V.N. Karazin Kharkiv National University is one of the oldest universities in Eastern Europe, officially opened on January 17 (29), 1805. The second oldest in modern Ukraine after Lviv, which in the format of a classical university has existed since 1784. Fifth University of the Russian Empire after Vilensky (1802), Derpt (1803), Moscow (1755) and Kazan (1804). The affirmative charter and the Charter of Kharkov University were signed simultaneously with the charter of Kazan University on November 5 (17), 1804.

The history of Kharkiv National University is part and parcel of the intellectual, cultural and spiritual history of Ukraine. The names of many world famous researchers, scholars and educators are associated with Kharkiv University, among them are P. Hulak-Artemovskyi, O. Lyapunov, M. Kostomarov, M. Barabashov, M. Beketov, D. Bahaliy, A. Krasnov, M. Ostrohradskyi, V. Steklov, O. Potebnya, O. Pohorelov and many others.

Kharkiv University is the only university in Ukraine that has trained and employed three Nobel Prize laureates: the biologist I. Mechnikov, the economist S. Kuznets, and the physicist L. Landau.

At different times titles of Kharkiv University Honorary Members and Doctors were conferred on outstanding scholars and public figures of many countries, including J.W. Goethe and A. Humboldt, I. Franko and L. Tolstoy, P. Semenov-Tyanshanskiy, and others.

The title of Honorary Doctor of Kharkiv University was conferred on the first President of Ukraine Mykhailo Hrushevskyi.

Kharkiv University is associated with the first Ukrainian newspapers and journals and the first scientific societies.

Since its foundation, the University has graduated over 130,000 students. The names of the University graduates are commemorated in geographical names, names of space objects, plants and minerals, laws and formulae. Almost 60 University graduates have become academicians and corresponding members of the Ukrainian National Academy of Sciences (UNAS).

The activities of the University have developed Kharkiv into a major industrial, scientific and cultural center. Many Kharkiv streets are named after professors, researches and alumni of the University.

The University has initiated the whole system of higher education of the Kharkiv Region. Its offspring are the National Academy of Law, the National Pharmaceutical Academy, Kharkiv Medical University, Kharkiv Pedagogical University, the Kharkiv Veterinary Academy, the Kharkiv Academy of Culture, Kharkiv Economic University and other institutions of higher education.

Historical facts

• Kharkiv Imperial University – the oldest classical university in the then Little Russia and in the current borders of Ukraine after Lviv University.
• During the existence of the university, over one hundred thousand people graduated from it.
• In the first years of its existence, the university had very few students: the first set – 33 state-owned and 23 self-employed. The fact is that without knowledge of Latin at the university at the beginning of the XIX century there was nothing to do – all foreign teachers read in Latin, and graduates of public schools did not study Latin.
• The first university graduation took place in 1808. Of the 57 applicants graduated from the course of science only 26 people.
• As in all universities in Russia, it was forbidden for women in Kharkov to study, as described in paragraph 17 of the rules for students: “Persons of the female sex are not allowed to attend university lectures”. Also from the 1830s, with the adoption of rules for students, they were forbidden: to marry, wear mustaches, smoke, go to the theater and tavern, wear any clothes other than uniforms, “enter into secret ties and societies”.
• Before the adoption of these rules, students, as described by K. Shchelkov, looked like this: “At that time, both professors and students alike wore uniforms only on big holidays. At the lecture they were in horrible. Yellow coats, blue trousers, blue coats and monstrous vests, caps of extraordinary sizes and colors, sticks in hands, tubes in pockets are an ordinary suit and belonging to students of that time. ”
• On the basis of the university in the XIX century, three institutes were opened: in 1811 – pedagogical, in 1839 – veterinary, in the 1840s – medical.
• At the end of the 19th century, an entrepreneur and philanthropist I.G. Kharitonenko donated 100,000 rubles to a dormitory facility for students of Kharkov University and capital, for the income from which 20 scholarships of 300 rubles a year each were given.
• An interesting building – a real decoration of the city – promised to be the Beketov new university building, which by the end of the 1930s had become cramped within the walls of the former Governor’s Palace. Beketov received the right to build a new building KSU. But this project was not implemented because of the war.
• New University Building, Domproektroy, reconstructed and reconstructed after the war in 1953-1962, is the second largest in size in the USSR after Moscow on the Lenin Hills.
• The new building of the university largely repeated the already built (in 1953) Moscow State University building on the Lenin Hills. There was a similar composition of the plan: the central part with a spire (canceled at the last moment); dormitory wings with 2-room blocks and student halls – converted into an audience at the last moment; tower clock and barometer under the eaves; an assembly hall and a lobby in the center of the 2nd floor, administrative premises in the central high-altitude part; two closed courtyard with a gate. During the construction, the same finishing tile was used as in the Moscow skyscrapers (all of it was made in Kharkov at the tile factory).
• The current university building (Domproektrostroy) before the war was the tallest in Kharkov (except for the church belltowers).
• The design spire in the style of Stalin’s skyscrapers on the new building of KSU during its restoration was never built due to the unfolding Khrushchev struggle with “architectural excesses”. A panel depicting his planned appearance can be seen in a cafe in the South Station building.
• In Soviet times, in the 1920s, the word “Imperatorskago” was beaten off from the inscription on the monument to Karazin. In 2004 restored.

Departments

• Department of Biology
• Department of Geology and Geography
• Department of Foreign Languages
• Department of History
• Department of Medicine
• Department of International Economic Relations and Tourist Industry
• Department of Mathematics and Mechanical Engineering
• Department of Professional Re-Training
• Department of Psychology
• Department of Radio Physics
• Department of Sociology
• Department of Physics
• Department of Philosophy
• Department of Philology
• Department of Chemistry
• The International Students Education Centre
• Department of Ecology
• Department of Economics
• Department of Law

Institute of high technology(university’s subdivision)

• Department of Physics and Technology
• Department of Computer Science
• Department of Physics and Energy
•  Scientific research institution
• Astronomical Observatory
• Biological Station
• Botanical Garden
• Museum of Kharkiv University History
• Museum of Nature
• Museum of Archaeology and Ethnography of Slobodska Ukraine
• Scientific Research Institute of Biology
• Scientific Research Institute of Laser Biology
• Scientific Research Institute of Chemistry
• Radio-physical Observatory
• Radiation Dynamics Group
• Thin Film Laboratory
• Young Scientists’ Council
• Central Scientific Library of Kharkiv National University (one of the biggest libraries of Ukraine)

Accommodation

The International Office provides a guarantee of accommodation placement services to all international students who receive an academic offer.

All rooms in hostels are provided with internet facility.

Rooms on campus are available to students. All hostel rooms are furnished and vary in size and number of conveniences. Dormitory rooms at hostel can accommodate 2 or 3 students to a room.

All rooms are equipped with bed, mattress, pillow, blanket, desk, chair,heating, water system and suitable lighting for both study and relaxation.Upon the students arrival on campus, specific accommodations are assigned and after a satisfactory health report the student will be accommodated to the room which is allotted to him.

In the hostel each room is attached with kitchen is provided for students to cook food to their own taste. Students will need to supply their own kitchen utensils. Meals may be bought from various food outlets. All the rooms are provided with heaters. Our hostels feature 24-hour access to security and emergency services, making it easy to get assistance when you need it.