Russian Minister of Science and Higher Education Valerii Falkov, together with Deputy Prime Minister of Saratov Region – Minister of Education of the region Mikhail Orlov, visited Saratov State University (SSU).

On the eve of Professors’ Day, after honouring the oldest professor – SSU Professor Olga Sirotinina, Valerii Falkov had excursions to laboratories and learned about the university stratprojects as part of the Priority 2030 programme and together with SSU Rector Aleksei Chumachenko held a meeting on the university development programme.

Saratov State University, founded in 1909, is one of the oldest and leading research-to-education centres in Russia. Next year, the university will celebrate its 115th anniversary. The largest university of Saratov Region plays a key role in training qualified personnel for the development of the economy and social sphere of the region. The SSU structure includes 13 faculties and 9 institutes, as well as 2 colleges and Balashov Institute (branch).

Russian Minister of Higher Education and Science Valerii Falkov emphasized the special status of SSU. ‘The history of Imperial University greatly testifies to the development of higher education in Volga Region. You are an alma mater not only for students, but also for other universities of Saratov Region. You need to understand your importance in the higher education system in the region: as a classical university, you play a special role.’

Opening the meeting, Rector Aleksei Chumachenko thanked Russian Minister of Higher Education and Science Valerii Falkov for the visit. The rector noted that in recent years the university had been paying serious attention to the implementation of the results of its research and development, as well as attracting business partners. Also, he presented the key university projects and described the work of SSU in different area.

Minister of Science and Higher Education Valerii Falkov marked that Saratov State University had a high development potential. He drew attention to the Teachers in the Educational Paradigm SSU strategic project and the rector’s proposal to create virtual classrooms for high school students in certain areas, in particular, physics – based on the experience of the successful Teaching Classroom. The minister stressed the importance of the Botanical Garden, SSU, calling it the jewel of the SSU crown. ‘Take care of it, it is the property of the city and a site for unique research.’

The meeting members raised the issues of the development of the university infrastructure and the development of a programme for updating its facilities, the role of industrial partners in the implementation of scientific results of the university, and also discussed the tasks that universities were facing today, in particular, ensuring the country technological leadership.

At the end of the meeting, Valerii Falkov congratulated the SSU staff on Professors’ Day. ‘This is a young, gaining strength holiday. Professors are, on the one hand, good researchers, and on the other, people who study with students, so they need to burn with enthusiasm.’

Answering the journalists' questions, the minister pointed out that Saratov State University had a great future ahead: the university traditionally shows high results both in education and research.

General information:

Since 2021, SSU has been participating in the Priority 2030 federal programme in four strategic projects – Personalised Medicine Technologies, ICT-Electronics, Chemistry and New Materials, and Teachers in the Educational Paradigm.

As a participant of the Priority 2030, Saratov State University is implementing the Digital Departments project. Especially for it, the university teaching staff have developed seven their own additional professional retraining courses. More than 1,600 students have already been enrolled there, including 14 students of Luhansk State Pedagogical University. 607 students received diplomas on getting additional qualifications in IT profile in the summer.

The dynamics of the development of fundamental research is steadily growing: eight scientists of Saratov State University have entered the list of top 2% of the most cited researchers in the world this year, according to Elsevier. The Hirsch index currently is 105. The development of the university potential is enhanced by cooperation with major industrial partners, including Gazpromneft, KamAZ, PhosAgro, Russian Railways, Rosatom, and many others.

Over the past five years, the grant funding for research has risen to more than 2 billion 259 million roubles, which is 1.6 times higher than the amount of monetary support for the previous five-year plan. The co-financing of scientific projects is more than 116 million roubles.

SSU publishes fifteen scientific journals included in the list of the Higher Attestation Commission for the publication of research results in the preparation of candidate and doctoral dissertations. Five of them are included in the Web of Science and Scopus information and analytical scientific citation systems. SSU has 12 dissertation councils in various sciences, including two joint dissertation councils. The university trains about 20 thousand students in 328 courses of higher education. The university employs 298 doctors of sciences and 862 candidates of sciences. The training is constantly improved, there are partnership courses with other universities in Russia and abroad.

The most important area of the university development is youth policy. For more than 900 members of student brigades, Saratov State University is their main site. At the moment, SSU is implementing seven grants from Rosmolodezh estimated by more than 4.5 million roubles. This year, the university has become the first in the region, where the primary department of the Movement of the First has been opened. In September, the university was included into the list of 126 pilot universities that have started implementing the Training through Devotion federal programme at their sites.

This fall, 48 pupils from new regions came to SSU as part of the University Shifts pilot project, supervised by the Russian Ministry of Higher Education and Science, the Russian Ministry of Education, and the Russian Movement of Children and Youth. The pupils took part in academic, cultural, leisure, patriotic, and sports events.

According to the results of the 2023 Admissions, there have been more than 11 thousand applications from 75 regions of Russia and 19 foreign countries, including 13 non-CIS countries. Saratov State University actively introduced innovations for applicants proposed by the Russian Ministry of Higher Education and Science, e.g. conducting entrance tests as interviews for residents from the new regions, as well as Belgorod Region.

The university has 20 academic and laboratory buildings, 11 dormitories, including the House of Young Researchers, a scientific library, and a swimming pool.

The tasks and prospects of Saratov State University for the next two years include maintaining positions in the fundamental research, expanding the applied research in technology, updating the courses, as well as digital transformation and implementing promising projects for Saratov Region in industrial and social spheres.