A representative delegation of the Empress Catherine II Saint Petersburg Mining University arrived in China for the first time since the pandemic.
The purpose of the trip was both to confirm the old ties of the university with the specialized university in the city of Xuzhou and to determine new ones. The first point was China Petroleum University in Beijing, where the guests were introduced to the infrastructure and scientific developments of colleagues. As a result of detailed consultations, the proposal to establish a joint Energy Center was made by the host, Mr. Zhang Guangqing, Vice-Chancellor. In China quite large oil fields are located in the north, where the geological structure of the subsoil is similar to the Russian Zabaikalye. Developments in this field are generously financed by the government, and the university's laboratories are conducting experiments, for example, to improve drilling equipment.
The second stop was the Beijing University of Mining and Technology, where the university's guide was Gao Jie, head of external relations and a graduate of the St. Petersburg Mining University, and the central negotiations were held with the president, Mr. Shirong Ge. Joint study programs, internships for undergraduate and graduate students, and the creation of inter-university research groups for technology exchanges were objects of interest from both hosts and guests. Here in the classrooms there are simulators that simulate the work of coal mines - there are about four thousand coal mines in China, and Beijing is very concerned about the efficiency and safety of mining. Suffice it to say that 59% of the energy generation of the fast-growing economy is derived from this mineral. And the reliance on the connection of science and practice is a link with today's reform of higher education in Russia.
The Chinese University of Earth Sciences was the third location of the visit. One of the very first universities established after the Civil War, today it is the leading university in the country. Here the composition of matter is studied, geophysicists and geomechanics are trained, and in addition to 1,700 Chinese teachers, 40 guest professors from around the world teach. A roadmap of possible relationships was drawn up in no time. For example, geologists from the Celestial Empire are very interested in the experience of Antarctic expeditions of St. Petersburg residents, because they also participate in the work of Chinese stations on the ice continent.
And finally, the Chinese University of Mining and Technology, where 36,000 young people and girls study, located in the city of Xuzhou, the capital of the most economically developed province, Zangtzu, which is halfway between Beijing and Shanghai. The St. Petersburg Mining University has long-standing ties with this university. Three research projects cross-funded by both the PRC and the RF, graduate students studying in Russia, students, internships and summer schools, joint publications, both face-to-face before the coronavirus epidemic and online. Rector of the university, Professor Xuefeng Song, and his colleagues introduced the delegation in detail the new and updated academic disciplines, the system of training masters and graduate students, presented the general situation in the field of research. There was a mutual desire to expand and deepen the old achievements, in addition, on both sides were expressed and recorded numerous proposals for the implementation of new ones.
The production and research laboratories of this and other universities can only be marveled at. Their brilliance is based on two factors - the demand for the products of labor on the part of companies and the enormous state funding. Suffice it to say that for the thirteen years of the Chinese University of Mining and Technology alone 4.63 billion yuan was allocated for science. That is about fifty billion rubles.
