The qualifying stage of the international Olympiad Open Doors: Russian Scholarship Project for future students of SPbPU has started

Peter the Great St. Petersburg Polytechnic University announces the start of registration for the international Olympiad Open Doors: Russian Scholarship Project. The winners will have the opportunity to study for free at the expense of the Russian federal budget in bachelor’s, master’s and postgraduate programs.

Organized by the Global Universities Association with the support of the Russian Ministry of Science and Higher Education, the Open Doors Olympiad provides foreign citizens, compatriots living abroad, and stateless persons with the opportunity to get to low-cost places without entrance tests.

In 2025, we are betting on expanding opportunities for foreign applicants: three educational tracks are available. According to our data, IT, robotics and nuclear energy are traditionally of particular interest. By coordinating the two profiles, SPbPU confidently strengthens its leadership in engineering training, said Evgenia Satalkina, Head of the Department of International Education at SPbPU. 

The Olympiad schedule includes several stages. Portfolio registration and acceptance will last from September 1 to November 16, 2025.

If you are graduating from high school, bachelor’s degree, or master’s degree programs in 2026, then you need to do the following.

• Register on the website of the international Olympiad Open Doors.
• Upload your portfolios to the system.
• Complete Olympiad tasks in the proctoring mode.
• Complete an online interview with potential research supervisors (only for the postgraduate track).

Research experience and publications in international publications are especially appreciated.

«My academic career in Russia began with participation in the Open Doors Olympiad — I found out about this scholarship when I was looking for opportunities to enter graduate school online,» says Li Ziming, the winner of last year’s Olympiad. «The choice of SPbPU was strategic: the university is known in the field of automation, and the key thing is that the research of my supervisor, Professor Vyacheslav Potekhin, perfectly coincided with my interests.»

Statistics from previous years demonstrate the growing popularity of the Olympics. In 2025, more than 240 winners were selected. Most of the talented guys came from China, Pakistan, Indonesia, Sri Lanka, Ethiopia, Yemen, and Afghanistan.

St. Petersburg Polytechnic University is waiting for talented students from all over the world.