In 1979 the Department of the Russian Language was founded, which since then has been continuously headed by Professor, PhD in Philology Vasilenko Galyna Leonidivna.

In the history of the Department one can distinguish the following stages.

1979-1991 In this period there was created the system of the educational and academic work with the international students of the Preparatory Faculty who came from countries of Europe, Asia, Africa, and Latin America for mastering the doctor’s profession. At the same time and as an organic link to the academic work there was initiated the Department’s research work: there were studied problems of adaptation of international students to life and studies in a new social environment; there were developed problems of the Preparatory Faculty for Foreign Citizens for the sake of mastering general educational disciplines and studying in the senior courses of the medical university. It was theoretically grounded and created the system of control of language knowledge, habits and skills of the Preparatory Faculty for Foreign Citizens students.

1992-2003 The Department was renamed to the Department of the Ukrainian and Russian Languages. The academic and methodological work in this period was focused on development and introduction of working programs, lectures, methodological recommendations for conducting practical classes, diverse kinds of test papers and examination materials on the just introduced disciplines “Practical Course of Ukrainian” (further — “Business Ukrainian”, currently — “Ukrainian (after professional orientation)”) and “Introduction to Pedagogy” for Ukrainian and international students.

Obtaining sovereignty and statehood by Ukraine brought about essential changes in the contents and methods of the academic and educational work of the international audience. There emerged an urgent need of popularizing the best achievements of the Ukrainian science and culture. Reprogramming the education in the spirit of new democratic values was embodied in new methodological workings out and manuals. A special attention was paid to regional geography materials, as well as problems of upbringing would-be doctors and the doctor’s professional speech.

2004-2012 The Department got the name of the Department of Ukrainian Studies. In this period the following was done:

• studying the ways of optimization of teaching the language cycle subjects at higher medical schools;
• planning, organization and realization of continuous language training of international students;
• defining the functions of a modern textbook author and conditions for their fulfillment.

The object of the academic, educational and research work, as well as the source for the medical university students’ language training as a constituent of their continuous professional education became the life and professional activity of outstanding Ukrainian and foreign figures, in particular scientists-doctors.

In connection with the introduction of the course “Ukrainian as a Foreign Language” and for the sake of providing the learning process with methodological material there were created some groups of teachers for developing and writing manuals and textbooks on the general literary and scientific styles of Ukrainian.

There were published the manual on the course ‘Ukrainian (after the professional orientation)’ and the manual “Stepping together” (the course of Ukrainian for beginners).

At the Department the chorus, vocal and literary circles for Ukrainian and international students are operable.

Presently the Department’s staff comprises 1 professor, 3 readers, 27 senior teachers, 17 teachers, 4 senior laboratory assistants and 6 laboratory assistants.