History
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, 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, a 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 Kiev 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: Hryhoriy Skovoroda, Feofan Prokopovych, Meletiy Smotritskiy 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, one must say that such fears were not at all groundless. Kiev University did become a focal point of national consciousness.
The first 62 students started their studies at Kiev 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.
In 1939 Kiev University was named after Taras Shevchenko. Upon graduation from St Petersburg’s Academy of Fine Arts, Taras Shevchenko returned to Kiev and between 1845-1846 was employed by the Archaeological and Ethnographic Commission at Kiev University. In 1847, the activities of the Cyril-Methodius Brotherhood, of which Shevchenko was an active member, were suspended and Shevchenko arrested. Although Shevchenko’s arrest and subsequent exile brought his work at the commission to end his links with Kiev University were not entirely severed.
Upon his release and return from exile, Taras Shevchenko wrote “Bukvar Yuzhnorusskiy” (An ABC-Book for Children) and saw to it that Sunday-schools in Ukraine for which it was meant received the book; Shevchenko kept up a correspondence with the first Rector of Kiev University, Maksymovych.