In 1888, Franko was a contributor to the journal Pravda, which, along with his association with compatriots from Dnieper Ukraine, led to a third arrest in 1889.
In 1891, Franko attended Chernivtsi University (where he prepared a dissertation on Ivan Vyshensky), and afterwards attended Vienna University to defend a doctoral dissertation on the spiritual romance Barlaam and Josaphat under the supervision of Vatroslav Jagić, who was considered the foremost expert of Slavic languages at the time.