Saratov State University was founded in 1909. It is one of the oldest and leading scientific educational centers in Russia.
SSU has a significant scientific research and innovational potential, plays a strategic role in socio-economic and cultural development of the region (the university is one of the main developers and performers of the Programme of High Technologies’ development in Saratov Region, the university is involved into the international educational and scientific area (the university has the cooperation agreements with universities of Europe, Asia and America).
The university consists of 15 departments (Biology Department, Geography Department, Geology Department, Sociology Department, Mechanics & Mathematics Department, Computer Sciences and Information Technologies Department, Nano-&- Biomedical Technologies Department, Nonlinear Processes Department, Psychology Department, Physics Department, Philosophy Department, Economics Department, Law Department, Department of foreign languages and linguodidactics, Pedagogics and Special Education Department, 6 educational institutes (Institute of additional professional education, History & International Relations Institute, Philology & Journalism Institute, Chemistry Institute, Institute of Arts, Physical Education Institute). There is a SSU filial in Balashov – the largest university filial in Russia, which has 9 departments (Pedagogical Department, Ecology & Biology Department, Foreign Languages Department, Mathematics & Economics Department, Social Work Department, Psychology Department, Physical Education and Life Safety Department, Philology Department. Two professional colleges – Geology College and Radionics College – are the part of Saratov State University.
In 2010 Saratov Sate University became the National Research University, joining the leading group of of higher professional educational institutions in Russia.
Due to the Development Programme of the National Research University SSU there will appear in Russia a higher educational institution not only comparable by its educational, research and innovational characteristics to the main foreign universities, but also holding the leading position in the spheres, connected with the priority trends of the University’s development.
The peculiarity of the Development Programme of the National Research University SSU is the training of the specialists with high research and innovational competencies based on the fundamental interdisciplinary education.
At Saratov State University there have been created comfortable conditions which allow the students to get professional education, make fundamental and applied research and create high-technology products. The university complex includes all the necessary structures: a large scientific library, well-equipped laboratories, scientific centers and institutions (including the filials of the Russian Academy of Sciences), new educational buildings, comfortable dormitory for international students and professors, centers studying the national cultures.
All the students have access to the scientific library of SSU. It is one of the largest libraries in Russia. It was founded together with the university, in 1909. The library has a 9-storeyed archives, its floor space is 10 000 square meters.
At the present time there are almost three million books and other printed publications in the library’s archives, which include more than 50 thousand exemplars of rare books, the collections of manuscript books, West European manuscripts and palaeotypes, the first exemplars of Slavic printing, the publications of the 18th century and the books with the autographs of great writers.
