Society

The discovery of the largest field in Russia and the seventh largest in the world, called Samotlor, was a resounding victory for Russian geologists and drillers in 1965. At that time, few believed in the prospects of an oil deposit located under a huge lake, surrounded for many kilometres by impassable swamps.

It includes the construction of new dormitories and an educational complex, as well as the implementation of a pilot project to improve the system of higher education in Russia and scaling its results to the whole country.

The size of the state scholarship for students today is 2,819 rubles. Even taking into account the additional payments for those who study ”excellent” and ”good”, and they amount to 50% and 25% of the basic rate, respectively, these funds are not enough even for food. Obviously, when entering university, young men and women rely primarily on the support of their parents. But what should a young man do if his family for one reason or another cannot or does not want to provide him with material support?

More than 90% of first-year students of the Empress Catherine II Saint Petersburg Mining University who were enrolled in bachelor’s degree programmes took advantage of the offer to transfer to 5.5-year specialisation programmes. This became possible due to the participation of the first technical university of Russia in the pilot project to improve the system of domestic higher education, which was initiated by President Vladimir Putin.

Today, business coaches often hear the ”cautionary tale of the life of Parkes Cadman”, who lived at the turn of the 19th and 20th centuries. A boy from a poor family, from the age of 11 he was forced to work in a mine as a ”ponyboy” - driving a coal wagon. At the unloading point he always kept a book and for the standard 120 seconds while the cart was being unloaded he managed to read a page or two. In 10 years the young man managed to devour more than a thousand books, as he was convinced that ”only education can get him out of the mine”.

In December, the Empress Catherine II Saint Petersburg Mining University will host the International Congress ”Africa Seeks Solutions”, during which the Russian-African Consortium of Technical Higher Education Institutions will be established and the relevant founding documents will be signed. The task of the new structure will be to develop and coordinate co-operation between the parties in the field of education and science, as well as to promote sustainable development of the extractive and processing sectors.

Behrouz Abtahi, Vice Chancellor for International Relations of Iran’s Shahid Beheshti University, paid a working visit to the Empress Catherine II Saint Petersburg Mining University. During the meeting with the Dean of the Mining Faculty Oleg Kazanin he discussed the prospects of co-operation between the two universities in the field of research related to deep-sea mining of solid minerals.

Empress Catherine II St. Petersburg Mining University

The Empress Catherine II Saint Petersburg Mining University is celebrating its 250th anniversary. On the eve of this event, the British rating agency Times Higher Education (THE) included it in the top 100 best higher education institutions in the world in terms of financial income from the implementation of its research activities in production per employee. This is a clear indication that the university lives not so much on budgetary allocations as on independently earned funds.

The President of Russia has wished the faculty, staff, students, postgraduates and graduates of Russia’s first technical university success and all the best. On Tuesday, October 31, Vladimir Putin sent a congratulatory telegram to the Empress Catherine II Saint Petersburg Mining University, which will celebrate its 250th anniversary tomorrow.