HISTORICAL BACKGROUND

      KHERSON STATE MARITIME ACADEMY

     
     The history of Kherson State Maritime Academy foundation and development is closely connected with the history of Kherson as a shipbuilding centre.
Founded in 1778 in a favourable (from the geographical and military point of view) place, Kherson started shipbuilding industry at the Black Sea.
It was very soon that training of national marine specialists – navigators and skippers – became an urgent need.
On February 20, 1834, after continuous requests of Count Vorontsov and by Resolution of Emperor Nickolas I, a school of merchant navigation was established in the city of Kherson. The decree proclaimed: «The aim of this educational institution is to train young men as, firstly: navigators and skippers on board private sea-going merchant vessels, and, secondly: builders of commercial ships…».
Three buildings of the former admiralty were granted for accommodating the newly established school. The school contingent was formed of 24 cadets (14-17 years old) – mainly children of the merchants and citizens who lived in the south of Ukraine and in Crimea. The training course was 4 years long.
The school had a mixed form of financing. Besides the cadets on the state allowance, the staff provided training for 10-14 persons at their own expense and a few free listeners chosen among seamen-apprentices.

To enter the school, the applicants were required to read and write, know four arithmetic rules, be of strong build, have no physical defects, and be brought up «in the fear of God and kind morals».
In addition to general and special disciplines, the school curriculum included foreign languages: Greek, Turkish, Italian, German and French.

The school was of boarding type; therefore, the cadets lived in barracks and were not allowed to leave until the course completion. The graduates with honours degree received the rank of a navigator, the others – that of a skipper assistant. The most distinguished graduates were awarded with books, nautical instruments, and big and small silver medals.

The first maritime institution in Ukraine had to consolidate and renovate the fleet, and replace foreign skippers. By the end of the 19th century graduates of Kherson maritime school completely replaced all foreign navigators and skippers at the Black Sea.
As the years went by, the school became very popular among young men and it acquired some traditions.
In 1859 Т. Shevchenko wrote to his brother Bartholomew, «You write you were not at home and took your sons to Kherson. Well done! Have you arranged their admission to that school of merchant navigation? If yes, then say your prayers and go to bed. Your sons will become respected people».

T. Shevchenko’s high evaluation of the quality of training at Kherson marine school is true up to now.

Time and again the marine school was reorganized and changed its status according to the state educational policy:
     1834 – school of trading navigation.
     1872 – 2nd rank nautical classes headed by the committee of 5 persons appointed by the City Council.
     1875 – nautical school of coastwise navigation, which trained only navigators.
     1880 – three – year specialized school:

• 1st year – for coastal skippers;
• 2nd year – for coastal skippers and navigators;
• 3rd year – for sea skippers.

From 1903 the school became a marine college with a three-year training course for cadets aged 17 to 24. The same year, uniform was introduced for wearing by cadets and teachers.

In 1920, the college was reorganized into the night technical school of water transport. The training facilities were improved.
In 1930, it became Kherson marine technical school that trained specialists in operating marine commercial fleet. Ladies were also admitted.

In 1944, the marine institution resumed its work as marine college of boarding type to train navigators, marine engineers and ship repair engineers. The classes were conducted in the building of School №20.

In 1996, the marine college was reorganized into Kherson marine college of the second level accreditation.
In 2007, by Decree of Cabinet of Ministers of Ukraine №414-p of 16.06.2007 and Order of Ministry of Education and Science of Ukraine №500 of 16.06.2007 Higher Educational Institution “Kherson State Maritime Institute” was established on the basis of marine college and private maritime institute.
On June 15, 2011 Decree «On establishing Kherson State Maritime Academy» was issued by the government.
The government decision aims at optimizing the network of maritime training institutions in Kherson region, improving the quality of training marine specialists in compliance with international requirements and reinforcing competitiveness of higher education maritime establishments of Ukraine at the international labor market.

The status change of the training institution will contribute to gaining its prestige in Ukraine as well as abroad, attracting investments in the development and improvement of its training facilities and increasing the quality of training marine specialists.

During 177 years of its work, the first Ukrainian maritime educational institution has trained more than 45,000 marine specialists, among them over 3,000 deep sea captains, over 2,000 chief engineers, about 1,000 electrical engineers and 1,000 radio officers for modern sea-going vessels.

Among its graduates, there are 10 Heroes of the Soviet Union and Socialist Labour, 9 Admirals, 2 generals, 3 writers, 3 laureates of State Prize of USSR, 12 scientists, 3 heads of shipping companies, 4 port directors, 2 directors of shipyards, 2 heads of marine colleges, 2 deputy Ministers of Marine Ministry of USSR as well as honorary teachers of Ukrainian SSR, authors of textbooks for marine colleges of USSR.

32 vessels were named after graduates of Kherson maritime institution. This is the highest indicator of prestige of our maritime educational establishment.
The newly established Academy is a legal successor of Kherson school of trading navigation founded in 1834 and a plenipotentiary heir of its honorable status as the first maritime training institution in Ukraine.

Kherson marine school has never stopped its training activities. It happened only once when Kherson was occupied during the Great Patriotic War.

At present Kherson State Maritime Academy is a state higher educational establishment of the 4th accreditation level. The academy trains marine specialists for the degrees of skilled worker, Junior specialist, Bachelor, Specialist and Master in the fields of «Navigation», «Ship Power Plants» and «Electrical Systems and Complexes of Transport Facilities».

The Academy has Navigation and Ship Engineering Departments.
Marine College and Professional Marine Lyceum are its structural subdivisions without legal entity rights.

The Academy and its structural subdivisions work as a single educational establishment with common principles of organizing the educational process. They are staffed with highly qualified marine specialists, lecturers and teachers.

Eleven Academy faculties employ 146 lecturers, among them 10 Doctors of Sciences, professors and 65 Candidates of Sciences, associate professors.
Marine College and Marine professional Lyceum employ 124 teachers, among them 49 teachers of higher category.
The faculty members take part in All-Ukrainian and regional scientific and practical conferences; their articles are published in specialized magazines and collections of scientific works accredited by Higher Accreditation Committee; they are active in developing methodological guidelines and course syllabi.
Despite being young as a higher educational establishment, the Academy conducts scientific and research work.

Major directions of scientific research at the Academy are:

• IT  in  navigating  and  in  modeling complex systems at water transport;
• development  of virtual computer ship simulators;
• mathematic models of water transport objects;
• development and research of modern ship energy saving power complexes for utilizing heat energy of power plants;
• research in the field of marine environment protection while operating ships;
• development of technologies for utilizing solid waste and carbohydrates fumes on tankers, purifying and disinfecting sewage water on ships.

The Academy has its own scientific and technical bulletin «Naukoviy Visnyk» registered by Higher Accreditation Committee.
A priority task for the Academy is training competitive marine specialists for the world labor market.

The Academy and College cadets have practical training aboard ships of the world famous shipping companies of Germany, Greece, Holland, Great Britain, USA, Liberia and others.

Moreover, every year the Academy invites the best lecturers of higher qualification from European countries for teaching special disciplines.
In 2007, an Agreement on Cooperation in training marine specialists was signed between Marine college (at that time) and Marlow Navigation Company.

The agreement provides for training, certification and further employment of the cadets aboard the Company ships and their career promotion.
To coordinate theoretical training at the Academy and requirements to the cadets’ practical skills on vessels, Marlow Navigation Company and the educational establishment set up a training and methodological laboratory of Kherson State Maritime Academy and Marlow Navigation Company aboard the modern training vessel HR Constellation in America. The Company spent 240, 000 US& to equip 8 places for the cadets’ practical training.

For the first time in Ukraine, on Marlow Navigation initiative, a new course – «Maritime Resources Management» – was developed and implemented in training bachelors.

Marlow Navigation Company pays particular attention to improving training facilities of the Academy:

• in 2007, a modern rescue boat “Brig”  was donated;
• in 2007-2008, the library was donated about 200 modern text-books and manuals as well as electronic training materials for marine specialists;
• in 2009, a free-fall boat simulator at the cost of about 500,000 US$ was installed at the training water station which is unique for Ukraine.

On February 17, 2011, Agreement on Cooperation was signed between Ministry of Education and Science, Youth and Sports of Ukraine, Marlow Navigation Company, Kherson Region State Administration and Kherson State Maritime Institute aimed at improving the quality of maritime education in Ukraine. In compliance with it, at Kherson State Maritime Academy:

• 4 Wi-Fi classrooms and a server room were established;
• an up-date printing house for publishing own textbooks was opened;
• a heavy-lift cargo simulator, HUET simulator, a specialized laboratory for training electrical engineers, container lashing simulator, and a navigation bridge training simulator are being installed. 

The academy pays great attention to implementing advanced technologies into its training process. One of the latest achievements is establishing a laboratory for developing electronic text-books and manuals for cadets, students, and pupils of the Academy by joint efforts of Kherson State Maritime Academy and Kyiv National University named after T. Shevchenko.

At present, the Academy training facilities meet the international requirements to marine education and consists of: 5 training buildings, 2 training workshops, 2 gyms and 2 assembly halls, a canteen, 3 dormitories, 2 training water stations (on Dnipro River and in the village of  Lazurne at the Black Sea), a library with 3 reading rooms and a pool 200,000 books.

In January 2011, the maritime educational establishment received Certificate and Conformity Mark in compliance with the requirements of the international standard State Standard ISO 9001:2009 in the Shipping Register of Ukraine.