Donetsk National University

The National University of Donetsk celebrated its 45^th anniversary as a university in 2010, although its full history dates back to the foundation of the Pedagogical Institute (teacher training college) in 1937. During 45 years it has developed from a provincial college into one of Ukraine’s leading universities. In 1965 it had two faculties: the Faculty of History and the Faculty of Philology, today it has eleven. These are the Faculties of Mathematics, Physics, Chemistry, Biology, History, Philology, Foreign Languages, Economics, Economics and Law, Finance and Accounting, and International Faculty. The academic staff of the university has grown from 218 members in 1965 to 1,330 in 2011. When the university was founded there was only one doctor and 61 candidates of science on its staff, today there are 180 doctors and 628 candidates of science. The academic staff of the university includes one academician and two corresponding members of Ukraine’s National Academy of Sciences and 38 academicians and corresponding members of branch academies.

Today the University is home to nearly 20,000 students including about 350 foreign students studying on 42 degree courses. 10,486 students take full-time courses and 9,136 students– part-time or correspondence courses. The University also offers postgraduate courses in physics, biology, mathematics, etc.

The University is run by rector and pro-rectors. Each faculty is headed by the dean and assistant deans.

The University’s educational facilities include numerous laboratories, a modern computer centre, 61 computer classes and a library which is the largest among all Donetsk higher schools. The university has six halls of residence (dormitories) to accommodate its students, a sports and recreation centre ‘Nauka’ by the Azov sea, the youth student centre ‘Brigantina’.

The University has its own newspapers, the University News, which is printed every fortnight, and the Facts and Events, which comes out weekly.

Our University has a good reputation for academic excellence. It ranks 7^th among 380 Ukrainian universities. It is also well known for the quality of its research. Its graduates are in demand all over Ukraine. The university’s most famous alumni are Vasyl Stus, a Ukrainian dissident poet, Victor Shatalov, a world-known teacher-innovator, Rinat Akhmetov, president of the football club Shakhtar, the richest person in Ukraine, and the Party of the Regions politicians Alexander Stoyan, Vladimir Rybak and Yelena Bondarenko.