Ostroh Academy
| Національний університет «Острозька академія» | |
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| Type | Public |
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| Established | 1576 |
| President | Ihor Pasichnyk |
| Location | Ostroh, Rivne Oblast, Ukraine |
| Website | www.oa.edu.ua |
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National University "Ostroh Academy" (Ukrainian: Національний університет «Острозька академія») is a national autonomous research university of Ukraine that is located in Ostroh. It is considered to be the first institution of higher education in Ukraine, dating to 1576 and founded by Polish nobleman of Ruthenian descent Konstanty Wasyl Ostrogski. The university was closed in 1636 and reopened only in 1994.
In the 16th century, all higher schools of the Polish-Lithuanian Commonwealth were under influence of the Catholic or Protestant nobles. To counter this influence, Count Konstanty Ostrogski, one of the most influential people in the Crown of Poland (and later a major partisan of the Orthodox faith against the Union of Brest), founded a large school in his estate in Ostroh in what is now Ukraine. Ostrogski envisioned a lay school, that would however strengthen the Eastern Christian spirit in the country and prevent conversions to Protestantism and Catholicism, a process in full swing at the time. and as such was first mentioned in Piotr Skarga's 1577 On the Unity of God's Church under the Single Shepherd and on Greek Secession from this Unity.
The school was founded some time between 1576 and 1580, but it did not start full activities until 1585. Initially tasked only with translation of The Bible to Ruthenian (later published as the Ostrog Bible), with time it grew to become a permanent institution of secondary education.
A large part of the funding came from Princess Halszka Ostrogska's testament of 1579, in which she donated "six times sixty thousand" (360,000) Lithuanian grosz to local school, hospital and Holy Spas' (i.e. Savior's) monastery near Lutsk.
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