accrediting Association, the denomination’s international accreditation body. State accreditation, however, subjected the program to an independent external evaluation.

The expert group included academics from Roman Catholic, Orthodox, and Baptist backgrounds.

Kuryliak said she carefully studied the institutions and academic programs represented by the evaluators before the review began. Ultimately, however, their denominational backgrounds were not the determining factor.

“If the program meets state requirements, that is the main criterion,” she said.

According to Kuryliak, the relevant academic expert council described the program as original and distinctive and highlighted its practical training as one of its strengths. The amount of practical preparation offered by the program is nearly twice the minimum required by the national standard.

That emphasis reflects the program’s original purpose—preparing students not simply to earn theology degrees, but to serve as pastors.

“Never, Never Give Up”

For Kuryliak, the five-year accreditation represents both the conclusion of a demanding process and the beginning of a new stage for Adventist theological education in Ukraine.

She remembers attending a large seminar in Kyiv where one speaker repeated a phrase three times: “Never, never give up.”

The words stayed with her through years of curriculum development, faculty preparation, writing and publishing teaching materials, licensing, and accreditation.

“I believe that when a person works together with God, it gives you strength to go through even the most difficult trials,” Kuryliak said. “Any difficulty or criticism can become an opportunity for growth.”

Her prayer for the students now entering the state-accredited program reflects the lesson she says she learned through the process.

“Never, never give up,” she said. “Especially when God is working beside you.”