QS World Grad School Tour has proved that students from many countries want to study at SPbPU
In autumn 2015 the staff of the International Educational Programs Office took part in prestigious exhibitions QS World Grad School Tour that were held in Mexico (Mexico City), Colombia (Bogota), China (Wuhan, Shanghai), Malaysia (Kuala Lumpur), Indonesia (Jakarta), Thailand (Bangkok), Germany (Frankfurt am Main).
The philosophy of the global QS meetings is to help those wishing to continue their studies to choose the right master’s degree and postgraduate programs.
For SPbPU the main goal of attending the event was to attract new students, to invite them to participate in the International Polytechnic Summer School and double diploma programs, to form a positive image of our university in a foreign environment, to identify the main needs of foreign students in terms of education, to organize market research in order to study the local markets of educational and career-building services.
It is noteworthy that huge numbers of visitors were present at all the exhibitions. The main participants were the leading universities with high QS rankings from different countries, such as Great Britain, France, Italy, The USA, Spain, Germany, etc. Traditionally, SPbPU acted in the name of Russian higher education.
Effective recruitment at the event is ensured due to modern information technologies aimed at making the process of entering personal data faster and more user-friendly. During registration the information about students is put in the QS database. Using mobile devices the participants scan bar-codes on the badges of the visitors they are interested in. All student data is automatically arranged in a table. This helps universities to use addressed mailing and to communicate with students in person.
"Our University is interested in the young target audience of South-East Asia in terms of broadening our student community and carrying out research in the sphere of professional motivation", mentioned O.G. Emelyanova, Deputy Director of the International Educational Programs Office.
In the countries of South-East Asia engineering jobs are in great demand, it is possible to find competitive jobs on the global labor market, young professionals in this sphere are more respected, and their activities are more appreciated.
SPbPU offers foreign students high-quality education, studying in international groups and the opportunity of scholarships. In addition, specialists in the field of economics and engineering are welcomed in Latin America. QS exhibitions have confirmed these trends.
Malaysia is a multi-national country and a new partner for SPbPU. Engineering sciences, business, economics and finance are in great demand here, but the education is expensive. As a result of discussions with students, it became clear that they have a wish to study in Russia and they are willing to study the Russian language and culture, they have a good command of the English language and they are considering different ways of getting scholarships and grants. The story about the success of an Indian student inspired a lot of Malaysians. After the first year of the English-based master's program "International Business Development" he started work in the multi-national company Procter&Gamble.
Young people from Thailand and Indonesia are potential students of the Institute of Industrial Economics and Management (IIEM, SPbPU), as in these countries young people are interested in all aspects of entrepreneurship. Cooperation between Russia and Thailand in the sphere of student exchange programs is one of the projects Russian ambassador in Thailand pays special attention to.
China is also interested in economic and financial education, as well as engineering. Strategic relationship between SPbPU and PRC is based on multilateral cooperation and joint research and development, in particular.
The greatest interest in Master's programs in English-was revealed by Mexico, Colombia and Malaysia. While Chinese, Colombian and Thai students are ready to pay for their education, students from Indonesia and Malaysia are focused on state aid.
QS exhibition in Germany resulted in attracting a lot of students of German origin and those who had lived in Russia earlier, as well as establishing contacts with potential partners from Great Britain (Lancaster University Management School) and Sweden (Stockholm School of Economics). German citizens are still willing to participate in the programs offered by the International Polytechnic Summer School, as well as master's programs in the field of economics, business and management (International Business Development, Innovative Entrepreneurship, International Marketing Management, and Technologies of Business Engineering). Besides, the visitors of the SPbPU stand said they were ready to consider the programs presupposing double diplomas. In all probability, there will soon be more German students at SPbPU.
As for the general results of this global tour, it can be said that Russia is a sphere of interests for numerous participants of the exhibition "QS World Grad School Tour". Our country is holding the leading positions in terms of research and education on the global scene. "We are sure that in the nearest future new students from Europe, South-East Asia and Latin America will come to study at our University, which the other day once again confirmed its status of the leading engineering university of Russia. Our cooperation is based on preparing successful highly-qualified specialists who many countries will be proud of", summarized the participants of the trip.
International Relations Office