Tyumen State University – University of Tyumen, UTMN – was the first to have been founded in Tyumen Oblast. The year 2030 will mark 100 years since its establishment, which will also be when the Priority 2030 programme ends. UTMN is one of the participants, a winner in the industry leadership track.
For the upcoming nine-year period, the university's long-term goal is to become a dominant educational institution across Western Siberia, acting on the global research agenda and offering groundbreaking scientific and technological solutions to develop the region's economy. Applied research areas include technologies for controlling the properties of biological objects, artificial intelligence, computer engineering, user experience design in immersive digital environments.
The total number of students at the university is steadily increasing, despite the highly competitive educational market and top-ranking universities in Yekaterinburg, Tomsk and Novosibirsk. To date, 9 % of UTMN research and teaching staff are either hired from abroad or have earned a PhD degree at a foreign university; the average USE score of applicants is 80.3.
The university is ready for a change, a symbol of which is a logo designed by Art. Lebedev Studio. In an interview with Forpost Press, Rector of Tyumen State University Ivan Romanchuk talks about the institution's recent activities and developments, along with the steps taken to accomplish the strategic goal by 2030.
In September 2018, your predecessor as rector of UTMN, now head of the Ministry of Education and Science Valery Falkov, outlined the university's strategic goals for the period until 2024. Among them are the reform of the Master's degree program and the development of additional education. If these goals remain relevant, what has already been achieved?
The university's strategic goals can be summarised as follows: to qualitatively improve the content side of the Master's programme and to restructure some educational programmes. Currently, we are significantly upgrading the range of Master's programs: we focus on research master's programs, practice-oriented, created for the tasks of industries, and Master's programs, which are implemented jointly with leading Russian and foreign universities.
I want to note that we intend to continue the profound transformation of the university as part of the "Priority 2030" programme. We have declared ourselves and set an ambitious goal - to become the main meaningful and acting centre of changes in our territory for the benefit of people.
Tyumen is the fastest growing city in Europe after Moscow's satellite town Balashikha. The dynamic economy of the Oblast, relatively high wages at leading enterprises - all this creates advantages for graduates of local universities in job placement. But isn't this a challenge for UTMN because as labour mobility increases, applicants with degrees from universities in other regions could compete with your student? Is such competition felt, and how do you participate in it
To recall a well-known phrase, where there is no competition, one sleeps better but lives worse. We shouldn't be afraid of competition - it ensures the best quality of products, including intangible ones. Our students, it seems to me, are ready for different challenges, for uncertainty. They are immersed in non-standard conditions and shape their educational trajectories during their studies. Students understand that their professional career depends on the knowledge they acquire and the ability to develop quickly, dynamically and keep the bar high.
In addition, we have good, effective communication with employers who can assess their future employees even before they receive their diplomas. I think it also creates advantages in employing our graduates.
UTMN is a primary ground for the West Siberian Interregional Research and Educational Centre (REC). Which of its projects promise the most significant effect on the economy and the social sphere? What are the main problems of the REC to be solved in the coming years?
The main strategic areas of the West Siberian REC are the following: human capital development, biosafety, the Arctic, and the digitalisation of the oil and gas industry. They turned out to be so urgent in connection with the pandemic, with biological and climatic threats in the world, that now there are good prerequisites for them to make a significant contribution to the economy of our macro-region and Russia as a whole. Being a base site of the West Siberian REC, UTMN is involved in many projects; hence singling out only a few would be wrong. I am sure that our severe joint work will be the basis for quality growth of the economy and social life of the large region, high-tech and creative industries.
However, we can mention the ongoing carbon polygon project. It is working with a wide range of established partnerships: scientific, university, international and industrial. A particular role in coordinating carbon research is assigned to our new laboratories created under federal and regional mega-grants. CarboRus, led by Professor Yakov Kuzyakov from the University of Göttingen, aims to establish the carbon stores in soils in Russia and define the role of micro-organisms in the carbon cycle. AquaBioSafe, led by leading researcher Denis Tikhonenkov from the Institute of Inland Water Biology, investigates the functional relationships of hydrobionts.
In the structure of funding under the federal project "5-100" to improve the competitiveness of universities, UTMN stands out with a significant contribution from the regional budget. According to the data of the Accounts Chamber, you have a 14.2 per cent share of its co-financing, while the average for the "5-100" participants is 0.5 per cent. What projects, implemented in cooperation with regional authorities, can be taken up by other federal subjects?
Our university is an important strategic partner of the Tyumen Oblast Government in regional development projects. For example, UTMN helps the region improve its tourism indicators. The Institute of Earth Sciences trains specialists for this rapidly developing economy sector. Our graduates have profound theoretical and practical knowledge in the organisation of tourism enterprises, technological processes in tour operator and travel agent activities, technology in designing, promotion and sales of tourist services, tourist and excursion activities. Tyumen has made a great leap forward in developing the whole tourism industry; the recreation infrastructure has been renewed, exciting tours through small towns of the region have been created, and as a result, the tourist flow has increased several times. We train specialists in the hospitality industry, landscapers involved in designing recreational areas and parks. For us, it is about promoting the region, supporting its innovative attractiveness. That is just one example. As for financial support for the university, it is highly substantial: grants and mega-grants for scientists and research groups, more than 4 billion rubles for the construction of the new main educational building in the centre of Tyumen.
The 2021 admission campaign at UTMN was successful - the enrollment plan was fulfilled, and the average USE score was relatively high. What about the targeted education? What are the most popular specialities among the target groups?
Admission to targeted training is gaining popularity, and the number of applicants for places within the target quota is noticeably growing year after year. The most popular are the pedagogical areas and the Institute of Mathematics and Computer Science specialities. Absolutely for all students, along with the qualitative and numerical growth of the contingent, we increase the development opportunities for participation in significant federal projects among the leading universities. Moreover, we are not just changing the system — we are creating an educational environment. We have rebuilt large university spaces: lecture halls, science laboratories, co-working spaces, sports halls, student cafés.
In 2017, UTMN, the only university in Russia, was ranked by HeadHunter as an attractive employer. The loyalty of employees and the organisation's popularity among job seekers were assessed. What is the secret of success, high salaries?
The secret of success here is multifactorial. And it is not only connected with high salaries. First, the university has created a comfortable environment for free interaction with colleagues. Everyone is in a situation of open dialogue, ready to discuss and initiate new change practices. Attracting employees with high potential for academic development is one of the university's strategic objectives. Over the past year, 65 new employees from leading universities in Moscow, St. Petersburg, Tomsk, Novosibirsk, and other cities were hired for faculty positions at our university.
UTMN is one of the universities developing individual educational trajectories (IET) for students. What problems have been encountered along the way, and how do you overcome them? What is the ultimate goal?
In 2020–2021, the university summed up the first results of a strategically significant project to individualise higher education. This summer, more than 500 students in three institutes (Social and Humanities, Institute of Psychology and Pedagogy and Institute of Chemistry) and the School of Advanced Studies completed their undergraduate programmes based on individualised learning pathways. The university's experience in transforming the educational model and supporting its implementation was summarised and systematically presented in the online course "Individualisation in Higher Education, or How to Transform the Educational Space of the University". Representatives of 38 Russian universities have upgraded their qualifications based on this course. The accreditation confirmed that the educational space of UTMN based on IoT, despite all its innovativeness, meets the requirements of the regulator, which means that its model can be replicated and become the new norm for higher education.
We have seen that students who plan their activities well based on the current conditions of the present turn out to be ready for active, meaningful change. They use the potential of these changes to build perspectives for their development path. Our students are prepared to consciously shape the new reality based on their needs and psychological resources.
What plans does UTMN have for participating in the Nedra Consortium?
UTMN plans fully correspond to the goals of creating a new engineering school. We have earnest intentions to develop further undergraduate education for the tasks of the oil and gas industries. Within the consortium, we aim to share practices of improving the quality of education and research efficiency, creating a unified scientific and educational environment. I am confident that the university is on the threshold of a new stage of development, corresponding to the unique challenges of the time, the demands of the economy and society.
