Kyiv National Taras Shevchenko University is a higher educational and scientific establishment, which has proven to be the center of higher education and progressive thought throughout 170 years of its existence.
For many years it was realized that the city of Kyiv needed a new type
of university. Pressure on the authorities to allow the creation of such
a school was growing but it took many decades before this idea was realized.
Since Russian autocracy feared the new school would turn into a centre of
Ukrainian national liberation activity, one must say that such fears were not
at all groundless. Kyiv University did become a center where national consciousness has been formed.
On the 15th of July, 1834, the University accepted its 62 first students.
At that time there was only one faculty – the Faculty of Philosophy, comprised of the
department of History and Philology and the department of Physics and Mathematics.
In 1835, the Faculty of Law was established, and 1841 saw the foundation of the Medical
Faculty. The Faculty of Philosophy was later divided into two separate faculties.
This structure of the University persisted up until 1917.
In 1939 Kyiv University was named after Taras Shevchenko.
After graduation from St. Petersburg's Academy of Fine Arts, Taras Shevchenko returned to Kyiv
and between 1845-1846 was employed by the Archaeological and Ethnographic Commission
at Kyiv University. In 1847, when the Cyril-Methodius Brotherhood was crushed, Taras Shevchenko
was arrested as its active member and these events stoped his work but didn’t brake off his relations with the University.
After his release and return from exile, Taras Shevchenko wrote "Bukvar Yuzhnorusskiy"
(an ABC-Book for Children) for Sunday-schools and was in correspondence with the first Rector of Kyiv National University,
M.Maksymovych.
Faculty members, scholars and scientists of Kyiv University have made a worthy contribution
to the development of science and social-political thinking in Ukraine. The list is long and
comprises:
- prominent historians and philologists: M. Maxymovych, M. Kostomarov, V. Antonovych,
I. Luchytskyi, M. Drahomanov, V. Perets, O. Beletskyi, A. Krymskyi, Ye. Tarle;
- lawyers K. Nevolin, M. Ivanyshev, M. Vladymyrskyi-Budanov, O. Kystiakovs'kyi;
- the economist M. Ziber;
- mathematicians V. Yermakov, D. Grave, M. Boholiubov;
- scholars of mechanics I. Rakhmaninov, H. Suslov, P. Voronets;
- physicists M. Avenarius, M. Schiller, Y. Kosonohov, E. Lashkariov;
- chemists A. Babko, A. Holub, A. Kipriano, S. Reformatskyi, A. Pylypenko;
- geologists K. Feofilaktov, V. Chyrvyns'kyi, M. Andrusov, P. Tutkovskyi;
- botanists I. Shmalhausen, S. Navashyn, K. Purievych, O. Fomin, M. Kholodnyi;
- zoologists K. Kesler, O. Kovalevskiy, O. Severtsov, O. Korotniev;
- the biochemist O. Palladin;
- scholars of medicine V. Bets, M. Sklifosofskyi, F. Yanovskyi, V. Obraztsov, M. Strazhesko, to name but a few.
Among the graduates of Kyiv University one may find a considerable number of prominent
figures of the Ukrainian arts: the writer Mykhailo Starytskyi, the poet Maxym Rylskyi,
the composer Mykola Lysenko and others.
At present the student body of Kyiv University numbers about 20 000 students at 14 faculties and in 6 Institutes.
This number includes 2000 students at the Institute of International Relations which is attached
to Kyiv University as a faculty.
The newly acquired independence of Ukraine and changing situation in it have put forward new
requirements to Kyiv University which is contributing to the all-Ukrainian effort to create
a radically new political, social and economic system of the country. Kyiv University is
obliged to improve its system of training specialists since its graduates are to work in various
segments of the political, social and economic system of the independent Ukraine. Kyiv University
graduates are expected to be highly qualified, patriotic and aware of the tasks and challenges
facing the new Ukraine; they must be open to the national ideals, and feel responsible for what
they are required to do; they are expected to be able to demonstrate a creative approach in solving
the pressing problems of today and tomorrow, and to think in terms of long-term and wide-ranging reforms.
In other words, we are striving to achieve a truly universal character in the training of our specialists.
We believe this can be achieved through engaging the most talented minds into the University’s
educational system; we should involve the most talented scholars and scientists in the academic process
at the same time providing them with adequate means by which to sustain their selfless efforts and
endeavour; we must do our best to protect them from unnecessary and at times incompetent control on
the part of certain government bodies. To do this successfully, Kyiv University has to acquire the status
of an independent educational establishment. We are going to do our best to achieve this goal.
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