Siberian Federal University

Siberian Federal University (SibFU)

Сибирский Федеральный Университет
Motto	Manage Your Future
Type	federal university
Established	2006
President	Alexander V. Uss
Rector	Eugene A. Vaganov
Academic staff	3000
Students	41000
Location	Krasnoyarsk, Russia
Campus	city type, 650 hectares
Colours	Silver and Orange
Website	http://www.sfu-kras.ru/en/

Siberian Federal University (Russian: Сибирский федеральный университет, Sibirskiĭ federalʹnyĭ universitet, often shortened to SibFU, СФУ) is a modern multidisciplinary university located in the eastern part of Russia, Krasnoyarsk, that combines fundamental and applied research and teaching.

The University holds top positions in Russian universities' rankings: 12—14 place in the total National Rating of Universities (rating is composed by Interfax and Echo of Moscow),^[1] 7—8 place in the section "Innovations and Entrepreneurship",^[2] 6—10 place in the section "Education".^[3] The Siberian Federal University was ranked #14 among Russian universities in the international rankings "Web of Science" ^[4] (composed by Thomas Reuters) and "Ranking Web of World Universities".^[5] The Siberian Federal University participates in the international collaboration and integration into international research and education space.^[6]

The Universities' fundamental and applied research is closely connected with Institutions of the Siberian Division of the Russian Academy of Sciences (e.g., Institute of Computational Modeling of the Siberian Division of the Russian Academy of Sciences); many scienties from these institutions are professors and lecturers in the SibFU. The Siberian Federal University has its own large university press, which includes the Scientific Journal of the Siberian Federal University.

The University was established in 2006 by merging four large universities of Krasnoyarsk city that had been training professionals in the most competitive sectors of economy in Siberia and the Far East: Krasnoyarsk State University, Krasnoyarsk State Technical University, Krasnoyarsk State Academy of Architecture and Construction and Krasnoyarsk State University of Non-Ferrous Metals and Gold.

Today Siberian Federal University is the largest higher educational institution in Siberia and consists of 19 Institutes with more than 3,000 faculty staff teaching 41,000 students. The Chairman of the University Board of Trustees is Dmitry A. Medvedev, the Prime Minister of the Russian Federation.^[7]

History

The Federal State Autonomous Educational Institution of Higher Education “Siberian Federal University” was established within the framework of the “Education” National Project by the Resolution of the Russian Government No.1518-р issued on November 4, 2006. The purposes of the new University establishment were to support the modernization of the Russian higher education system, to increase the competitiveness of Siberian economy, to train highly qualified professionals and to develop international cooperation in research, education, technology and culture.

Main building of SibFU

Siberian Federal University was established by merging four large Universities: Krasnoyarsk State University, Krasnoyarsk State Technical University, Krasnoyarsk State Academy of Architecture and Construction and Krasnoyarsk State University of Non-Ferrous Metals and Gold. SibFU is a multidisciplinary institution that combines fundamental and applied research and teaching.

But notwithstanding such short-term existence, SibFU has managed to achieve remarkable results in accordance with all the main trends of development:

• Partnership relations are formed with the best universities of Russia, Europe, Asia and the USA (SibFU Department of International Affairs);
• Particular traditions have appeared (exclusive festival «Universinale»);
• More and more student communities are established (Young leaders of SibFU), student life is always on the move.

SibFU is committed to cooperate with large corporations located in Krasnoyarsk Krai such as MMC Norilsk Nickel, «Vankorneft», RUSAL, etc. by building joint laboratories and organizing student research groups. Moreover, a set of anti-recessionary measures has been recently elaborated in Siberian Federal University. All the measures are taken to minimize consequences of the economic crisis for students, faculty and staff of SibFU.

Siberian Federal University stands out from many Russian higher education institutions by a diverse range of possibilities concerning not only pre-tertiary training but also higher, post-graduate and further vocational education. At the present time, Siberian Federal University includes 35 R&D subdivisions such as research institutes, design bureau, centers for equipment joint use, REC, laboratories, innovation centers, technology parks, centers of technology transfer, pilot factories, etc.

The number of full-time students in SibFU – 41,000 people.

The number of the faculty — more than 3,000 people.

Total quantity of faculty and staff — more than 8,000 people.

Structure

The organization structure of Siberian Federal University consists of following Institutes:

Endowment Foundation

At the present time, Siberian Federal University has the Endowment Organization which is devoted to formation and beneficial use of specific capital. The main objectives of the Endowment are as follows:

• Modernization of material and technical base of Siberian Federal University;
• Financing of capital investment projects, academic, research and development activities of the faculty and students of Siberian Federal University;
• Assistance to SibFU human resources development.

Siberian Federal University is funded by the Administration of Krasnoyarsk Krai, chief executives of the Administration of Krasnoyarsk Krai make materials contributions to the Endowment of SibFU development.

Campus Development

Siberian Federal University appears to have a special place in the development programmes of Krasnoyarsk agglomeration. Its intellectual center must have an appropriate infrastructure, so the construction of a university campus has been initially planned. The University campus will occupy an area of 650 hectares, with 22 new building projects in its territory. Campus will include academic buildings, a library with storages for 3 million volumes, a sports complex of international level, a congress hall with auditoriums for conferences and exhibitions, several sports centers, student dormitories and accommodation for teachers, hotels for visiting professors, cinema complex, and stores.

With the active financial support of regional authorities two academic university buildings have been completed. The Institute of Space and Information Technology, the Institute for the Humanities, the Institute of Philology and Language Communication and the Institute of Urban Construction, Management and Regional Economics are located in these buildings. The building of modern digital library and university administration has been put into service. In August 2009, a new dormitory for 700 students with a modern layout has been brought into operation. This block of flats could be called a deluxe class dormitory. By the decision of the student union committee the freshmen became the first tenants of the dormitory. The documentation for the construction of several dormitories and new academic buildings has been already prepared on the federal authorities instructions. The University campus is becoming really attractive to young people and city residents. An essential part of the campus will be a technopark that will combine research capacities of the university and institutes of the Siberian Division of the Russian Academy of Sciences, SibFU staff and resources of the largest high-tech corporations.

Development of International Collaboration

In Siberian Federal University much attention is devoted to development of international collaboration and integration into international research and educational space. The International Department has been established to collect and spread information about various scholarship programs and grants such as: The German Academic Exchange Service (DAAD), International Research and Exchanges Board (IREX), the American Councils for International Education (ACTR), Fulbright and others. For the present moment the University has close contacts with institutes and universities in countries such as: Great Britain, Germany, Spain, France, the Czech Republic, Slovenia, Italy, Japan, the USA, the Peoples’ Republic of China, Vietnam, Uzbekistan, Turkey, Singapore, Mongolia and the Republic of Korea. Special attention is paid to the development of relationships with the CIS and SCO countries. In 2009, SibFU became one of the leading universities of the University of the Shanghai Cooperation Organization in the field of "ecology" (link to SibFU-the University of the SCO). With the support from the partner universities the field reception campaign is organized in the SCO countries. It is planned to establish representative offices of SibFU in the Peoples’ Republic of China, the Kyrgyz Republic and Mongolia. All this activities allow future development of the international research activities, academic exchanges of students, teachers and researchers. Several academic and research subdivisions have been established and function jointly at the University:

• regional research center of geodynamical service in cooperation with Potsdam Georesearch Centre (Germany) and La Societe Collecte Localisation Satellites (GLS-France);
• research and educational Russian-German Centre and the international “East-West information center” in cooperation with the “East-West science center” at Kassel University;
• UNESCO Department of "New Materials and Technology” for the training of elite specialists: masters, postgraduate and doctoral students.

The University has the Center for International Education which provides training courses and the state examination of Russian as a foreign language (Ist, IInd, IIIrd and IVth certificate levels), as well as the state Russian language testing to apply for Russian citizenship. In addition, the Center helps foreign citizens and stateless persons study Russian as a foreign language for the purpose of entering SibFU. At present, over 200 international students are studying at Siberian Federal University; foreign professors from China, Japan, Turkey and Italy are working at SibFU. Annually over 200 professors the leading national and foreign universities read lectures at our university.

Cultural and Sports Life

Today all the parts of Krasnoyarsk scientific, intellectual, cultural and sports life are connected with Siberian Federal University. The University helps its students and staff to discover and develop talents. Special attention is paid to the development of various forms of recreational and student activities as a basis of keeping up and improving health, increasing efficiency and creativeness of students, professors and university staff. Material and human resources, financing and new management structure make it possible to run multi-stage competitions, ranging from group, class, faculty, institute and dormitory sporting events to campus-wide sports contests, interregional competitions and sports festivals, involving a large number of participants and spectators. Annually the University hosts over 250 different sporting events with the participation of over 15,000 students. There are 71 student sport sections for 33 different sports, also boxing, diving, football, basketball, hockey, and tourism clubs. Organized ski equipment, skates and bicycle free rental points have gained popularity among students, professors and university staff. Much attention is devoted to the student sports achievements as an effective way of promoting SibFU in Russia and abroad. SibFU is proud of achievements of the university’s students and staff:

• Olga Medvedtseva, Honoured Master of Sports, two-times Olympic champion and six-times world champion in biathlon;
• Nazyr Mankiev, Honoured Master of Sports, Beijing Olympic Champion, winner of Greco-Roman wrestling world cup;
• Kirill Veselov, Honoured Master of Sports, repeated champion and winner of Ski orienteering world cups and championships;
• Svetlana Boldykova, Master of Sports of International Level in snowboarding, silver champion of world cups, silver champion of the Universiade;
• Konstantin Zotov, Master of Sports of International Level, world champion in diving;
• Rafic Magerramov, Master of Sports of International Level, World and Europe champion in boxing in student competitions;
• Vladimir Barchukov, Master of Sports of International Level, silver winner of Ski Orienteering World Championship;
• Vladimir Goncharov, Master of Sports of International Level, Europe champion in mini-football in youth competitions;
• Alexey Petrov, Master of Sports of International Level, champion in mini-football in youth competitions;
• Olga Kapustina, Master of Sports of International Level, champion in futsal;
• Dmitry Sterkhov, Master of Sports of International Level in judo, silver and bronze winner of Summer Universiade, World Cup winner;
• Polina Malchikova, Master of Sports of International Level, silver winner of Ski Orienteering World Championship;
• Andrey Feller, Master of Sports, winner of Ski Racing Youth Championship;
• Anna Drozdova, Master of Sports, silver winner of Taekwondo World Cup.

SibFU combined rugby, mini-football, football and volleyball teams are repeated winners and prize takers of all-Russian student competitions. SibFU students publish the University newspaper and work on SibFU TV channel, which provides with news reports not only own broadcasting network, but also Krasnoyarsk region TV channel’s programmes. Aim of Siberian Federal University is to become a center of innovation and technological development, a world-class personnel-training center. Positive changes that has happened in the past three years make it possible to assert, that the University can achieve its aim.

Journal of Siberian Federal University

The SibFU Journal was set up pursuant to the decision made by the academic council on the 23d of April 2007 in order to contribute to the program of the SibFU development and provide international priorities for scientific works of the faculty and staff, PG students and PhD students. The «SibFU Journal» is a quarterly peer-reviewed academic journal («Humanities and Social Sciences», «Mathematics and Physics», «Biology», «Chemistry», «Engineering and Technologies»). Articles in the Journal are available in both Russian and English. Since January 2008, the journal has been circulating by subscription. It is distributed to the libraries of the largest Russian higher education institutions, institutes of the RAS and other academies. What’s more, all Internet users have free access to all articles in PDF format on the official journal web-site.

Sport in Siberian Federal University

The Fitness center of Siberian Federal University provides all comers with splendid opportunities to do different kinds of sport activities. Students are able to attend 31 sport sections of 78 kinds of sport. The material base of Siberian Federal University for sport activities consists of 5 sport centers which have 17 gyms, 2 swimming pools, 3 rock exercise facilities. Moreover, there are 8 gyms in the educational blocks of Siberian Federal University. There are 3 ski lodges, 4 football fields, an ice-hockey rink and skating rink in Siberian Federal University. Furthermore, there are 2 student health camps («Polytechnic», «Izumrud»), «Daurskoe» (recreation and practice center) and camp on the lake Tus. The new large sport center for international competitions is also planned to be built in the nearest future.

Student self-administration of Siberian Federal University

There are two organizations which represent student self-administration of Siberian Federal University. They are as follows: the Primary Trade Union Student Organization and the SibFU Students Union. The Primary Trade Union Student Organization is a well-organized student community of Siberian Federal University which comprises more than 20000 members at the present time. The SibFU Students Union has just been established. The SibFU student parliament which will take part in university management is planned to be set up. Many different events are held in Siberian Federal University to find initiative students with great potential who will help to promote and develop Siberian Federal University.

Such events are:

• «We are the University!»;
• «RUPor», the annual prize awards in the field of social initiatives;
• «The best SibFU student».

Center of student culture organizes leisure-time activities for students, faculty and staff of Siberian Federal University. In 2008, more than 100 different concerts were held in Siberian Federal University. For about 700 students participate in the events on a regular basis. More than 500 students make their performances in 82 creative teams of Center of student culture.

Traditional events of Siberian Federal University

Traditional events of Siberian Federal University are:

• Theatrical days;
• «Proshu slova», the competition-show for the first-year students;
• «New Spring» Festival;
• Creative concerts and performances;
• The KVN League of Siberian Federal University.

The major events of Siberian Federal University

“Universinale” or so-called “Days of Siberian Federal University” is one of the first and major traditions of the University. In 2008, there was a meeting of two federal universities – Southern Federal University and Siberian Federal University. Within the framework of the meeting, there were different competitions ranging from sport to science. Professors of Southern Federal University read public lectures for SibFU students. This stunning event ended up with the enormous firework for hundreds of students and staff of both universities.

The first of September is one of the first events which has become the tradition of Siberian Federal University. It’s a celebration of the first-year students of Siberian Federal University. Each SibFU Institute is represented by first-year students who can show their abilities in different ways. The celebration is organized by senior students and representatives of the student communities of Siberian Federal University. The celebration consists of a concert and performances of SibFU creative teams. Russian super-stars are also invited to take part in the celebration. The celebration ends up with firework devoted to first-year students.

Siberian Federal University: Figures and Facts

• more than 5000 state-financed places;
• SibFU is the largest university to the east of the Ural Mountains, with more than 40 thousand students in training;
• more than 400 professors and more than 1500 assistant professors are working at the University;
• 19 institutes provide education in more than 170 fields and training areas (a wide range of specialties - from technical to humanitarian - is offered);
• 116 programmes for postgraduate students;
• 402 programmes of further additional professional education for enterprise and company specialists and managers, including 14 programmes of further additional qualification to basic higher education;
• SibFU’s scientific journal is published in five thematic series;
• more than 60 collaboration agreements with Russian and foreign universities and research centers;
• patents for more than 100 inventions and useful models are granted annually;
• more than 600 modern educating programmes has been developed and implemented in the educational process
• annual turnover of money raised by R & D and paid services reaches 800 million rubles;
• more than 200 foreign students study at the University annually, more than 200 visiting professors read lectures and conduct joint researches, with 50 of whom are from the leading universities of Russia, England, Germany, Spain, USA and other countries;
• more than 1,000 students who are future military experts in the fields of communication, translation and economy are trained at the University’s military department and military center;
• the University is also forming as a supporting element for Krasnoyarsk future social and intellectual agglomeration infrastructure;
• more than 2.5 billion rubles have been spend on necessary equipment;
• 315 scholarships for an overall amount of more than 12 million rubles are awarded to the gifted students and post-graduate students;
• International students from 14 countries are studying at the University.

External links

• Siberian Federal University Official Website
• Scientific Journal of Siberian Federal University
• Doctoral Programmes of Siberian Federal University
• Sport in Siberian Federal University

Coordinates: 56°00′15″N 92°46′21″E / 56.00417°N 92.77250°E / 56.00417; 92.77250