South Ukrainian national pedagogical university named
after K. D. Ushynsky: history and modernity
South Ukrainian national pedagogical university named after Kostiantyn Dmytrovych Ushynsky is one of the oldest educational institutions of Ukraine and the first teaching one on the northern Black Sea coast.
The University started as a Pedagogical Institute which was established pursuant to the Decree of the Emperor Oleksandr the First in Odesa on May, 2, 1817, as a separate structural unit at the Rishelievskyi lyceum.
During 200-year history the University passed a complex way of repeated name changes (the Institute of Teachers, the Institute of People’s Education, Odesa State Pedagogical Institute named after K. D. Ushynsky, South Ukrainian State Pedagogical University named after K. D. Ushynsky, South Ukrainian national pedagogical university named after K. Ushynsky), liquidations and updates.
Before 1941 the Institute used to be one of the largest in the city by the number of enrolled students. However, during World War II the Institute was evacuated. It was relocated to the city of Bayram-Ali in Turkmen SSR, where it functioned until 1944.
Fifteen hundred students and teachers went to the front, almost seven hundred of which were killed. Three defenders – Vasyl Musin, Volodymyr Morhunenkov and Anatolii Kovalenko were awarded the titles of Hero.
For outstanding achievements in the training of teaching staff in 1945 by the Resolution of the Government of Ukraine the Institute was given the name of the outstanding scientist and teacher – Kostiantyn Dmytrovych Ushynsky.
In 1970 Odesa State Pedagogical Institute named after K. Ushynsky was awarded a diploma of the Presidium of the Verkhovna Rada of Ukraine.
September 29, 1994, the Cabinet of Ministers of Ukraine on the basis of Odesa State Pedagogical Institute named after K. D. Ushynsky created South Ukrainian State Pedagogical University named after K. D. Ushynsky.
In 2007, the staff of the University was awarded by the Cabinet of Ministers of Ukraine for the contribution to the development of education, training highly qualified specialists, productive scientific and pedagogical activity and employment gains.
July 13, 2009 by the Decree of the President of Ukraine the University granted a national status.
The golden pages in the history of Ukraine and the University wrote its famous teachers and scientists, researchers, students and graduates who have made an invaluable contribution to the development of education and science at the global level, namely: twice State prize laureate, founder of new directions in the theory of physics A. Y. Kiv, State prize laureate, founder of theoretical and methodological foundations of modern psychology S.L. Rubinstein, State prize laureate Academician A. M. Bogush, the founder of experimental psychology Professor M. M. Lange and the founders of different scientific schools, which received international recognition – Academicians D. K. Tretyakov, O. Ya. Chebykin, O. P. Sannikova, Corresponding Members N.G. Chebotarev, V. I. Voitko, D. A. Sviridenko, R. Yu. Martynova, S. O. Skvortsova etc., the founder of Professional Pedagogy Professor R. I. Hmelyuk; famous artists: poets – V. A. Bershadsky, A. Sh. Huberman, V. I. Ivanovych; writers – S. I. Oliinyk, Ye. S. Kravchenko, I. A. Lutsenko; folk artists – A. I. Loza, P. A. Zlochevsk; outstanding athletes – Olympic champions M. Nikolaeva, G. Mondzolevsky, Ye. Lapyns'ky, V. Mykhalchuk, Ya. Zheleznyak, S. Petrenko, N. Olizarenko, O. Sokolovs’ka, G. Avdeenko, M. Milchev, Yu. Bilonog, D. Alekseev, S. Demchuk, Yu. Cheban, V. Lomachenko and others, Hero of Labour G. Tsvihun, Hero of Ukraine B. D. Lytvak, People’s Teacher M. M. Paltyshev and more than two thousand distinguished scientists, artists, representatives of people’s education.
The modern University is the flagship of pedagogical education in the South of Ukraine, where students, post-graduate students and doctors have been successfully training in 47 specialties and specializations.
Since its establishment more than 100,000 specialists for the educational system of our country and thirty other countries have been trained within its walls.Among its graduates and pedagogues are ministers, deputies of different levels, mayors, heads of large institutions, famous scientists and educators, directors of research institutes, schools, rectors of higher educational institutions, trainers and masters of sports, winners of Olympiads, recognized artists who made an invaluable contribution to the development of education and science worldwide.
The University is composed of 38 departments that are headed by doctors and professors – recognized experts in their fields. About five hundred teachers and twenty foreign specialists work at its departments.
There are twelve academicians, seventy professors, doctors of science among the pedagogues; eighteen teachers have an honourary title “Honoured Worker of Science of Ukraine”, “Honoured Worker of Education of Ukraine”, “Honoured Worker of Culture”, “Honoured Artist of Ukraine”, “Honoured Coach of Ukraine” and are the winners of state awards. A lot of University scholars were presented with international awards, elected to be members of national and international academies, societies and associations.
The most important scientific studies at the University were carried out in the framework of seventeen internationally recognized scientific schools.
The results of the University studies are reflected in printed works – more than two thousand scientific papers are annually published at home and foreign editing houses. Numerous monographs are published in different languages and in cooperation with the scholars of the USA, Israel, China, Great Britain, Lithuania and other countries.
Every year the University supports organizations of more than thirty international and Ukrainian scientific conferences. The University of Ushynsky is a founder of scientific journals in philosophy, political science, sociology, psychology, pedagogy, philology and others.
The University offers seven specialized Doctoral and Candidate Thesis Committees in twelve majors. Each year more than seventy theses are passed. Three hundred Ukrainian and foreign students from fifteen countries take postgraduate and doctorate courses as well as individual academic programs.
Almost three thousand students are involved in scientific work, the results of which are reflected in thousands of articles published every year. The participants of the educational process are winners of almost seventy contests, competitions and various Olympiads of national and international levels.
According to SCOPUS database the University ranks first among pedagogical universities of Ukraine.
The University collaborates with eighty educational and scientific institutions around the world.
There is an International Centre for Distance Learning functioning in association with the University; educational scientific information and culture offices of the State of Israel, the USA, Lithuania, China and Korea develop their work under the support of the University. The establishment is a coordinator of project studies by international programs Tempus, Vyshehrad Fund, the “Ukraine-Norway“ Fund and others).
The University is constantly developing. In recent years there was a significant increase in number of majors and specializations of training graduate, postgraduate and doctoral students. The University has an extensive system of material resources for providing educational process and scientific work. Thus, a modern scientific library was put into operation.
The University provides all necessary conditions for artistic, creative and sports activities of its students who can participate in forty sections and hobby groups.
Significant sporting achievements of the University students and graduates of different years are represented with twenty five Olympic champions, eighty three winners of world and European championships, twenty-eight honoured coaches and masters of sports of Ukraine.
Amateur creative collectives take part in many prestigious competitions and festivals in Ukraine, Poland, Czech Republic, China, the United States and other countries where they annually win prizes and get the Grand Prix.
Currently, according to different ratings the University is among the leaders of pedagogical and humanities universities and is presented with high awards, namely those of the Verkhovna Rada of Ukraine, the Cabinet of Ministers of Ukraine, Ministry of Education and Science of Ukraine and others.
