| Ural Federal University (UrFU) | |
|---|---|
| Уральский федеральный университет имени первого Президента России Б.Н. Ельцина | |
| Established | 1920 (was established), 2009 (was integrated) |
| Type | Public |
| Endowment | RUB 1 million(~32,051 USD) (2011) |
| Chairman | Alexander Misharin |
| President | Stanislav Naboychenko |
| Rector | Victor Koksharov |
| Academic staff | 5640 |
| Students | 51607 |
| Doctoral students | 650 |
| Location | Yekaterinburg, Sverdlovsk Oblast, Russia |
| Campus | urban |
| Former names | Ural State Technical University |
| Affiliations | University of the Arctic |
| Website | http://ustu.ru, http://урфу.рф |
The Ural Federal University named after the first President of Russia B. N. Yeltsin (Russian: Уральский федеральный университет имени первого Президента России Б.Н. Ельцина, Uralʹskiĭ federalʹnyĭ universitet imeni pervogo Prezidenta Rossii B.N. Yelʹtsina, often shortened to UrFU, УрФУ)(on base Ural State Technical University and Ural State University) is one of the leading educational institutions in the Ural region. Ural Federal University acts as a research and innovation center of the Ural region, has close cooperation with the Russian Academy of Sciences. Training of students is carried out in three main directions and 67 academic majors. The links between the university and intermediate and elementary educational institutions are developed. The University performs consistent work on establishing strategic partnership with employers for the development of the regional economy: employers are involved in the educational environment as direct participants, large-scale target preparation of students and corporate education are carried out on the basis of the client-centered approach, joint business projects in economic and social activity are realized.
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The Ural University is the oldest university in Ural region. It was established in the town of Ekaterinburg in 1920 by the decree of the head of Soviet revolutionary government Vladimir Lenin. However, the newly-born university underwent a number of changes due to the lack of resources in such circumstances as revolution and civil war. Finally, the university split into two – Ural State University (USU), a smaller university responsible for education in natural sciences, social sciences and humanities, and Ural Polytechnic Institute (UPI), a larger one which was focused on training of engineers in areas such as metallurgy, machine-building, civil engineering and energetics. At the same time, UPI developing several new, cutting-edge educational directions, like nuclear energetics and medicine, organic chemistry and synthesis, telecommunications.
Despite such partition, both universities were connected tightly with each other, as well as with the partners from region’s industrial economy. Because of this Ekaterinburg had become one of the largest university cities of Russia. Since 2008, when a massive reform of Russian university system had been launched, the already tightly connected universities in different cities of the country achieved special federal status and additional funding. Federal universities were established in Rostov-na-Donu, Krasnoyarsk, Kazan, Archangelsk, Yakutsk, Kaliningrad, Vladivostok and Ekaterinburg. These federal universities are the leaders of Russian educational system. The process of merging of UPI and USU into the united Ural Federal University (UrFU).
The construction of university campus was started in 1940es, and today it occupies a special area within Ekaterinburg (‘Vtuzgorodok’, literally ‘City of Polytechnic University’). Within the 90 years of its history, Ural University had more than 270 thousands of graduates, much of whom became successful it research, culture or politics. One of the most famous graduates of the university is first President of Russia, Boris Yeltsin, whose name the university nowadays bears.
The organization structure of Ural Federal University consists of following Institutes and Departments:
Ural University is one of Russia’s best research centers, which provides education in the spheres of natural sciences, engineering, economics, social studies, arts and humanities. Since 2008 the university bears the name of Boris Yeltsin – graduate of 1955, who was elected first President of independent Russia in 1991.
The university includes 17 institutes with more than 120 programs of undergraduate education and more than 80 programs of graduate education. UrFU research complex incorporates dozens of research centers and labs, an innovational infrastructure, research library (with more than 3 millions of books), several museums and specialized collections.
UrFU is a public university, its budget consists both of state funding and of students’ fees for education. A federal status, which is assigned only to 8 universities in Russia, is allowing the university to receive extra funding from the state.
The university participates in several international projects funded by governmental organizations and public foundations of Russian Federation, European Union and the US; the university is a member of network universities, like the University of Shanghai Collaboration Organization (SCO), University of CIS and University of the Arctic.
Within a year, the university is attended by more than a hundred international delegations. Among them – ambassadors of the US, France, United Kingdom, Sweden, The Republic of South Africa, Mongolia and the others.
The sport facilities of UrFU are allowing more than 30 teams to train and compete in different tournaments. University is a home of several popular festivals, among them one of the oldest student festivals of Russia, “Vesna UPI” (literally, “The Ural Polytechnic Spring”), which goes back to 1956.
The first international students started to study at the Ural University in 1940es. In 90 years of the university’s history, more than 2 500 specialists from Europe, Asia and Africa graduated from it. Today, there are about 750 international students studying at UrFU.
One more important direction of activity is integration of Ural Federal University to the international research and educational environment. University participates in network educational projects (The Shanghai Cooperation Organization, European Union, UNESCO). It is a key partner in the Ural region for foreign universities, international organizations, foreign companies and corporations. The number of foreign students, post-graduates, researches and lecturers is constantly growing. Сurrently it renders academic programs for foreign students and more than 600 foreign students study in the university. UrFU works on the basis of the framework agreements with the market leaders in Russian and foreign countries (KZ, China etc.)
UrFU progresses in QS World University Rankings 2011/2012, entering the global Top-500.
The "Dedicatied to Young People" short film, which features Ural Federal University graduates giving advices to the current UrFU students, was awarded the ‘Most Creative Corporate Institution Video’ QS-Apple Creative Awards. Thus, UrFU received a title of QS-Apple Creative Idol. The contest was held at November, 17, at the 7th QS Asia Pacific Professional Leaders in Education Conference and Exhibition, in Manila (Philippines), which is organized by the Quacquarelli Symonds company.