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Kiev University
From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
| National Taras Shevchenko University of Kiev | |
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| Київський національний університет імені Тараса Шевченка | |
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| Motto: | Utilitas honor et gloria |
| Established | 1834 |
| Type: | Public |
| Rector: | Victor V. Skopenko |
| Staff: | -- |
| Students: | 20,000 |
| Location | Kiev, Ukraine |
| Website: | www.univ.kiev.ua/ |
The Kiev University or National Taras Shevchenko University of Kiev (Ukrainian Київський національний університет імені Тараса Шевченка) is a university located in Kiev (Kyiv), Ukraine. It was founded in 1834 (as the University of Saint Vladimir) and since then it has changed the name several times. Currently, its structure consists of fourteen Faculties (academic Departments) and four Institutes.
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Kiev University is an institution of higher education that trains specialists in many fields of knowledge and carries out research. Although this description can be applied to any other institution of similar kind, Kiev University enjoys a special status among the establishment of higher learning in Ukraine. It is the number one Ukrainian university,[1] and a major centre of advanced learning and progressive thinking. It consists of more faculties and departments than any other school in Ukraine and provides training of specialists in a greater number of fields than any other comparable Ukrainian educational institution.
Kiev University is named after Taras Shevchenko, a major figure in Ukrainian arts. Its reputation transcends the boundaries of Ukraine. Since the time of its foundation, one hundred and sixty years ago, the University has been generating progressive ideas, shaping Ukrainian intellect, and providing champions of upheld national liberation activity in Ukraine. It has always upheld the Ukrainian freedom-loving spirit.
Kiev University dates back to the first half of the 17th century. The Kyiv Mohyla Academy, founded in 1632, provided the foundation upon which Kiev University was subsequently built. This Academy, whose history spanned almost two hundred years, was the first establishment of higher education in Ukraine. Among its students one may find prominent figures of Ukrainian cultural development: Meletius Smotrytsky, Feofan Prokopovich, Hryhoriy Skovoroda, and many others.
For many years it was realized that the city of Kiev 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,[citation needed] one must say that such fears were not at all groundless. Kiev University did become a focal point of national consciousness.
The University was founded in 1834 and named to Saint Vladimir, the ruler who Christianized the Kievan Rus. This choice of the name by the authorities of the Empire where the role of the Orthodox Christianity was immense may have reflected the continual importance of Kiev as the cradle of the Eastern Christianity for the entire Russian Empire.
The first 62 students started their studies at the university in 1834, in the one-and-only Faculty of Philosophy, which had two Departments: The Department of History and Philology and The Department of Physics and Mathematics. There were new additions to the original department in 1835 and 1847: the Faculty of Law and the Faculty of Medicine. Later on, the original Faculty of Philosophy was divided into two separate units: the Faculty of History and Philology and the Faculty of Natural Sciences. There were no more additions to the number of the departments until the 1920's.
The walls of the main building are painted in red and the top and bottom of pillars in black as these refer to the colours of Saint Vladimir's Order (created in 1782), whose motto is "Utilitas, Honor et Gloria".
In 1939 Kiev University was named after Taras Shevchenko. Upon graduation from Imperial Academy of Arts in Saint Petersburg, then the capital of the Empire, Taras Shevchenko returned to Kiev and between 1845-1846 was employed by the Archaeological and Ethnographic Commission at Kiev University until his arrest in 1847.
Faculty members, scholars and scientists of Kiev University have made a worthy contribution to the development of science and social-political thinking in Ukraine. The list is long and comprises, among others:
- M. Maxymovych
- M. Kostomarov
- V. Antonovych
- I. Luchytskiy
- M. Drahomanov
- V. Perets
- O. Beletskiy
- A. Krymskiy
- Ye. Tarle
- K. Nevolin
- M. Ivanishev
- M. Vladimirskiy-Budanov
- O. Kystyakovskiy
- M. Ziber
- V. Yermakov
- D. Grave
- M. Bogolyubov
- I. Gikhman
- M. Yadrenko
- A. Skorokhod
- Y. Petunin
- L. Kaluznin
- I. Rakhmaninov
- H. Suslov
- P. Voronets
- M. Avenarius
- M. Shiller
- Y. Kossohonov
- E. Lashkariov
- A. Babko
- A. Holub
- A. Kipriakov
- S. Reformatskiy
- K. Feofilaktov
- V. Chirvinskiy
- M. Andrusov
- P. Tutkovskiy
- I. Shmalhausen
- S. Navashyn
- K. Purievych
- O. Fomin
- M. Kholodniy
- K. Kesler
- O. Kovalevskiy
- O. Severtsov
- O. Korotnev
- O. Palladin
- V. Bets
- M. Sklifosofskiy
- F. Yanovskiy
- V. Obraztsov
- M. Strazhesko
Among the graduates of Kiev University one finds a considerable number of prominent figures of the Ukrainian arts: the playwright Mykhailo Starytskiy, the poet Maksym Rylsky, the composer Mykola Lysenko and other.
At present the student body of Kiev University totals about 20,000 students; this number includes students at the Institute of International Relations which is attached to Kiev University as a faculty of almost two thousand strong.
Kiev University maintains contacts with many universities and research centres throughout the world.
The newly acquired independence of and changing situation in Ukraine have put forward new requirements to Kiev University which is contributing to the all Ukrainian effort to create a radically new political, social and economic structure in the country. Kiev 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 independent Ukraine. Kiev University graduates are expected to be highly qualified, patriotic and aware of the tasks 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 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, Kiev University has to acquire the status of an independent educational establishment.
These are the 14 departments and 4 institutes in which the university is divided into:
- Department of Biology
- Department of Chemistry
- Department of Cybernetics
- Department of Geography
- Department of Geology
- Department of Economics
- Department of History
- Department of Law
- Department of Mechanics and Mathematics
- Department of Philosophy
- Department of Physics
- Department of Radiophysics
- Department of Sociology and Psychology
- Preparatory Department
- Institute of Philology
- Institute of Journalism
- Institute of International Relations
- Military Institute
- (Ukrainian)/(Russian)/(English) Kiev University Website
- http://www.biol.univ.kiev.ua (Biological Department)
- http://www.mechmat.univ.kiev.ua (Mathematics Department)
- http://www.rpd.univ.kiev.ua (Radiophysics Department)
- http://www.phys.univ.kiev.ua (Physics Department)
- http://www.chem.univ.kiev.ua (Chemistry Department)
- http://www.unicyb.kiev.ua (Department of Cybernetics)
- ^ (Ukrainian) 200 Best Ukrainian Universities. Mirror Weekly. 30 March 2007.