The university traces its origins to Yelisavetgrad Higher Zemstvo Real School. First meeting of the Board of Directors of which was held on April 18 (5 April, Julian calendar) 1870. Yelisavetgrad Higher Zemstvo Real School was granted the status of a governmental educational institution on 3 November (20 October, Julian calendar) 1882. The certificate of completion of the real school (gymnasium) gave the right to be recruited for civil or military service. For some time, Higher Zemstvo Real School was headed by the renowned scholar Mykhailo Zavadskyi, founder of the first pedagogical journal in Ukraine, Pedagogical Herald, which was published at Higher Zemstvo Real School. Educational process at the school was provided by a galaxy of talented teachers and scientists, particularly, a prominent archaeologist Volodymyr Yastrebov, meteorologist Havrylo Blyzin, academician of portrait painting Petro Krestonostsev, who also headed the evening drawing and drafting classes at the school. These classes became a prominent educational and cultural centre in the region, as not only realists, but also students of other educational institutions studied there. Yelisavethrad Real School gave a start in life to a whole cohort of prominent personalities, including academician Heorhii Proskura (founder of Kharkiv Aviation Institute); mining engineer Martin Shymanovskyi (managing director of Kryvyi Rih Iron Ore Company); the most prominent Ukrainian philanthropist Yevhen Chykalenko; theatre professionals Mykola Sadovskyi, Panas Saksahanskyi, Hnat Yura; classics of 20th century Ukrainian literature. Yevhen Malaniuk, Yuriy Yanovskyi; Belarusian playwright Ryhor Kobets; musicians Heinrich Neuhaus, Felix Blumenfeld, Karol Szymanowski (Polish composer), artists Samiilo Dudin, Oleksandr Osmerkin, Petro Pokazhevskyi; engineer and ethnographer Mikhailo Vasiliev, Oleksandr Tarkovskyi (father of the poet Arseniy Tarkovskyi), Volodymyr Tiomkin (Jewish religious leader, one of the founders of Zionism and creators of the state of Israel). The Real School became not only the first educational institution to train future engineering and technical personnel in the region, but also the first teacher training institution, as it offered pedagogical courses. Since then, the school has undergone a number of significant transformations and reorganisations: Zemstvo Real School – Evening Workers' College – Evening Institute of Agricultural Engineering – College of Agricultural Engineering – Evening Department, and later a branch of Kharkiv Polytechnic Institute – Institute of Agricultural Engineering – State Technical University – National Technical University. Today, Central Ukrainian National Technical University is a powerful educational, training and research centre in Ukraine. Our university graduates are well-known scientists, industrialists, economists, managers and statesmen, and they will shape the image of Ukraine in future.