Its distinctive feature will be that for the first time in 20 years, the number of first-year students studying at the speciality level will be higher than at the bachelor level.
On Friday, 1 September, a solemn assembly dedicated to Knowledge Day was held in the congress hall of MFK Gorny. It was attended by students, their parents, as well as guests of honour, many of whom graduated from the oldest higher technical school in Russia. Among them were Andrey Maximov, Chairman of the Committee for Science and Higher Education of the St. Petersburg Administration, and Sergey Gustov, Director General of Gazprom Mezhregiongaz.
Rector Vladimir Litvinenko opened the meeting. He informed the audience that "this academic year will start with numerous changes in the educational process". They are aimed at achieving the goals declared by President Vladimir Putin, who last spring focused attention on the need to improve personnel training.
"Our economy is industrialised and requires a different model of higher education than the one that was imposed on us from outside at the beginning of the 21st century. We need to produce engineers capable of ensuring a generational change in the extractive and processing sectors, to create a range of high-demand products capable of competing with imported analogues. After all, the main surplus value is formed precisely at the stages of deep processing of minerals," said Vladimir Litvinenko.
He recalled that the former partnership between Russia and the West was based on a certain "postulate", the essence of which was a certain "distribution of roles". Our country was assigned the task of extracting resources and sending them to Europe or the United States, where advanced technologies were produced from these raw materials. At that time, it seemed that they were intended for everyone, including developing countries.
"It all turned out to be an illusion. We were cut off in three seconds from access to both technology and global interbank communication channels. This shows that you cannot rely on someone from outside. No one will lift our country for us and will not create the conditions for the progressive socio-economic development of our society. Therefore, today, more than ever before, we need competent personnel with all the knowledge and skills necessary to work in real production. This is the main reason for the transformation of the system of higher technical education," the Rector explained.
He specified that "nobody needs revolutions today". Therefore, "as long as there is such an opportunity, we should move towards the goal in an evolutionary way. The main thing is to understand the ideology and have supporters who are motivated to achieve results. Moreover, not only among teachers or employers, but also among students who understand the scale of the challenges facing our country today and are ready to assist in responding to them with dignity.
"The labour market today is in a state of uncertainty. We cannot know exactly which professions will be in maximum demand in 5-6 years' time and which will disappear forever, and we are only making assumptions about this. That is why along with the main speciality, all of you will receive a set of additional competences in IT, economics, management and so on. But each of you will start your studies with the same basic "core" of higher engineering education, which will take three semesters to master. It includes the study of general education and general technical sciences, such as copromat. Only after that you will start to master the disciplines of enlarged training direction and specialised subjects", - Vladimir Litvinenko stressed.
He called "creating an environment of trust" the main condition for the success of the forthcoming reform, and then told the students that, according to the new curricula, the total period of familiarisation, training and industrial practice for specialised students will be at least 36 weeks. This is an extremely important point, because it is the lack of practical skills of bachelor's degree graduates that has been one of the most serious claims to them from the business community.
On behalf of the Governor and the Government of St. Petersburg, Andrey Maximov, Chairman of the Committee for Science and Higher Education of the Administration of the City on the Neva, congratulated the first-year students of the Mining University. He assured the young people that they had made "absolutely the right choice" by entering one of the best universities in the world. After all, in terms of its profile, it ranks third in the world, second only to the Colorado School of Mines and Australia's Curtin University.
"You have overcome a lot, passed through the crucible of the USE tests and became students of the Mining University, moreover, in the year of its 250th anniversary. This imposes additional responsibility, but I am sure that you will cope with it. That is, of course, if you take up the task immediately, "without hesitation". Work hard, learn. This is the only way you will become competent specialists and will be able to fulfil your profession," said Andrey Maksimov.
Then, the famous TV presenter Vladimir Solovyov addressed the students via video link. He called the audience of the Congress Hall "continuators of a great tradition". And the very fact of their education in "the best engineering school in Russia" was compared to a state award.
"Don't shame the best technical university in the world! Don't shame your teachers! And, most importantly, always remember: you are Russian engineers. That is intelligent, brave, courageous patriots of our great Motherland," said Vladimir Solovyov.
PhosAgro Group's First Deputy CEO Siroj Loikov said that about 70% of managers at the company's parent company, the Apatit mining and processing plant, are graduates of the St. Petersburg Mining University. This fact serves as further proof that the career prospects of its current students are very impressive.
"Our doors are always open for you. We are waiting for you both for familiarisation and industrial practice, and we are ready to offer you jobs after graduation, where each of you will be able to apply the knowledge and skills acquired during your studies. I am sure they will be at the highest level, because the Mining University has, without any exaggeration, a modern material base and a competent teaching staff. This symbiosis opens up excellent prospects for students. But how you use this opportunity depends, first of all, on yourselves," Siroj Loikov said.
Sergey Gustov, Director General of Gazprom Mezhregiongaz, called a diploma from the St. Petersburg Mining University a "mark of quality". And he said that the company he leads "faces extremely ambitious tasks". If last year its specialists gasified just over five hundred thousand households, this year they plan to increase this figure to one million. In this regard, the need for qualified labour force is becoming higher and higher. That is why the process of improving the higher education system, which has started in Russia today, is perceived by Gazprom's top management and the entire business community as the most important step towards maintaining sustainable development.
"Our country will live on the use of mineral resources for a very long time to come. This is our competitive advantage and it should be used as efficiently as possible. But this requires competent personnel, the demand for which on the part of employers will only grow in the future. Here, at the Mining University, the quality of education has been raised to a very high level, and this is your great competitive advantage," Sergey Gustov assured the young people.
Sergey Serdyukov, the former technical director of Nord Stream, who built both Nord Streams, called it encouraging that "the long-standing struggle for the return of specialisation to technical universities, thanks primarily to the efforts of Vladimir Litvinenko, has finally succeeded". Soon, instead of bachelors, for whom the demand on the labour market is negligible, higher education institutions across the country will once again train full-fledged engineers.
"There is no such atmosphere as in the Mining University neither in Europe, nor in America, nor in Australia. The university you entered is three years older than the USA, but unlike the United States, which, as it seems to me, has been "left on the sidelines", it continues to develop. It is a real leader in Russian technical education, so, without any doubt, you have made the absolutely right choice," Sergey Serdyukov assured the students.
At the end of the ceremonial meeting, Rector Vladimir Litvinenko told the first-year students and their parents in a little more detail about the nuances of the reform of the higher education system, which as a pilot project has started to be implemented at Gorny. He defined its mission as contributing to the preservation of state sovereignty and the development of the national economy.