Ulyanovsk State University

From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

Ulyanovsk State University
Ульяновский государственный университет
Motto: "Classical choice"
Established: 1919 as Simbirsk People's University
Type: Public
President: Yuri Polyanskov
Faculty: 1,152
Students: 16,000
Location: Ulyanovsk, Russia Flag of Russia
Campus: Urban
Website: http://english.ulsu.ru
Coat of Arms of Ulyanovsk
Coat of Arms of Ulyanovsk
"USU" redirects here. For other uses, see USU (disambiguation).

Ulyanovsk State University (Russian: Ульяновский государственный университет, romanised: Ulyanovskiy gosudarstvennyy universitet) is located in Ulyanovsk, Russia. City of Ulyanovsk (formerly Simbirsk, founded in 1648) is situated on the Volga River, about 440 miles east of Moscow and has a population of 700,000. The university, one of the largest in that region, enrolls some 16,000 students in six colleges offering 68 majors and boasts considerable international ties. USU was one of the first among Russian universities to join Bologna process and started to reform its Doctoral, Master's and Bachelor's standards of degrees.

Contents

[edit] History

Main Administration Building on Leo Tostoy Street, exemplifies the school's architectural style.
Main Administration Building on Leo Tostoy Street, exemplifies the school's architectural style.

Simbirsk People's University was established in 1919 as a public, coeducational university and had only 2 faculties of science (math and physics) and business (sociology and economics). It changed its name to Lenin Simbirsk State University in 1920 and consisted of 8 institutes and faculties but closed its doors just a year later because of a dismal economic situation in the country.

Ulyanovsk State University was reestablished as an affiliate of Moscow State University based on the traditions of classical education, by a resolution of USSR Government in February 1988. In 1996, Ulyanovsk affiliate of MSU was reorganized into Ulyanovsk State University (USU) once again.

At present USU is one of the largest higher educational institutions in the Volga region comprising 6 institutes, 6 independent faculties, 2 affiliates, 5 junior colleges, 6 learning centers. USU enrolls about 16 thousand students, among them 125 foreign citizens from 20 countries of the world. Out of 13 000 USU alumni about 700 have come from 30 countries of Europe, Asia, Africa, North America and South America.

[edit] General information

Main Entrance to the Sviyaga Campus
Main Entrance to the Sviyaga Campus

USU offers a wide range of study options: full and part time, external, extended, distance education programs on undergraduate, graduate and post-graduate levels. There are 68 majors, 66 post-graduate, 29 residency training, and 14 internship programs available. USU offers the opportunity of enrolling in dual degree programs.

USU has since its inception drawn on the expertise of highly qualified faculty from MSU and other leading institutions of Russia and the CIS. At present USU employs 1152 faculty members, including 129 Doctoral and 694 Candidate degree holders. The university hosts branches of Russian Academy of Sciences, Russian Academy of Ecology, Russian Academy of Humanities.

USU, which at that moment enrolled about 200 students, currently provides study opportunities for almost 16 000.

Another milestone in the USU history is December 17, 1995, when the affiliate was granted autonomy by a Russian president’s decree and got its current name.

The first university rector Yuri Polyanskov led the community until December 2006, when he was appointed to the newly-established position of university president, assuming responsibility for capital construction and international relations.

Academic excellence and strong scientific potential, traditionally associated with Moscow State University, the oldest institution in Russia, have always been the guiding principals for its first and only affiliate, helping USU maintain one of the leading positions in the Mid-Volga region.

[edit] Academics

  • Institute of Economics and Business Administration
  • Russian-American Faculty
  • Russian-German Faculty
  • Faculty of Physics and Engineering
  • Faculty of Mathematics and Information Technology
  • Institute of Law and Public Service
  • Institute of Medicine and Ecology
  • Faculty of Humanities
  • Faculty of Culture and Arts

[edit] Public organizations

Faculty of Culture and Arts
Faculty of Culture and Arts

For over 10 years USU has enjoyed a strong relationship with the German-Russian Friendship Society in Ulyanovsk’s sister-city Krefeld. The German partners have offered generous financial, material and technical assistance and helped arrange internships for USU students with major German companies. For several years, USU has provided translation assistance to city administrations of Ulyanovsk and Krefeld, which exchange regular visits as part of their close collaboration. USU theater majors have for a few years enjoyed the opportunity to visit the partner city where they performed and attended master-classes at the invitation of Krefeld city council. Currently, USU with the assistance of Krefeld German-Russian Friendship Society and German Embassy in Russia is discussing with DAAD, German academic exchanges council, the possibility of having its representative on the university campus, who would among other things oversee preparation courses for DHS, or German as a foreign language exam.

Since 1997, USU has maintained a successful relationship with Russia Culture Center (Seoul, South Korea), which has been of invaluable help in establishing ties with Korean organizations working in the fields of science, business, culture and arts.

Among recent developments is participation in Oxford Russia Fund program, which provided 75 scholarships for USU humanities majors for the 2006-2007 academic year.

To promote academic exchanges, USU arranges regular meetings with coordinators of international educational organizations including ACTR-ACCELS, IREX, Fullbright Foundation.

[edit] Research

School of Medicine is located in a unique orthodox building.
School of Medicine is located in a unique orthodox building.

Research at USU is conducted by all academic units – institutes and faculties, each having at least one research team. The principal research areas addressed by USU scholars are: nuclear power engineering, aerospace industry, laser and nanotechnologies, general and specific engineering, automobile manufacturing, microelectronics and machine engineering,CALS technologies applications for aircraft, automobile and machine engineering, biotechnologies and medicine, environmental protection. Many of the efforts are sponsored by grants of Russian Ministry of Education and Research.

One of the most significant international activities that USU has been engaged in for over a decade is the regional “Hospice and Palliative care” program supported by “Health Prom”. USU’s commitment to raising healthcare standards has contributed greatly to making Ulyanovsk region one of the leading palliative care providers in Russia.

USU faculty engaged in medical research are active participants of the anti tobacco campaign launched by European Respiratory Society. Another research project in medicine is carried out jointly with the neurology hospital of Heine University (Dusseldorf) and the neurology institute of Russian Academy of Sciences.

A number of research projects in the field of mathematics and IT are being successfully implemented in cooperation with Jyvaskyla University (Finland) and Texas Tech University (USA). Besides, USU is discussing with the latter the possibility of arranging annual internship and traineeship opportunities for its students and faculty on Texas Tech campus.

USU research center in sociology “Region” has since 1993 worked in close partnership with the University of Birmingham, implementing among other things regular post-graduate student exchanges. Besides Great Britain, “Region” staff enjoy traineeship opportunities with partner institutions in Germany, Italy, Belgium. Currently, the researchers are exploring such issues as youth cultures, lifestyles, gender issues and multiculturalism as part of projects supported by European Commission and various international foundations.

[edit] Partners

School of Law and Public Service on Goncharova Street
School of Law and Public Service on Goncharova Street

One of the top USU priorities is developing and carrying out joint educational programs in cooperation with a number of universities and colleges from the USA and Germany, including Oklahoma City University, Meinders School of Business (Oklahoma City, Oklahoma), Wesleyan College (Macon, Georgia), Shenandoah University (Winchester, Virginia), Osnabrueck University (Germany), Duisburg-Essen University (Germany). Over the last three years the exchanges have provided study abroad opportunities to almost 50 students from Russian-American Faculty and Russian-German faculty. Since 2001, USU has conducted summer cultural-academic programs for students, faculty and administrators from foreign partner-institutions. The time in Ulyanovsk, which provides visiting students with insights into Russian economy and culture, is typically counted toward their degree. All in all, USU has arranged 9 programs for 140 foreign guests.

School of Business Administration and Russian-American Faculty on Pushkinskaya Street
School of Business Administration and Russian-American Faculty on Pushkinskaya Street

Becoming in 1999 a cofounder of Italian-Russian Institute of Research and Education, USU has provided many students and faculty members with a chance to participate in international summer schools hosted each year by a different member institution. Starting September 2006, USU will annually host a summer school dedicated to coniferous and broad-leaved forests. Over the last two years USU has signed cooperative agreements with the University of Palermo, Hochschule Niederrhein (Germany), Masarik University (Chech Republic), Hunan Normal University (China People’s Republic), Utemisov West-Kazakhstan State University (Republic of Kazakhstan). In addition, possible cooperative efforts are being discussed with East Tennessee State University, La Grange College (USA), Freiberg Technical University Bergacademie (Germany) and about 30 higher educational institutions from the former Soviet Union republics.


[edit] International students

Main Campus on Sviyaga River
Main Campus on Sviyaga River

The first international students were enrolled in USU undergraduate study programs in 1991, residency training programs – in 1999, post-graduate programs – in 2004. At the moment USU enrolls about 120 international students from 25 countries. Over the years, about 60 foreign citizens have been awarded USU diplomas. Since 2000, USU hosts an affiliate of National Russian Language Test Center, which administers tests to any foreign citizen willing to have official proof of their knowledge of Russian by obtaining an internationally recognized certificate.


[edit] Alumni

USU alumni are employed in different spheres of Russian and world economy/ politics. Many graduates are employed by Severstal, Volga-Dnepr, UAZ, Sberbank, KPMG, E&Y, PwC, Deloitte, VTB, UniCredit, Gazprom, British Petroleum, Renault,Procter and Gamble,Unilever and many others.

Some prefer to complete their PhDs at Russian schools or abroad.

[edit] References

[edit] External links

Coat of Arms of Russia
Coat of Arms of Russia
Great Seal of City of Ulyanovsk
Great Seal of City of Ulyanovsk


v • d • e
Cities and towns in Ulyanovsk Oblast
Administrative center: Ulyanovsk
Coat of arms of Ulyanovsk Oblast Flag of Ulyanovsk Oblast

[edit] See also

This Russian university, college or other education institution article is a stub. You can help Wikipedia by expanding it.
This European university, college or other education institution article is a stub. You can help Wikipedia by expanding it.

Flag of Europe