Taras Shevchenko National University of Kyiv, Kyiv

Kyiv University or Shevchenko University or officially the Taras Shevchenko National University of Kyiv, colloquially known as KNU, is located in Kyiv, the capital of Ukraine. The university is universally recognized as the most prestigious university of Ukraine, being the largest national higher education institution. KNU is ranked within top 650 universities in the world. It is the third oldest university in Ukraine after the University of Lviv and University of Kharkiv. Currently, its structure consists of fifteen faculties and five institutes. It was founded in 1834 by the Russian Tsar Nikolai I as the Kyiv Imperial University of Saint Volodymyr, and since then it has changed its name several times. During the Soviet Union era, Kiev State University was one of the top-three universities in the USSR, along with Moscow State University and Leningrad State University. It is ranked as the best university in Ukraine in many rankings. Throughout history, the university has produced many famous alumni including Nikolay Bunge, Mykhailo Drahomanov, Mykhailo Hrushevskyi, Nikolai Berdyaev, Mikhail Bulgakov, Ivan Schmalhausen, Theodosius Dobzhansky, Viacheslav Chornovil, Leonid Kravchuk, and many others. Taras Shevchenko himself, banned from educational activities for political reasons, worked for the Kyiv University as a field researcher. ()