In January 1971, the institution was renamed after a famous Ukrainian writer Vasyl Stefanyk by the decree of the Council of Ministers of the USSR.

After the dissolution of the USSR, the Precarpathian University was founded on the base of Ivano-Frankivsk State Pedagogical Institute on August 26, 1992.

• Vice-rector for scientific and pedagogical work – Halyna Mykhailyshyn, Doctor of Philosophy, Professor, Honored Worker of Education.

Therefore, local authorities asked the government of URSR to establish a Teacher Training Institute and in January 1940 preparations for its opening began.

Overcrowding, lack of training equipment and educational and methodological literature were the main obstacles on the way to a proper development of the institute.

In particular the first dean of the Philological Department L. Shmulenzon, teachers W. Chornyi, L. Berezin, I. Popovskii, L. Nasonov died in the battles somewhere between Zhytomyr and Berdychiv.

During the Nazi occupation, the Teacher Training Institute was closed, its property was robbed, and the school building was burnt.

After the liberation of the land from the German invaders, measures to restore the work of Stanislav Teacher Training Institute were taken.

The main objective of the General Science Faculty was to provide higher education for part-time students so they could keep their jobs.

Hundreds of students from the universities of Kyiv, Kharkiv, Lviv, Donetsk, and Chernivtsi who lived and worked in Ivano-Frankivsk Region enriched the number of the attenders of this faculty.

In August and September 1965, the end of the “Khruschev’s thaw” period resulted in series of political arrests of the Ukrainian “dissidents of the sixties” who were speaking against Russification policy, injustice, and stood up for the sovereignty of Ukraine.

Valentyn Moroz, Professor of Recent history, who had been working at the Institute for just a year was restrained by investigating authorities on August 31, 1965.

The court held in Lutsk delivered the judgment: four years in a hard labor prison camp for his “anti-Soviet agitation and propaganda”.

A memorable date in the history of Ivano-Frankivsk Pedagogical Institute was January 5, 1971 when the name of the famous Ukrainian writer Vasyl Stefanyk was conferred to the establishment.

He put much energy and efforts into the development and transformation of the institute into a modern European educational establishment, authoritative scientific centre.

An active process of updating the content of higher education, searching for new and more effective teaching methods has begun.

On September 26, 1992, L. Kravchuk signed the decree on the reorganization of Ivano-Frankivsk State Pedagogical Institute into Vasyl Stefanyk Precarpathian University.

At that time, the educational establishment with its scientific potential occupied one of the leading places among the pedagogical institutions in Ukraine.

1994 – Department of Regional Problems of the Institute of Political and Ethnic Studies of the National Academy of Sciences of Ukraine and Vasyl Stefanyk Precarpathian University was created.

1997 – On a five-year period of its existence in independent Ukraine our University was training 7 000 students and Junior Specialists in 22 specialties.

New specialties were introduced because of lack of professionals in the region: Jurisprudence, Finance and Credit, Accounting and Auditing, Psychology, Religious Studies, Polish language and literature, Chemistry, Biology, Decorative and Applied Arts, Design, and Social Pedagogy.

The Centre for Innovation Activity and Technology Transfer started its work as a part of the Scientific and Research Unit of the University.

The Licensing and Accreditation Department started its work; a separate division of Ivano-Frankivsk College of SHEI "Vasyl Stefanyk Precarpathian National University" was established.

The university maintains close relations with many scientific and educational institutions of the world, prepares and implements joint research programs.

It has a substantial and unique informational fund (more than 600000 books in Ukrainian, Russian, Polish, English, French, German, Chinese, Czech, Spanish and other languages, 20000 musical publications, 50000 periodicals, authors’ abstracts, dissertations and graduation projects), an integrated electronic catalogue, electronic database.

Readers have also access to 16 reading rooms with the capacity of 980 seats, 2 circulation desks, and 4 library departments in Kolomyia, Kalush, Rakhiv, and Chortkiv.

In the reading halls book exhibitions are on display; literary soirées, round tables, and readers’ conferences are organized.

In order to implement the principles of the Bologna Declaration, Vasyl Stefanyk Precarpathian National University draws particular attention to international cooperation, expands and improves its activity.

To realize the plan about international cooperation in education, the university has made and continues to make a number of arrangements that prove its developing status in this sphere.

The State and public institutions organize a range of international arrangements, so with every year the number of official foreign visits is increasing.