In the first year of the oldest higher technical educational institution All 1944 budget places have been filled in Russia, and 68 more people will study at the expense of the university's own funds. As its rector Vladimir Litvinenko noted, the main distinguishing feature of this summer was an increase in the level of competition, which suggests an increase in the popularity of engineering specialties among applicants and their parents.
As you know, the Empress Catherine II St. Petersburg Mining University began the implementation of a pilot project to improve the higher school system, according to the decree of President Vladimir Putin, back in the last academic year. Therefore, assessing the results of the current admission campaign to this university, it is possible to draw a number of preliminary, but very accurate conclusions about the modernization of educational programs in general.
One of them suggests: the Russians fully supported the need to move away from the alien bachelor's degree, which is aimed primarily at humanizing students and mastering rather superficial knowledge that is not fixed in practice in any way. The results of the Unified State Exam serve as an additional proof of this fact. There is an obvious increase in the average score in those subjects that are required for admission to engineering specialties.
So, in specialized mathematics, it increased in 2024 from 55.62 to 62.55, and in physics from 54.85 to 63.21. Looking at these figures, we can talk about a real breakthrough, or rather, about a sharp surge in boys and girls' motivation to get higher education at technical universities. As for chemistry, a significant increase in the number of people willing to take this exam was recorded, which is particularly striking against the background of negative trends in recent years, from 74 to 86 thousand.
As a result, the number of 100-point students in this subject has also increased – from 887 to 1179. However, similar figures shown by the results of the Unified State Exam in physics are even more surprising. There, 818 people demonstrated the maximum result against 195 a year earlier. Although the total number of participants has not changed so much – from 89 to 91 thousand.
«Such positive statistics indicate that applicants and their parents fully supported the initiative of our President aimed at improving the quality of training for the real sector of the domestic economy. As for St. Petersburg Mining University itself, at the moment we are the only technical university in Russia that is implementing a pilot project for the second year in a row and is carrying out a full-scale modernization of the entire educational system. Among other things, we are talking about the introduction of more effective methods of interaction with schoolchildren so that the most motivated children for professional development come to us. Young people who associate their career prospects with work in production want to become real patriots, able to think broadly and outside the box, make informed and responsible decisions», - the rector of Gorny Vladimir Litvinenko emphasized.
He calls one of the main tasks is the development of a competitive environment that allows talented boys and girls to develop their competencies as effectively as possible. That is why, for the second year in a row, the university allocates grants for those applicants who dream of studying here, but fall a little short of the Unified State Exam. This summer, due to the increased exam results, which we discussed above, this has become especially important.
The average score of those who entered the university has increased significantly, especially in the most popular specialties. For example, for "Chemical Technologies" - from 267.3 to 272.1, for "Oil and gas equipment and technologies" - from 248.6 to 259.2, for "Mechanical Engineering" - from 232.9 to 241.2. Such dynamics is typical for most areas of training, which is why participation in the "School Leader" competition, for the laureates of which Mining university allocated almost fifteen hundred grants this year, became a real gift of fate for many prospective students.
If their USE scores met the threshold requirements of the previous year, they guaranteed themselves the right to enroll. Either at the expense of budgetary allocations, or at the expense of the university's own funds, depending on the results of the admission campaign. In both cases, freshmen receive exactly the same rights – a social package, a uniform, a place in a comfortable dormitory (if necessary), and so on. And upon completion of training – a unified state diploma of completion of the program of "Higher Engineering education" with an indication of specific qualifications - mining engineer, geologist, power engineer and so on.
«Today, there is an acute shortage of personnel in production, and one of our priorities is to create all possible conditions to reduce it. Given the large flow of applicants who would like to enroll in Mining university, but were afraid that they did not score the required score on the Unified State Exam, we decided to allocate 400 additional grants at the expense of the university's own funds. According to the results of the admission campaign, the majority of the winners got to budget places, but the university will pay for the education Of 68 first-year students over the next 6 years. I am sure that this will increase competition and increase the self-demand on the part of all students», - Vladimir Litvinenko said.
A noticeable increase in the quality level of applicants has largely become possible, thanks to even more effective work with schools in the regions, which was conducted last academic year by the staff of the Mining Institute. In February, for example, the All-Russian methodological seminar "New approaches to secondary education in the interests of forming the country's technological leadership" was held at the St. Petersburg University. More than 200 directors from 60 regions of the Federation took part in it, 25 of them received special grants for the popularization of technical education.
As a result of the work in the regions, there was, without exaggeration, a unique situation when young people who decided to enroll in technical higher education institutions applied to the University in almost whole classes. So, 8 people came from the Trans–Baikal Regional Boarding Lyceum to the city on the Neva River at once. All of them became laureates of the first wave of the "School Leader-2024" competition and received a guarantee of enrollment a month ago.
«76% of the students enrolled in the first year of our university came from the regions, and, in my opinion, this is a huge plus. Let's be honest: Petersburgers and Muscovites are more focused on working in the office. They are unlikely to go somewhere far away after graduation, where they have never been and do not know what life is like there. But a person who has come from far away is likely to return back to his small homeland, especially if he has an internship at one of their local enterprises. He knows everything there, which means that the adaptation process will not take too long. Such guys are maximally motivated to professional self-realization in the workplace. I am sure that their high–quality level and the competitive environment of trust created in our university will make a significant contribution to solving our main task - to ensure the continuity of generations in the real sector of the economy by training young specialists worthy of holding the high title of Russian engineer», - Vladimir Litvinenko said.
It should be noted that along with admission to the first year, the University of Mines has also completed admission to specialized higher education programs, which replaced the master's degree. There are 395 graduates of the bachelor's degree in specialized fields of study enrolled there with a fairly high average score of 265.9.
