St. Petersburg Mining University will host the UNESCO World Heritage Young Professionals Forum. The event will be held in person from June 12 to 20, 2022, and will be a prologue to the 45th-anniversary session of the Committee on Cultural Heritage, which will be hosted by Kazan.
On Thursday, December 9, the UNESCO delegation visited Mining University. The visit was planned as a technical, infrastructural inspection. According to preliminary estimates, 350 official participants are expected from 21 countries of the world and every subject of the Russian Federation, so even in St. Petersburg a room that meets all UNESCO requirements is not easy to find. The experts were strict, but they were impressed with the Multifunctional Center of the University. A congress hall for a thousand and a half places and 13 halls for the sections work are just what will be needed.
The head of the delegation, Head of the Policy and Statutory Meetings Department of the UNESCO World Heritage Centre, Mrs Frederic Ober confessed on the sidelines that she expected much, but what she saw exceeded her expectations. There are no more questions about the venue.
The fact that the Mining University is doing well not only with modern facilities but also with its cultural heritage was made clear to the UNESCO representatives by moving them to the historic building on the Neva embankment, built by the outstanding architect Andrei Voronikhin. Here, in addition to classrooms, is one of the most interesting closed museums in St. Petersburg. To see probably the world’s largest collection of minerals, products from them, layouts of mining enterprises, and other curiosities ordinary visitors can only by appointment for an excursion. So the participants of the event are practically guaranteed a unique experience.
Thus, the university is positioning itself not just as a venue, but as a full partner of the UNESCO Young Professionals Forum. The rector of the university, Vladimir Litvinenko, consolidated this line at the meeting with the delegation of the international organization. He reminded that the only International Center of Competence in Mining Engineering Education under the auspices of UNESCO was created on the basis of the Mining University, and as a scientific centre, the university deals with problems directly related to the goals of sustainable development of mankind, proclaimed by the UN.
Grigory Ordzhonikidze, Executive Secretary of the Commission of the Russian Federation for UNESCO, also confirmed the non-randomness of the choice in his interview:
“The format of the youth model of the World Heritage Committee session was born in St. Petersburg, at the 36th session in 2012. We were the initiators. But at the time, the situation with the venues was quite complicated. We had to remodel the entire Tavrichesky Palace, it was something comparable to a natural disaster. And what the Committee Mission sees here today is a completely different level. They haven’t seen this level anywhere else. Everything is done without a glitch.”
Grigory Ordzhonikidze added that after what they saw at the university, and the delegation got acquainted with the educational process and high-tech classrooms, the organizers have a task to use Mining University not only as a venue of the forum but also as an intellectual centre. Given the range of scientific problems solved at Mining University -- from environmental protection to construction and architecture, it will not be difficult to find a place on the agenda for its specialists.
