The admission campaign for foreign citizens is in full swing at SPbPU
Polytechnic University is completing the main stage of accepting documents from foreign applicants. As part of a large-scale campaign to attract foreign applicants, the team participated in educational exhibitions, quota selections, and webinars in countries in Asia, Africa, Latin America, and the CIS.
Since the fall of 2024, the university has presented its educational programs at more than 39 events, including 12 in-person and 6 online exhibitions, 17 informational webinars, and 4 regional selection rounds in collaboration with Rossotrudnichestvo representative offices. Foreign applicants familiarized themselves with the new admission algorithms. As part of the promotion of the International Olympiad Open Doors: Russian Scholarship (a unique opportunity for talented foreigners to enroll at Polytechnic University and study for free), interviews were held with the winners, who told their compatriots about studying at SPbPU. In addition, specialized webinars on master’s and bachelor’s degree programs were held in collaboration with the Global Universities Association.
In 2025, a unified admission algorithm for Russian universities was launched for foreign applicants and Russian citizens. Now foreigners participate in the general competition on an equal footing with Russian schoolchildren. The admission process can be tracked in real time through the competition lists, which are already available on the university’s official website. The results of the main admission stage will be announced in August. Following the summer campaign, additional recruitment will be held for the remaining vacant places.
It is worth noting an important innovation of the International Olympiad Open Doors: Russian Scholarship — the opening of bachelor’s programs for winners. Previously, only master’s and doctoral applicants participated in it, but now future bachelors have been added to them. A total of about 300 applications have been submitted so far, with about 100 of them for bachelor’s degree programs. Most of the students participating in the Olympiad are from foreign countries and do not speak Russian. Therefore, after admission, they will begin their studies with a pre-university preparation program.
SPbPU traditionally maintains a high level of interest from applicants from key regions: the CIS countries (led by Kazakhstan, Uzbekistan, and Turkmenistan), China and other BRICS+ countries, Turkey, and Latin America (especially Colombia and Ecuador). At the same time, the university has seen a sharp increase in the number of applicants from the African continent who are interested in pre-university training programs. As part of the development of this area, Polytechnic University took part in a special series of events organized by the Rosatom State Corporation. A series of exhibition and presentation webinars and educational lectures covered nuclear technologies in energy and their non-energy applications in related industries. Popular science lectures were given to foreign applicants by SPbPU professors: Associate Professor of the Higher School of Mechanical Engineering Hamuda Khaled and Senior Lecturer of the Higher School of Technosphere Safety Jamila Idrisova. The aim of the initiative is to attract students from African countries to Rosatom’s partner universities to study nuclear and related specialties in Russia.
A significant number of bachelor’s and master’s degree programs graduates choose to continue their studies at SPbPU. According to preliminary data from the admissions campaign, more than 2,000 applications have already been submitted for the main educational programs (bachelor’s, master’s, postgraduate), and more than 800 for the preparatory faculty. At the same time, the review of candidates within the quota of the Russian Federation Government continues. At present, more than 800 applications have already been processed.
The most popular among applicants are such bachelor’s degree programs as economics and international relations, engineering and construction programs, as well as IT and high technologies. The English-language program «International Business» is of particular interest to foreign applicants.
In the master’s program at SPbPU, the most popular programs among foreign applicants are construction, electric power engineering and electrical engineering, automation of technological processes, management, foreign regional studies, and applied mechanics.
English-language programs are particularly in demand: «Computer Science and Computing,» «Biotechnical Systems and Technologies,» «Infocommunication Technologies and Communication Systems,» «International Business Development,» «Intelligent Systems,» «Microelectronics of Information and Communication Systems,» «Civil Engineering,» and «Molecular and Cellular Biotechnology.»
Technical fields (energy, construction, mechanical engineering) and biotechnology are the most popular among graduate students.