SPbPU's postgraduate program attracts talented students from all over the world

One more year of the Open Doors Olympiad has come to an end. 29 gifted young scientists were selected for postgraduate studies at Polytechnic University.

The Open Doors Olympiad has been held for five years and foreign citizens from any country can participate. Winners of undergraduate, master’s or postgraduate tracks are entitled to free tuition at one of the leading Russian universities.

The selection is held in two stages: a portfolio competition and an Olympiad in the format of online testing. The tasks are divided into 14 topics; each participant must pass the selection in the chosen profile. Universities offer educational programs and scientific supervisors of postgraduate studies in connection with the profiles.

Polytechnic University participates in 11 profiles, in two of them — «Urbanism and Civil Engineering» and «Economics and Econometrics» — it acts as a coordinator: it proposes selection criteria, conducts methodological and expert work on the preparation of tasks and forms a jury to evaluate the works.

The 2024 Olympiad is characterized by a sharp increase in interest in engineering and natural sciences. 22 future PhD students (three quarters of this year’s winners) chose engineering and science directions and scientific supervisors from the leading institutes of Polytech — ICE, IE, IBSB, ICCS, PhysMech, IET.

This time the Institute of Civil Engineering became the leader in attracting postgraduate students through the Open Doors mechanism: ten applicants will study in the postgraduate program and build their career in the field of construction, design and geoecology.

Traditionally, there is a high interest in the postgraduate programs of the Institute of Biomedical Systems and Biotechnology: more than 35 candidates signed up for interviews with the scientific supervisors of this institute. Four of them were selected as the most motivated, suitable in terms of topics and level of knowledge to the existing research groups and laboratories. In addition, for the first time SPbPU will enroll two graduate students in the profile «Physical and Technical Sciences», they will be welcomed by the scientific groups of PhysMech and IET.

A year ago, at the suggestion of the organizers, Polytech became the coordinator of the profile «Economics and Econometrics», and specialists of IIMET demonstrated a good level of expert and methodological work. Therefore, from next year another profile of the Olympiad — «Business and Management» — will be supervised by Polytechnic University.

In spring, SPbPU international services together with the directorates of the institutes begin to form a pool of scientific supervisors willing to participate in the Olympiad. By autumn, an extensive information package will be prepared on postgraduate programs, laboratories, as well as information on scientists, including a video and portfolio. Based on the information on the website, prospective participants will be able to select graduate school locations. In 2025, only 474 out of 36,000 registrants were admitted to the third stage.

Every year 35-40 professors and associate professors of SPbPU participate in the Olympiad as scientific supervisors. In 2025, they conducted 179 interviews with applicants and selected 29 future graduate students from eight countries. After processing all the necessary documents, these guys will come to SPbPU in the fall. Some of them will immediately start their postgraduate studies in Russian- or English-language programs, while others will spend another year mastering the Russian language in the programs of the preparatory faculty.

Polytechnic University pays the closest attention to the quality of international undergraduate and graduate students. The way to the university through the selection mechanism of the Open Doors Olympiad is the way for real talents, future scientists. The leadership of our country sets a task for universities to improve the quality of applicants, to search for and attract scientific talents from all over the world. Therefore, we will treat the winners of the Olympiad in the most attentive way, supporting and developing their scientific career, adapting them to the university community, instilling love and respect for our university and country, emphasized Vice Rector for International Affairs Dmitry Arseniev.

To become a supervisor in the Olympiad in 2025, you can contact Ekaterina Belyaevskaya, email: k.belyaevskaya@spbstu.ru.