University Nowadays

Luhansk Taras Shevchenko National University is the flagship of higher education in Ukraine, the initiator and leader of educational reforms, and an outpost of Ukrainianism in the extreme east of the country!

Currently, a bloody, large-scale war of Russia against the Ukrainian people continues on the territory of independent, sovereign Ukraine, which has not spared our institution of higher education. The university was again the first to suffer from the second Russian invasion, as the bombing of Starobilsk began at 5:00 am on February 24.

The buildings of the administrative center of Luhansk Taras Shevchenko National University in the city of Starobilsk are temporarily occupied by Russian terrorist groups, where the material and technical base has remained intact. Over the university buildings, the occupiers raised the flags of the LPR terrorist organization and the illegal educational structure Luhansk State Pedagogical University. The war took the lives of outstanding scientists and students of the institution of higher education. Teachers and most of the students were left without housing, and families broke up.

In general, since 2014, the university has suffered huge losses, as buildings in the cities of Luhansk, Rovenki, Kadiivka (Stakhanov), Shchastia, and Alushta were occupied; in Rubizhne, Kreminna, Lysychansk they were completely destroyed.

In order to continue full-time work, the management of Luhansk Taras Shevchenko National University was forced to leave the war zone. The university management center has been temporarily moved to the central part of Ukraine to the training bases of the structural units that have been located there since 2014. So, for the second time, the university team refused to work under the flag of the occupiers!

Currently, the rectorate, a large part of the teaching staff and employees, are located in Poltava on the premises of the Poltava University of Economics and Trade, and separate structural units are located in Myrhorod and Lubny. The educational institution once again found itself without housing for teachers and students; appropriate material and technical, informational, educational and methodological resources; with a contingent of students who are geographically distant from the educational institution. However, progressive and dedicated teachers and students remained at the university; the Shevchenko’s spirit and faith in the future of the educational institution, a united and independent Ukraine and a strong Ukrainian nation.

Having the experience of recovery in the conditions of external aggression and displacement in 2014, the university quickly responded to new challenges and, bypassing the stages of survival and recovery, mobilized and continues its activities in remote mode.

As of today, five areas of the university’s activity have been identified, thanks to which, in the conditions of martial law, it clearly revealed its subjectivity in the domestic and international educational and scientific domain: defense, organizational-management, and educational, international and information security.

From the first days of the war, the Rectorate and the International Relations Department launched active endeavors to terminate relations and cooperation of the university with Russian and Belarusian educational and scientific institutions and organizations connected with the military aggression of the Russian Federation against Ukraine in 2014 and the war of 2022, which resulted in the complete severance of any what kind of relations with these institutions.

The university staff confidently continues to work for the development of education and science on the territory of free Ukraine. They are convinced that very soon the Ukrainian Flag will fly over all of Ukraine, and the majestic and indomitable University will expand its activities at all educational bases of the Luhansk Region and the Autonomous Republic of Crimea!

Organization of the educational process

Pursuant to the Decree of the President of Ukraine dated February 24, 2022 No. 64/2022 “On the Introduction of Martial Law in Ukraine”, university orders dated March 3, 2022 No. 51-OD “On the Relocation of the University Management Center Under Martial Law”, from 10.03.2022 No. 54 “On the Organization of the Educational Process Under Martial Law” Luhansk Taras Shevchenko National University from 11.03.2022 resumed and continues the educational process using various means of distance (mixed) learning (the university’s educational portal, platforms (Microsoft Teams, ZOOM, Classroom, etc.), groups and channels in Viber, WhatsApp, Telegram, etc.).

Admission and enrollment to the university is carried out by the basic educational institution and its separate structural subdivisions. Currently, the educational process is provided by all structural subdivisions of the university in Poltava and the cities of the Poltava region.

The following university subdivisions are located in Poltava:

• Educational and Research Institute of Culture and Arts;
• Educational and Research Institute of History, International Relations and Socio-Political Sciences;
• Educational and Research Institute of public management, administration and postgraduate education;
• Faculty of Foreign Languages;
• Faculty of Ukrainian Philology and Journalism;

The following university subdivisions are located in Myrhorod:

• Educational and Research Institute of Economics and Business;
• Educational and Research Institute of physics, mathematics and information technologies;
• Faculty of Natural Sciences;
• Rubizhne Professional College of the State Institution “Luhansk Taras ShevchenkoNational University”;
• Brianka Professional College of the State Institution “Luhansk Taras ShevchenkoNational University”;
• Regional Center for Professional Education (Starobilsk, Rubizhne, Kreminna, Shchastia branches).

The following university subdivisions are located in Lubny:

• Educational and Research Institute of Pedagogy and Psychology;
• Educational and Research Institute of Commerce, Serving Technologies and Tourism;
• Educational and Research Institute of Physical Education and Sports;
• Lysychansk Pedagogical College of the State Institution “Luhansk Taras Shevchenko National University”;
• Kadiivka Professional Pedagogical College of the State Institution “Luhansk Taras Shevchenko National University”;
• Starobilsk Professional College of the State Institution “Luhansk Taras Shevchenko National University”; 
• Professional College of the State Institution “Luhansk Taras Shevchenko National University”.

The basic educational institution trains qualified specialists at all educational (educational and scientific) levels and scientific degrees – bachelor’s, master’s, doctor of philosophy, doctor of science, advanced training. 6 professional colleges graduate professional junior bachelors, and the Regional Center for Professional Education of LTSNU (Starobilsk, Rubizhne, Kreminna branches) trains qualified workers.

The educational offer of Luhansk Taras Shevchenko National University covers about 250 specialties, educational programs and professions.

For the organization and technical support of training, the university uses a convenient and reliable system – the open educational platform Moodle. The university has developed its own platform “Electronic University” in the Ukrainian segment – LNU.UKR, which provides support for the educational process at the university based on learning information technologies including the student registration, creation of computer tests, testing, etc. The platform provides access to creating and conducting computer tests regardless of the location of teachers, students and the university (client-server technology).

The “Electronic University” platform has its own subsystem, which was developed for conducting online lectures in real time based on electronic lecture halls and the distributed location in cyberspace of all participants of the educational process. The subsystem is implemented in the educational process of the university.

Educational Activities

The educational and extracurricular activities at Luhansk Taras Shevchenko National University are implemented within the framework of social and humanitarian work, which is a purposeful process that takes into account the peculiarities and specifics of the university, in particular, the professionalism of the teaching staff, which to a large extent is the carrier of spiritual, moral, ethical, business qualities, the level of its interaction with students and influence on their consciousness with the aim of forming in them a balanced life position, and the ability to perceive, use, spread and gain the necessary experience.

Taking into account the socio-political situation in Ukraine, the education of the younger generation with a sense of patriotism, devotion to the national cause of strengthening the country, active citizenship, etc., is becoming more and more relevant. In these conditions, the priority area of ​​work for the university is the national-patriotic education of the individual, aimed at the formation of national-patriotic consciousness, personal identification with one’s nation, faith in the spiritual forces and the future of the country, the will to work for the benefit of the people; awareness of moral and cultural values.

An important role in the system of educational work is played by the Center for Culture and Leisure, which largely solves the problem of the cultural recreation of the student youth. It includes: a choreographic collective of modern dance Inspiration, a vocal collective and a theater studio. It is here that students have the opportunity to demonstrate and improve their creative abilities. And the clever show themselves in the League of Laughter.

Student-athletes attend a sports club, supporting football, volleyball, and basketball sections.

Thanks to the effectiveness of the education system and the coordination of the work of all structural units at the university, holidays, competitions, and days of remembrance, which are held annually and are extremely popular not only among students, but also among the townspeople, have become traditional. Such events, in particular, include: Embroidery Day, Intercession Day, Teacher’s Day, National Flag Day, International Student Day, University Anniversary, Remembrance and Reconciliation Day, Independence Day, Knowledge Day, Health Day, Defender of Ukraine Day, Saint Nicholas Day, Smiley Day, etc.

An important component of the educational process at the university is the system of student self-government, the task of which is to increase social activity, initiatives of student youth, to increase their responsibility, to ensure and protect the rights and interests of students, to promote the educational, scientific and creative activities of young people, to develop the mastery of organizational skills by students, to encourage the involvement of student youth in administrative, scientific, economic, cultural and educational and international affairs and other types of activities carried out at the university.

Flash mobs, participation in training sessions, volunteer actions – this is far from a complete list of what young people do. In this, they are supported by the Primary Trade Union Organization, the student social service, the youth HUB “Inventors”, the Co-working center “Creative University” and the volunteer center “SOVA”, where students and teachers can hold informal meetings; it is a gathering place of volunteer organizations and student self-government, it is here that student-teacher projects and classes are implemented.

Achievements and awards

High places in national and international rankings, honorary awards from the world scientific community are an indicator of the successful educational, research and upbringing activities of Luhansk Taras Shevchenko National University.

LTSNU constantly demonstrates its high performance at the International Exhibition “Modern Educational Institutions”. In the rating exhibition competition at the 9th International Exhibition “Modern Educational Institutions – 2018” LTSNU was awarded the Grand Prix “Leader of International Activity” diploma. According to the results of the competitive selection and examination, LTSNU also received a gold medal in the thematic nomination and a certificate of “Quality of Scientific Publications” according to the rating indicators of the international scientometric database Scopus.

In 2019, at the 10th International Exhibition “Modern Educational Institutions-2019”, our university received the Grand Prix diploma “Leader of Higher Education of Ukraine”, a gold medal in the thematic nomination “Socialization of personality in the conditions of modern challenges” and a certificate “Quality of Scientific Publications” according to the indicators of the independent ranking of the international scientometric database SciVerse Scopus.

At the 11th International Exhibition “Modern Educational Institutions-2020” LTSNU was awarded the title “Leader of scientific and scientific-technical activity”. According to the results of the competitive selection and examination of works of LTSNU in thematic nominations, it received two gold medals and a certificate of “Quality of Scientific Publications” according to the indicators of the independent ranking of the international scientometric database SciVerse Scopus.

The University has access to the largest international reference and scientometric databases of scientific literature: SCOPUS, Webometrics, Statista, EBSCO EP Package, etc. The digital repository of LTSNU occupies a leading position among the repositories of Ukrainian institutions of higher education.

According to the Internet rankings including Ranking Web of Universities (Webometrics) and World Universities Web Ranking (uniRank), which determine the level of presence of educational institutions in the Internet environment, the university shows high indicators and occupies a leading position in the region.

As of January 2020, 11,993 universities of the world were included in the next Webometrics Ranking of World Universities. According to it, our higher education institution took the 4569th place in the world ranking. And among 318 Ukrainian higher education institutions, our university took the 26th place.

In January 2020, UniRank University Ranking, which included more than 13,600 global higher education institutions, Luhansk Taras Shevchenko National University was ranked the 5,557th. Among the 171 Ukrainian higher education institutions included in the ranking, our university took the 46th place, and among the higher education institutions of the Luhansk region, it ranks the first.

As of July 2020, the uniRank and Webometrics Ranking of World Universities were published, in which our university took honorable places.

The next uniRank ranking of world universities included 13,723 world universities, among which our university ranks 5,656. Among 186 Ukrainian HEIs, our university took the 66th place, and among higher education institutions of the Luhansk region – it took the 1st place.

Luhansk Taras Shevchenko National University ranked 4,666 in the Webometrics Ranking of World Universities. In addition, in the continental ranking, we got the 3234th position, in the European ranking – the 1351st place, and among the HEIs in the Central and Eastern Europe – the 388the place. Among the 317 Ukrainian higher education institutions present in the ranking, our university took the 28th place.

In the ranking of higher education institutions of Ukraine, “Top-200 Ukraine”, Luhansk Taras Shevchenko National University took the 52nd place, and among higher education institutions of Luhansk region – the 1st place.

As of December 2020, our university was included in two more world rankings. So, in the world ranking “Transparent ranking: top universities by the number of citations in Google scholar profiles”, our university took the 3356th place. Our university took an honorable 56th place among 63 Ukrainian higher education institutions in the ranking. Among the higher education institutions of the Luhansk region, we are the only ones included in this ranking.

The most important ranking criterion was the number of citations of a particular educational institution. Our Alma Mater was cited 2253 times.