Welcome to the National University of Ostroh Academy, the oldest and yet the youngest higher educational institution in Ukraine. Our University has a long and fascinating history. Everybody involved in the revival and establishment of the University is blessed. Everybody who visited Ostroh at least once returns here again. A wise man once said that 'one should follow the right way, but not the way everybody follows'. The National University of Ostroh Academy found its way since much has been achieved in eight years. The rapid development of Ostroh Academy is due to the primary idea of education. There are only 2 thousand students here, not 15 thousand, proves the institution's eliteness where the youth's outlook is formed. Undoubtedly, knowledge is the basis of education, but its true meaning is manifested in people's spirituality and generosity.
The National University of Ostroh Academy is Ostroh Slavic, Greek and Latin Academy's successor, the first institution of higher education of the Eastern Slavs. It was founded in 1576 by Prince Vasyl-Kostiantyn of Ostroh. His niece, Princess Halshka of Ostroh, was the beneficiary of the Academy and spent a great deal of money on its development.
Ostroh Academy was quite common by the standards of European education of the Middle Ages, though unusual by the Ukrainian ones as the so-called' Seven Liberal Arts' (grammar, rhetoric, dialectic, arithmetic, geometry, music and astronomy), and higher sciences: philosophy, theology and medicine had been taught there.
The students of the Academy learnt five languages: Slavic, Polish, Hebrew, Latin and Greek. This establishment's originality also consisted in the fact that it was the first institution to unite two cultures, Byzantine and West European. Not surprisingly, the Renaissance of the Ukrainian nation was connected with Ostroh Academy.
Ivan Fedorov's printing house with Cyrillic type was the most progressive Ukrainian publishing house of those times. It was established in Ostroh cultural centre simultaneously with the Academy. Greek and Slavic ABC-Book, the first Ukrainian school-book (1578) The New Testament (1580) Tymofii Mykhailovych's Sobranie Veshchey Nuzhneyshykh (Collection of Essential Things), the first directory of old printed texts in the history of Cyrillic polygraphy Andrii Rymsha's Chronology (1581), the first printed poetic masterpiece in Ukraine first complete The Slavic Ostroh Bible (1581), a masterpiece of old-Ukrainian polygraphy outstanding polemic works — A Key to the Heavenly Kingdom, The New Roman Calendar (1587) by Herasym Smotrytskyi, Apokrysys by Christopher Filaret, etc. were published here. An Ostroh Academy graduate, Meletius Smotrytskyi, wrote the first fundamental Slavic Grammar (1619), which M.Lomonosov called 'the gates to learning'.
Petro Konashevych-Sahaidachnyi, the Hetman of Zaporizhian Host Iov Boretskyi, the first Rector of Kyiv Brotherhood School Yelesey Pletenetskyi, an archimandrite of Kyiv Lavra a writer Meletii Smotrytskyi, Zakharia Kopystensky, the author of famous Palinode a famous religious and cultural figure Isakia Boryskovych and others were among the graduates of the Academy.
Ostroh Academy ceased to exist in 1636. Yet the results of its activity did not disappear without leaving any trace. This type of higher education institution was shifted to Kyiv from where it spread to Moldova and Moscow.
The chronicles of the revived Ostroh Academy in Independent Ukraine started in 1994 with the Decree of the President of Ukraine. By succeeding decrees of the President of Ukraine, development of Ostroh Academy received a new impact for further growth. In October 2000, Ostroh Academy officially became the National University.
Accordingly, to the Cabinet of Ministers of Ukraine's decision on July 29, 2009, № 798, the Academy received the status of autonomous research national institution of higher education.
The National University of Ostroh Academy is Ostroh Slavic, Greek and Latin Academy's successor, the first higher educational establishment of the Eastern Slavs.
Ostroh Academy abounds with the projects that welcome the students willing to actively participate, reveal their creative potential, and realize themselves.
VIDEOS
