Society

From 19 to 20 December, the foreign ministers of African countries and Sergey Lavrov will convene in Cairo. A delegation from Empress Catherine II Saint Petersburg Mining University has also been invited to the meeting. The University plays a flagship role in educational cooperation with Africa, through the “Nedra Africa” consortium and the International Competence Centre for Mining Engineering Education under the auspices of UNESCO.

Russia lagged behind Europe by more than six centuries in the opening of classical universities. The first in the world, Bologna, was founded in 1088. In Ancient Rus’, the centers of knowledge at that time were monastic schools. In engineering education, the picture is fundamentally different: Russia, together with the most advanced countries of Europe, stands at the origins of the creation of the first specialized technical higher schools.

Empress Catherine II Saint Petersburg Mining University continues to accelerate its scientific and educational cooperation with Africa. Alongside holding large-scale forums and summits, the creation of specialized consortia, and the signing of memoranda on cooperation, targeted promotion of Russian technical universities plays an important role in building a strong engineering corps for the continent.

The polar explorers of Empress Catherine II Saint Petersburg Mining University have concluded the first and only day off of their trip. Both the ”newcomers” and the veterans shared their impressions of the flight and Cape Town with Forpost. Anatoly Ozhigin, design engineer at the Scientific Center “Arctic”:

A delegation from Empress Catherine II Saint Petersburg Mining University participated in the 32nd International Congress of the Institution of Engineers of Kenya (IEK), which was held under the theme ”Engineering the Future”.

In just a few weeks, in early December, the polar team of Empress Catherine II Saint Petersburg Mining University will depart for the Sixth Continent. The route is traditional. A flight from St. Petersburg to Cape Town, then a passage aboard the research expedition vessel “Akademik Fedorov” from Cape Town to Progress Station. Forpost spoke with the head of the university’s field team, Alexey Bolshunov, about the tasks facing the party this season and what fundamentally distinguishes it from previous years.

Early next week, the Field Team of Empress Catherine II Saint Petersburg Mining University will depart for Cape Town, from where the research expedition vessel Akademik Fedorov will take them to Antarctica.

The British ranking agency Times Higher Education (THE) has published its annual ranking of higher education institutions that hold leading positions in the field of interdisciplinary scientific research. Nearly one thousand institutions were ranked, selected in a preliminary screening from more than 25,000 licensed universities worldwide. Empress Catherine II Saint Petersburg Mining University is positioned in the 251-300 range. Empress Catherine II Saint Petersburg Mining University ranked among the Top 10 universities of the Russian Federation.

On Langkawi Island in Malaysia, the fourth meeting of the Joint Russia–Malaysia Commission on Economic, Scientific-Technical, and Cultural Cooperation was held. In addition to the preliminary results of interaction between the two countries for 2025, the parties discussed upcoming events and a whole list of areas of mutual interest: from the Russia–Malaysia Raw Materials Forum to the peaceful use of atomic energy and the import of Russian technologies.

In early November, on Langkawi Island in the Strait of Malacca, a meeting of the Organizing Committee was held to prepare for a representative international summit. The Russian and Malaysian sides reached an agreement in principle to hold it in the autumn of 2026 in the Russian Federation at the venue of Empress Catherine II Saint Petersburg Mining University.