Kharkov National V.N. Karazin University, one of the oldest universities of Eastern Ukraine, opened on 29 January 1804. It was the oldest university of the then Ukraine and is the second oldest after the Polish University of Lviv in modern Ukraine within its present borders.

Among the 30 famous scholars associated with the university there are three Nobel Prize winners:

• I.I. Mechnikov (Medicine, 1908)

• L.D. Landau (Physics, 1962)

• S. Kuznets (Economics, 1971)

The University comprises the following departments:

• Department of Biology

• Department of Geology and Geography

• Department of Foreign Languages

• Department of History

• Department of Medicine

• Department of International Economic Relations and Tourist Industry

• Department of Mathematics and Mechanical Engineering

• Department of Professional Re-Training

• Department of Psychology

• Department of Radio Physics

• Department of Sociology

• Department of Physics

• Department of Philosophy

• Department of Philology

• Department of Chemistry

• The International Students Education Centre

• Department of Ecology

• Department of Economics

• Department of Law

Institute of High Technology (a university subdivision)

• Department of Physics and Technology

• Department of Computer Science

• Department of Physics and Energy

Scientific Research Institutions:

• Astronomical Observatory

• Biological Station

• Botanical Garden

• Museum of Kharkiv University History

• Museum of Nature

• Museum of Archaeology and Ethnography of Slobodska Ukraine

• Scientific Research Institute of Biology

• Scientific Research Institute of Laser Biology

• Scientific Research Institute of Chemistry

• Radio-physical Observatory

• Radiation Dynamics Group

• Thin Film Laboratory

• Young Scientists’ Council

• Central Scientific Library of Kharkiv National University (one of the biggest libraries of Ukraine)