Mission achievable: to unlock the scientific and educational potential of Polytechnic for students from Uzbekistan

The information agenda of recent weeks has been saturated with news about Russian-Uzbek cooperation. A significant joint event under the auspices of the two ministries was the Conference of Rectors of Technical Universities of Russia and Uzbekistan, which was attended by a delegation of SPbPU headed by First Vice-Rector Vitaly Sergeev. Polytechnic University attracts significant interest of partners from Uzbekistan due to its leading positions in world and national rankings, successes of the Advanced Engineering School, coordinating role in the RAFU and Slavic Universities projects. Therefore, intensive communication with Uzbek colleagues on the margins of the conference in Tashkent was continued by working visits of the SPbPU delegation to several partner universities in other regions.

Visit to Karshi State University

The purpose of the visit of the SPbPU delegation to KSU, which took place on May 27, 2024, was to get acquainted in more detail with KSU, its scientific laboratories in a wide range of areas, and — the main objective — to assess the potential for the implementation of academic mobility programs and joint educational master’s degree programs in the 1+1 format.

The working negotiations concerned the possibilities of joint scientific work (including joint publications, cooperation in postgraduate studies and dissertation councils), and the development of joint educational activities.

During the tour of the university campus, the SPbPU delegation visited several scientific laboratories, including the chemistry laboratory, physiological research laboratory, and micro and nanoelectronics laboratory.

After a tour of the campus and a rich program of talks with the university leaders, members of the SPbPU delegation met with KSU students to present SPbPU, opportunities for academic mobility and study at Polytechnic. Stories and presentations about the Polytechnic University were interspersed with videos and photos about the SPbPU campus, its laboratories, student life — all this aroused genuine interest of KSU students and generated a lot of questions.

The final presentation was made by Ekaterina Belyaevskaya, Head of the International Academic Cooperation Department, who answered the main question of the students — «how to get to study at SPbPU».

The visit of the delegation from Peter the Great St. Petersburg Polytechnic University was constructive in terms of discussing and organizing a joint educational program of Master’s degree in economics, summed up the results of the busy day by Nasiba Azizova, Dean of the Faculty of International Joint Educational Programs of KSU.

Visit to Samarkand State University

On May 28, the SPbPU delegation with the same composition of representatives of IE&T, IMM&T, IIM&T and international services visited Samarkand State University (SamSU) — the key university of the region.

The short, but very productive visit included working negotiations on the curricula of joint educational programs of Master’s degree in «technical physics», «automation», «economics and management».

Svetlana Perepelkina held a meeting with Usmon Shadiyev, Deputy Dean for Research and International Relations of the Faculty of Intelligent Systems and Computer Technologies, and doctoral students of the faculty, discussing joint scientific research on the spectrum of interests of the Institute of Mechanical Engineering, Materials and Transportation, including a very popular in Uzbekistan direction — automation and robotics.

As a result of the rich program, it was possible to reach concrete agreements on academic exchange programs — 15 master’s and postgraduate students from Samarkand, and 5 students from Karshi are waiting at Polytechnic University for the fall semester. At the stage of coordination of curricula are joint educational programs of Master’s degree in the format of 1+1. Entry of students to these programs is expected in 2025.