After Belarus gained independence from the USSR in 1991, Belarusian State University was officially recognized as a leading establishment of higher education in the new nation. New faculties and institutes were created: the Faculty of International Relations (1995), the State Institute of Management and Social Technologies (2003), the Military Faculty (2003), the St. Methodius and Cyril Theological Institute (2004), the Humanities Faculty (2004); the Institute of Business and Technology Management (2006), the Confucius Institute for Sinology (2007). In 2008 the Faculty of Journalism was reorganized into the Institute of Journalism. The university also established university preparation and continuous education centers. Several new research centers were founded as well: the Centers for Particle and High Energy Physics (1993), Ozonosphere Monitoring (1997), Applied Problems in Mathematics and Informatics (2000), and Human Problems (2000). New buildings were constructed for the Faculties of Biology, Philosophy and Social Sciences, and International Relations, the Institute of Journalism, and the university television center. In the first decade of the 21st century, monuments to a number of prominent Belarusian historical figures - Francysk Skaryna, Mikołaj Hussowczyk, Euphrosyne of Polotsk, Cyril of Turaw, Symon Budny and Wasyl Ciapiński - were erected on campus.