At the turn of the millennium, three men devoted to theological education — Dr. Dennis Dirks; Dr. Mark Saucy, then a professor of theology at Kyiv Theological Seminary; and Dr. Anatoly Prokopchuk, president of KTS – started to discuss the possibility of a Talbot-KTS partnership. 

All three recognized the great need: Decades of communism had deprived the Evangelical church in the Slavic world of advanced biblical and theological training. With the fall of communism in the early ’90s, the church was free to pursue religious education, but did not have the resources to do so at higher academic levels. Many experienced and gifted Slavic ministers left the former Soviet Union to obtain training in the West but some never returned. The church was losing a great many of its brightest and best shepherds, leaders and teachers. 

Drs. Dirks and Saucy and President Prokopchuk envisioned that offering a Talbot education in the former Soviet Union could fill this crippling void. Many discussions and visits from key Biola University leaders led to a plan to offer a Talbot Master of Arts degree in Biblical and Theological Studies/Diversified to evangelical believers in the Slavic world, with classes taking place at KTS. Russian-speaking believers from all over the former Soviet Union could receive the next step of theological education without having to travel to the West. The Talbot School of Theology-Kyiv Extension received accreditation from the Association of Theological Schools in the summer of 2006, and the first group of students began studying in the spring of 2007. Currently, 28 students are actively studying in the program.

You can read about history of Biola Universtity here.

You can read about history of Talbot School of Theology here.