Throughout the history of the State-owned Enterprise Kharkiv Morozov Machine Building Design Bureau and the State Enterprise Malyshev Plant these enterprises have been working in conjunction with the Kharkiv National Technical University (former Kharkiv Polytechnic Institute).

When the Kharkiv Locomotive Plant was established in 1895, the Kharkiv Aleksandr III Practical Technological Institute (as the Kharkiv National Technical University was called at that time) was the only higher technical education establishment in the South of Russia as well as being almost the only establishment that provided technical specialists for the Kharkiv Locomotive Plant. The graduates of the Institute's Locomotive Department were sent to work at the locomotive depots of the Southern Railway as well as at the Kharkiv Locomotive Plant. The need for engineers became more pressing at the Kharkiv Locomotive Plant as the diesel engine and tractor production lines had been established at the enterprise and, since the early 1920s, the country on the whole was transforming itself into an industrially developed one with an increasing production output.

In 1930 the Kharkiv Technological Institute was divided into the Kharkiv Mechanical Machine Building Institute, the Kharkiv Energy Technical Institute and the Kharkiv Chemical Technical Institute.

In the 1930s there were few graduates of the above-mentioned technical education establishments. The Chief Designer Mikhail I. Koshkin graduated from the Mechanical Department of the Leningrad Polytechnic Institute. Koshkin's deputy Aleksandr A. Morozov studied at the Moscow Mechanical Institute by correspondence while Nikolay A. Kucherenko graduated from the Kharkiv Transportation Engineer Institute. Among those who participated in the development of the T-34 tank there were only two graduates of the Kharkiv Mechanical Machine Building Institute, viz. Mark A. Nabutovskiy and Yakov I. Baran.

When the KB-60M Tank Design Bureau, headed by Aleksander A. Morozov, was reestablished at Plant No. 75 after the Second World War, there emerged the need for young skilled tank designers. As early as 1949 the Automobile and Tractor Department of the Kharkiv Polytechnic Institute (the latter was reestablished on the basis of the Kharkiv Mechanical Machine Building Institute, the Kharkiv Energy Technical Institute and the Kharkiv Chemical Technical Institute located at the site of the former Kharkiv Technological Institute) started to prepare specialists in wheeled and tracked vehicles for military use. From 1925 the work on preparation of specialists of the kind, especially for Plant No. 75, was carried out under direction of Mikhail I. Medvedev, which had graduated from the Kharkiv Technological Institute in 1925 and worked as the Head of the Automobile and Tractor Construction Department from 1930 onwards. Most of those who came to work at the Kharkiv Morozov Machine Building Design Bureau in 1950-60 had received their education at the Automobile and Tractor Construction Department to become specialists in wheeled and tracked vehicles.

In 1968 the T-64A main battle tank was accepted for service with the Soviet Army. The tank design embodied the latest advances in science and techniques. There emerged the need for further improvement of the tank. To do this, the Kharkiv Morozov Machine Building Design Bureau needed more and more engineers and researchers who had enlarged theoretical training as well as experts of highest possible level, including Doctors of Philosophy and Masters of Art. In 1971 Aleksandr A. Morozov defended a thesis at the Academic Council of the Kharkiv Polytechnic Institute to become a Doctor of Philosophy.

On Aleksandr A. Morozov initiative, the Wheeled and Tracked Vehicle Department was established at the Kharliv Polytechnic Institute in 1972. The department was headed by Professor Vitaliy P. Avramov, Ph.D., who graduated fron the Kharkiv Polytechnic Institute in 1952. The staff of the new department changed the traditional specialist-training concept. The fundamental knowledge to be acquired by the students was significantly enlarged, the computing devices were much wider used in the student training and, more importantly, the teachers and employees of the department were involved in the work on scientific support of the developments carried out at the Kharkiv Morozov Machine Building Design Bureau, especially in the T-64A tank modernisation projects. Since the mid-1970s the core of the Kharkiv Morozov Machine Building Design Bureau's staff has been formed by the graduates of the Wheeled and Tracked Vehicle Department. In the 1980-90s the specialists of the department took an active part in development of the running gear for T-80UD and T-84 MBTs. At the present time they are involved in the research and development of hydraulic voluminous mechanical transmissions and hydraulic voluminous steering mechanisms for battle tanks.

From 1992 the department is headed by Professor Yevgeniy Ye. Aleksandrov, Ph.D.

The Specialised Academic Council was established at the Wheeled and Tracked Vehicle Department as early as 1980 to enable theses to be defended. A number of Kharkiv Morozov Machine Building Design Bureau's employees defended their theses at this Academic Council to become Doctors of Philosophy and Masters of Art, including Vladimir I. Goshkov, Anatoliy P. Saryanov, Vladimir L. Chernyshev, Anatoliy G. Slovikovskiy, Vitaliy F. Klimov, Vladimir A. Kononenko, Yuriy M. Busyak, Vladimir V. Vakulenko, Lutfaliy K-A. Mageramov, Ivan I. Vasilchenko, and Vadim R. Kovalyukh.

The General Designer Mykhailo D. Borysiuk worked for Ph.D. degree at the Wheeled and Tracked Vehicle Department. He defended his thesis for the degree of Ph.D. in 1993 and became Professor of the Wheeled and Tracked Vehicle Department in 1998. Mykhailo D. Borysiuk is involved in the student training at the department as well as selecting young specialists to work at the Kharkiv Morozov Machine Building Design Bureau. He is also a member of the Specialised Academic Council.

Those who graduated from the Kharkiv Polytechnic Institute at various times include Nikolay A. Sobol, Director General of Plant No. 75 and Deputy Chairman of the Council of Ministers of the Ukrainian Soviet Socialist Republic, Vyacheslav V. Pivovarov, former Director General of the Malyshev Plant, and Gennadiy D. Gritsenko, Director General of the Malyshev Plant. Nikolay S. Popov, General Designer of Russian tanks, including the turbine-powered T-80, also graduated from the Wheeled and Tracked Vehicle Department of the Kharkiv Polytechnic Institute.

Aleksey I. Avtomonov, Aleksandr D. Motrich, Mikhail P. Kalugin and Pyotr I. Sagir, former Chief Designers of Prime Movers at the Malyshev Plant, also graduated from the Kharkiv Polytechnic Institute at various times.

In 2002 the Kharkiv National Technical University was included into the Concern called 'Armoured Vehicles of Ukraine'. This was another proof of the fact that the educational, scientific, designing and manufacturing facilities of Kharkiv's tank designers are is closely related to each other.

Preparation of Engineers

Nikolay A. Sobol
Director of Plant No.75
between the years 1954 and 1958

Vyacheslav V. Pivovarov
Director General of the Malyshev Plant
between the years 1954 and 1958

Gennadiy D. Gritsenko
Director General of the Malyshev Plant
since 2001г.

Vitaliy P. Avramov
Head of the Wheeled and Tracked Vehicle Department between the years 1972 and 1992

Yevgeniy Ye. Aleksandrov
Head of the Wheeled and Tracked Vehicle Department of the Kharkiv National Technical University since 1992

Leonid L. Tovazhnyanskiy
Rector of the Kharkiv National Technical University (former Kharkiv Polytechnic Institute)