The Department was founded in 1962 on the basis of the inter-university Department of Foreign Languages. The first chairperson was associate professor Symulyk M.V. (1962-1965) to be followed by associate professor Sak Y.M. (1965-1975), associate professor Timofeeva K.D. (1975-1986), associate professor Bendzar B.P. (1986-1998), associate professor Bobynets S.S. (1998-2005) and associate professor Roshko M.M. at present.

The head of the Department is candidate of sciences, associate professor, member of the National Writer’s Union Mykhailo Mykhailovych Roshko.

The academic staff includes the following members: associate professors Stepan Stepanovych Bobynets, Anzhelika Vasylivna Kikalo, Susanna Anatoliivna Paramonova, Klara Dmytrivna Tymofeeva; senior teachers Viktoriya Yanoshivna Yovdiy, Anna Ivanivna Kuzma, Oksana Ivanivna Neymet, Tetyana Yaroslavivna Slavych, teacher Ihor Volodymyrovych Havrylo and laboratory assistants Yaroslava Iltyo and Tetyana Vaynahiy.

Since 1986 there have been functioning two departmental sections – the French Language Section and the Foreign Literature Section which is reflected in the name of the Department. In September, 1990 one more specialization emerged – that of the Romanian Language and Literature. Presently the academic staff of the department provide specialized teaching to the day-time students pursuing the bachelor’s and specialist’s degrees in French Philology.

The Department enjoys a well-deserved positive reputation which largely rests on the past contribution of such Romanian philologists as candidate of sciences in Philology Z.V. Besaganych-Tverkina, senior teachers V.L. Hoshovskiy, B.M. Meysarosh, O.V. Bokshay and others who had worked at the Department from 1960the till early 1980^th. In the following 70 years under the leadership of associate professor Y.M. Sak there was formed one of the most influential Ukrainian professional teams of Greek-Roman Antique culture experts and investigators of that time.

At the turn of this century the scope of the faculty’s scientific interests is just as rich and comprehensive as ever before – ranging from the theoretical issues of grammar, semantic structure and pragmatics of a text in the French language (associate professor S.A.Paramonova, A.V.Kikalo, senior teachers O.I. Neymet and A.I. Kuzma) to the problems of investigating regular evolutionary trends of world literature in their incalculable genealogical-typological common manifestations in the past and present ( M.M.Roshko, S.S.Bobynets, K.D.Timofeeva, V.Y. Yovdiy, T.Y.Slavych, I.V. Havrylo).

The preferential trends in scientific research conducted at the Department may easily be traced in students’ scientific work which has resulted in numerous publications contributed to scholarly journals and popular editions. Graduates from the French section of the Department are offered plenty of opportunity to continue postgraduate studies in the mainstream educational institutions of France.

The members of the Department are constantly engaged in organizing varied moral and cultural educative activities to promulgate the achievements of the World literature and French culture. Students usually take active part in the arrangement of such events. In the recent time they have proved to be of great support serving as confident interpreters to the French Volunteers from the charitable association of the EU medical aid committee “Transborder Care” which has been involved in the important cross-cultural projects of medico-preventive and socio- charitable character.

In the autumn of 2006 French Ambassador to Ukraine Jean Pierre Vesian was welcomed at the Department as a special guest of honour.