Object - higher education in Ukraine of the XIXth century; the aim - on the basis of the historiographical analysis of scientific literature and archival sources, to systematize the theoretical concepts and to summarize the experience of the organization of training Masters at the Ukrainian universities of the XIXth century for the actualization of the progressive achievements in the modern conditions of reforming the national higher school; methods - general scientific, historical-structural, historical-genesis, historical-diachronic and criteria-complex, retro- praximetric, historical and predictive, extrapolating; novelty - first, holistically within the broad chronological framework, the theory is systematized and the experience of training Masters at the Ukrainian universities of the XIXth century is generalized taking into account socio-political, socio-economic and educational-scientific determinants; the historiography of the problem of training Masters at the Ukrainian universities of the studied period is revealed; the experience of the activity of the Kharkiv, Kyiv and Novorossiisk universities in this regard at every stage is summarized; the prospects of the realization of the pedagogically valuable experience in the system of training Masters at the Ukrainian universities of the studied period in the modern conditions are determined; unknown and little-known archival documents are involved in the scientific practice (70); the thesis of the genesis of training Masters in the foreign and domestic systems of university education in the context of its evolutionary development, determining Masters' legal status in the studied period got further development; the concepts "Master", "Master's degree", "Master's degree program", "training Masters", "the categories of science" are clarified; results - the theses, formulated as the study's result, and the findings can be used to improve the quality of training Masters at the Ukrainian universities according to the current educational-professional, educational-scientific or scientific programmes. The conceptual theses, obtained during the scientific research, are appropriate to use when producing encyclopedias, in the process of the scientific articles preparation, writing manuals and textbooks on the organization of university education in Ukraine; while teaching such courses as "History of Pedagogy", "Comparative Pedagogy", " Higher School Pedagogy", "Philosophy of Education" in higher educational institutions; in the process of developing and testing curricula and programmes of training Masters, the writing and defence of Master's theses.
