Education in Russia: News

Tour by a Vietnamese student of the Far Eastern Federal University (FEFU) campus, located on Russkiy island off Vladivostok

FEFU was the first modern Russian experiment 8 years ago, into creating a suburban-situated Western-style university campus. There are some analogues in Russia such as the Akademgorodok satellite town of Novosibirsk, and some other places across Russia, but those are a lot larger in scale - typically hosting not only a university but also research institutes, academies, mass housing and essentially all the infrastructure of small towns.

In FEFU's case the buildings used were those from the 2012 APEC summit; and include basically the various university buildings and institutes themselves, student accommodation down-road from them along with a couple of hotels for visitors, some sports facilities and other venues for hosting events.
There is some housing as well for university and research staff, but that's basically it. The rest of the island has its own projects under way such as an aqua-park and hotel complex, some low-storey housing but those aren't related to the university campus.
The island is connected via a bridge to mainland Vladivostok, which was also built in time for the summit.

Anyway the commentary is in Vietnamese but everything should be obvious

The university facilities


The student accomodation buildings


To my mind, the facilities look extensive and excellent. There are expansion works underway as well, not seen in the videos though.

Now there are plans to create such university campuses around the country, some within major cities but most on their outskirts among nature.

A few photos of the FEFU campus for reference

Dunedin, the city I live close to is a student town with the Otago Polytechnic and also the Otago University located here.

On my first year at OU I met a guy who was on his third year at university, he did his first year at Auckland University and didn't like it. Auckland University was spread all over a rather large city of about 2 million people so getting from one lecture to another that might be across town was a pain and might require several bus changes to get there. Another factor is that there was no student area in terms of housing so you normally flat with working people who simply don't have the same timetable, nor as many holidays or the same hours which causes friction. At OU most of the university is in one area, though the marine biology and some other things are further away and there is a student area with student flats... he loved it in Dunedin because it was all centrally located... often he could roll out of bed and walk 5 minutes to a lab or lecture, and flat mates were all students too.

The Polytech is right next door so it enjoys the same advantages too.

If I ever win a large amount of money on lotto I would become a permanent student... be around young people all day, learning new things... I really enjoyed my time there (I went as an adult with a bit of life experience, so I appreciated how easy it was while at the same time how hard it was.)

The scattered campus of Auckland University is strange. Universities in major cities in Canada and the USA tend to have enough localization
that walking to lectures is practical even if sometimes a bit hectic since there is only a 10 minute window for any sequential lectures. There
can be multiple campuses but students are not normally required to jump between them (e.g. University of Toronto).

A case of not enough space forcing a move of some of the faculties is the St. Petersburg State University. The Faculty of
Mathematics and Mechanics moved to Peterhof to the south-west of St. Petersburg. This move was not all that positive.

A project for a university campus together with an engineering school complex was presented in Tomsk



The institute will prepare physicists, computer linguists and other specialists. That multicolored bridge you see on the model connects the student dorm buildings to the school itself. In addition in the future, a cable car will also be introduced to connect the school to the main Tomsk State University building.
This is done so that in wintertime students and staff can all get to where they need to go without even needing to step outside into the freezing Siberian weather.

There better be a moving walkway along the length of that huge serpentine dorm and across the bridge, is all I'm going to say

In other news the new Tomsk State University student dorm building finished last year looks quite good











420 rooms over 2 buildings connected via a bridge, with gyms, cafeterias, study rooms and an assembly hall. There are rooms for the disabled as well.

Meanwhile in another part of Siberia, an expansion of the student campus for Novosibirsk State University is underfoot





























Novosibirsk State University is located in a small satellite town of Novosibirsk (about 15-20km away from it) called Akademgorodok, surrounded by woods. It's a small town basically and the expanded campus should fit with it just fine.

Now taking a look at new and renovated buildings of an existing university in Siberia (in fact located in the first established Russian town in Siberia), the Tyumen State University

This is a classical urban-type university located well within a major city

The institute of geoscience


















Student dormitories








The new building of the institute of physical exercise









New lecture halls, classrooms, cafeteria

Moving back over to the Russian Far East, a 2nd large university campus is currently being planned in that federal district; this time for the city of Khabarovsk

It's meant to be a common one for several higher-education institutes of the city at once:
the Pacific State University
the Khabarovsk State University of Economics and Law
the Khabarovsk State Institute of Culture
and the Far Eastern State Medical University



And here I ran the annotated map through Yandex Image Translate, albeit it's not 100% readable

A sort of mini-campus under construction at the moment for the Crimean Federal University, located in the city of Simferopol

Includes an administrative building, student center, institute of foreign languages, institute of physics & technology, and an academy of construction & architecture

Another small campus under construction in Almetyevsk, Tatarstan, for the Almetyevsk State Oil Institute. The sponsor of the institute is TatNeft and they're investing in the new campus.
It's a fairly small and new institute, having been founded only in 1992, and having about 1600 students or so at present.







Here's what's done so far; the student dorm buildings, with the laboratory complex still under construction

Transmashholding is planning a new university in the Tver region

The Kaluga branch (about 200km from Moscow) of the Bauman Moscow State Technical University is also getting it's own small campus on the outskirts of the city there

Over to Kaliningrad now and the Baltic Federal University. They've got their own campus in the works:







Also, the university plans to renovate the Hufen-Gymnasium building & territory which dates back from the Konigsberg era. It's used by the university to host a construction engineering college

The ITMO University (Institute of Precision Mechanics and Optics) of St. Petersburg is getting a new campus in Yuzhnyi, a new satellite town of St. Petersburg. ITMO already has an urban campus in St. Petersburg itself

Although the project is greater in scope than just the university campus; it also includes a Skolkovo-style 'Tech Valley' (for startup firms), a business centre & park, as well as the new town of Yuzhnyi itself

So it's more like a new Naukograd (science town) in the manner of Skolkovo

Here's the campus itself:








Layout of the campus


Student accomodation






Main study building


Inside the main study building








Classroom of the main study building


While here's a map of what greater Yuzhnyj is projected to look like:

ALAMO wrote:I follow that quite closely, as we will choose higher education for my daughter quite soon.
What is being done in Russia for that matter is simply mindblowing.
This is how you plan and develop.
How much cash is assigned to that, is impressive.
They are extending the educational base all over Russia, in Kaliningrad, there is a federal target program for creating a whole new campus/university infrastructure, too. Should be finished in 2023, that makes me wonder

You're just an young fellow... wait until you have your first grandchild head off to university in the fall

Another one on the list is the Ural Federal University in Yekaterinburg





Basically a campus is definitely planned, with some preliminary renders above, but I couldn't find any overviews of it.
The city at the moment is busy preparing for the 2023 Summer Universiade, and along with sports facilities, a 'universiade village' is under construction to house the student athletes.
After the Universiade is finished however, the village housing will be turned over to the university for use as student accommodation as part of its new campus.





The social center being constructed for the Universiade is also scheduled to be turned over to the university after the games


This would basically mirror the way the accommodation facilities from the 2013 Summer Universiade in Kazan were used. In that after the event, they were turned over to the Kazan Federal University for use as a sort of campus/accommodation village by its students. I've linked some videos below from an Indian student there to give an idea:

What are the Russian education facilities/universities or training centers when it comes to foreign relations and geopolitics study? Are they departaments at top Russian universities like Moscow and SpB or do they have specific centers for the study of geopolitics (maybe under the guidance of the MoD)

katakanBR wrote:What are the Russian education facilities/universities or training centers when it comes to foreign relations and geopolitics study? Are they departaments at top Russian universities like Moscow and SpB or do they have specific centers for the study of geopolitics (maybe under the guidance of the MoD)

MGIMO University (Moscow State Institute of International Relations) is the most renowned one

For the training of the diplomatic corps, the Ministry of Foreign Affairs is responsible, it runs a diplomatic academy in Moscow; I'd imagine they'd take graduates of MGIMO and others

A 'supercollege' will appear on the outskirts of Moscow, next to a new park zone



For up to 20,000 students of mainly vocational trades such as transport, public services, utilities, industrial and IT technologies

Will include educational facilities & practical training areas, sports facilities, accommodation, recreational zones and a cultural center; with walkways connecting all parts of the territory

The University of the Prosecutor's Office of the Russian Federation (based in Moscow), is getting ready to open a new branch in Vladivostok, using the building of the former Commercial Academy of the city (which in more recent times was used by the Far Eastern Federal University)



The building is currently undergoing renovation in preparation

flamming_python wrote:

katakanBR wrote:What are the Russian education facilities/universities or training centers when it comes to foreign relations and geopolitics study? Are they departaments at top Russian universities like Moscow and SpB or do they have specific centers for the study of geopolitics (maybe under the guidance of the MoD)

MGIMO University (Moscow State Institute of International Relations) is the most renowned one

For the training of the diplomatic corps, the Ministry of Foreign Affairs is responsible, it runs a diplomatic academy in Moscow; I'd imagine they'd take graduates of MGIMO and others

I just did some research and its an extremely prestigious university not only inside of Russia but also internationally. 16% of its students are foreign too.... Do you know anything about partnerships in education between BRICS countries like Russia and Brazil and about the admission of foreign students into the MGIMO?

I am personally still some time away from looking at opportunities abroad but keeping such things in mind is always good

katakanBR wrote:

flamming_python wrote:

katakanBR wrote:What are the Russian education facilities/universities or training centers when it comes to foreign relations and geopolitics study? Are they departaments at top Russian universities like Moscow and SpB or do they have specific centers for the study of geopolitics (maybe under the guidance of the MoD)

MGIMO University (Moscow State Institute of International Relations) is the most renowned one

For the training of the diplomatic corps, the Ministry of Foreign Affairs is responsible, it runs a diplomatic academy in Moscow; I'd imagine they'd take graduates of MGIMO and others

I just did some research and its an extremely prestigious university not only inside of Russia but also internationally. 16% of its students are foreign too.... Do you know anything about partnerships in education between BRICS countries like Russia and Brazil and about the admission of foreign students into the MGIMO?

I am personally still some time away from looking at opportunities abroad but keeping such things in mind is always good

Each Russian university has its own set of partner universities, typically from Europe or Asia, also participating in various forums and international organizations.

About broader international agreements, there are plenty but I can't give any specific info nor about MGIMO beyond what you can find on their site (https://english.mgimo.ru/admission). Your best bet, if you can't find the info you're looking for in English online, is to reach out to the Russian embassy in Brazil, or to MGIMO itself.

flamming_python wrote:

katakanBR wrote:

flamming_python wrote:

katakanBR wrote:What are the Russian education facilities/universities or training centers when it comes to foreign relations and geopolitics study? Are they departaments at top Russian universities like Moscow and SpB or do they have specific centers for the study of geopolitics (maybe under the guidance of the MoD)

MGIMO University (Moscow State Institute of International Relations) is the most renowned one

For the training of the diplomatic corps, the Ministry of Foreign Affairs is responsible, it runs a diplomatic academy in Moscow; I'd imagine they'd take graduates of MGIMO and others

I just did some research and its an extremely prestigious university not only inside of Russia but also internationally. 16% of its students are foreign too.... Do you know anything about partnerships in education between BRICS countries like Russia and Brazil and about the admission of foreign students into the MGIMO?

I am personally still some time away from looking at opportunities abroad but keeping such things in mind is always good

Each Russian university has its own set of partner universities, typically from Europe or Asia, also participating in various forums and international organizations.

About broader international agreements, there are plenty but I can't give any specific info nor about MGIMO beyond what you can find on their site (). Your best bet, if you can't find the info you're looking for in English online, is to reach out to the Russian embassy in Brazil, or to MGIMO itself.

thanks

And I saved the best till last for what concerns higher education..

The new science valley of the Moscow State University






The science valley will consist of 9 clusters:

Lomonosov - the flagship cluster and a residency for new start-up residents
Nanotech - nanotechnologies and research into new materials, nano-machine building
Engineering - robotics, special purpuse technologies and machine engineering, energy-saving and energy-accumulation technologies
Biomed - bio-medicine, pharmaceuticals, medical-biological research
Space - space research and astronautics
Infotech - IT and mathematical modelling
Geotech - geoscience and ecology
Interdisciplinary - interdisciplinary humanities research and cognitive science, as well as sport, innovative sport technologies, and artificial intelligence technologies
Educational (Administrative) - residency of the managing company, offices, event venues

Several major corporations are involved, such as Roscosmos, Rosneft and Rostech.

Hard to exactly ascertain its purpose. If I were to guess then I would say a mix of learning spaces for students of various disciplines, post-graduate research, work experience for students and possible job opportunities after graduation

Right now the 'Lomonosov', 'Interdisciplinary' and 'Education' clusters are under construction. The others will start construction over the following couple of years


Apparently robot dogs also have a role to play in the construction process





Note there are other higher education projects in the pipeline:

- The 'supercampus' in Yakutia, which will like the supercollege in Moscow, be mostly for students of vocational trades
- The new campus of the St. Petersburg State University
- The Eurasian Science-Education center in Bashkiria, which will similarly to the planned Khabarovsk campus be a common one for several existing institutes in the city of Ufa
- The new campus of the Bauman Moscow State Technical University

But info and pics on them are still either mostly absent or contradictory, these projects haven't been finalized yet for the most part.