Taras Shevchenko National University of Kyiv

The Taras Shevchenko National University of Kyiv (Ukrainian: Київський національний університет імені Тараса Шевченка, romanized: Kyivskyi natsionalnyi universytet imeni Tarasa Shevchenka; also known as Kyiv University, Shevchenko University, or KNU) is a public university in Kyiv, Ukraine.

The university is the third-oldest university in Ukraine after the University of Lviv and the University of Kharkiv. Its structure consists of 15 faculties and five institutes. The university was founded in 1834 by Nicholas I of Russia as the Saint Vladimir Imperial University of Kiev; it has since 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. Its alumni include Mykola Lysenko, Nikolay Bunge, Mykhailo Drahomanov, Mykhailo Hrushevskyi, Nikolai Berdyaev, Mikhail Bulgakov, Ivan Schmalhausen, Theodosius Dobzhansky, Viacheslav Chornovil, and Leonid Kravchuk. The university is named after Taras Shevchenko, who was banned from educational activities for political reasons, but worked for the university as a field researcher.

Taras Shevchenko University is named after Taras Shevchenko, a major figure in Ukrainian literature and art. The university trains specialists in many fields of knowledge and carries out research. It is considered the most prestigious university in Ukraine and a major centre of advanced learning and progressive thinking. It consists of more faculties and departments, and trains specialists in a greater number of academic fields, than any other Ukrainian educational institution.^{[citation needed]}

The university is a major centre of learning and research and an important cultural centre. Student numbers total about 30,000 students.

Saint Vladimir Imperial University of Kyiv was founded in 1834 by Nicholas I of Russia (r. 1825–1855), and was named after Vladimir the Great, the 10/11th century ruler of Kievan Rus'. The university's name was chosen by the authorities of the Russian Empire, where the role of Orthodox Christianity was immense; the choice of name was a reflection of Kyiv as the cradle of Eastern Christianity for the Empire.

The university benefited from assets transferred from Vilnius University and a lyceum in Kremenets (Volhynian Governorate, today Western Ukraine), which was closed in the aftermath of the November Uprising of 1830. The first 62 students started their studies at the university in 1834, in its one faculty, the 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 departments until the 1920s.

The walls of the main building are painted in red while the tops and bottoms of its columns are painted black. Ukrainian composer Mykola Leontovych's "Shchedryk" was premiered at the Kyiv University on December 26, 1916, by the university's choir directed by Oleksandr Koshyts.

In 1920, Saint Vladimir University was renamed as Mykhailo Drahomanov University.