Winners of the International Open Doors Olympiad choose Polytechnic University

On March 16, 2023, the Organizing Committee of the International Olympiad of the Global Universities Association summed up the results of the Open Doors International Olympiad 2022-2023. Based on its results, more than 1700 winners and runners up — foreign master’s degree and PhD students — will have the right to apply for the full scholarship for full-time studies at one of the Russian university within the quota of the Government of the Russian Federation for foreign citizens.

The meeting which took place at the National Research University Higher School of Economics (HSE University) in Moscow was attended by representatives of the Ministry of Science and Higher Education and the participating universities. Rector of HSE University Nikita Anisimov made a welcoming speech and stressed the importance of promoting Russian higher education abroad. By tradition, the meeting was chaired by Executive Director of the Association, Vice President of HSE University Irina Karelina. Polytechnic University was represented by the Vice-Rector for International Affairs, Corresponding Member of the Russian Academy of Sciences Dmitry Arseniev and the head of the International Education Department Evgeniya Satalkina.

Every year, Polytechnic University increases the scale of its participation in the competition. This autumn, more than 100 Master’s degree and PhD students from Bangladesh, India, Pakistan, Algeria, Brazil, Peru, Nigeria, Egypt, Ethiopia, Syria, Yemen, Afghanistan, Columbia and other countries will come to study at SPbPU.

The results of the Olympiad show a significant increase in the popularity of SPbPU among foreign participants. Compared to last year, the number of winners and runners-up of the Olympiad, who chose to study at SPbPU master’s degree programs, has increased by 36%. In fall, 68 students from 29 countries will be admitted to different master’s degree programs. Their most popular fields of study are construction, electric power, electrical engineering, management, pedagogy, and others.

SPbPU is one of the undisputed leaders in the overall statistics for the PhD track. 39 foreign postgraduate students — a seventh of all national winners — have chosen to study at SPbPU (a threefold increase compared to last year). Most foreign postgraduates in 2023 will be enrolled at SPbPU in «Engineering and Technology», «Economics and Econometrics» and «Computer and Data Science» (13, 10 and 8 students, respectively).

The most important stage of the Olympiad for foreign postgraduate students is the interview with potential supervisors. The number of academic advisors from SPbPU, who are ready to take on international students, including the English speaking postgraduate programs, is constantly growing: in 2022, more than 30 professors and associate professors of Polytechnic University agreed to become academic advisors for the 8 Olympiad profiles. Their activity and involvement was noted by the organizers of the Olympiad — the heads of the Global Universities Association. Separate gratitude was awarded to Anton Naumov, associate professor of the Institute of Mechanical Engineering, Materials and Transport, and Elena Korchagina, associate professor of the Institute of Industrial Management, Economics and Trade, who conducted 15 interviews each and attracted 6 and 8 international PhD students, respectively. The most active employees of the Institute of Computer Science and Technology were very active in carrying out the interviews and as a result 10 candidates were chosen to pursue their postgraduate studies at the Institute. Talented and motivated students were selected from among the Olympiad winners by leading professors of the Institute of Biological Systems and Biotechnology, the Institute of Electronics and Telecommunications, the Institute of Civil Engineering, the Institute of Energy and the Institute of Humanities.

Considering the scientific potential and leading position of SPbPU, accumulated experience in working with academic supervisors when organizing interviews, as well as high motivation of SPbPU institutes to recruit foreign postgraduate students, by the decision of the Organizing Committee of the Open Doors Olympiad, Peter the Great St. Petersburg Polytechnic University was appointed coordinator of the new Olympiad profile — «Urbanism and Civil Engineering».

For reference:

Open Doors International Olympiad is well known all over the world. In the past six years more than 325,000 people from 197 countries have participated in the Olympiad, about 90% of them live in Asia and Africa. 3,700 participants have received the full scholarship for studies in the best Russian universities. The interest of the participants in the Olympiad has been constant over the past three years, regardless of the restrictions associated with COVID-19 pandemic and the external political environment.

A regular survey shows that participants of the Olympiad consider education and scientific research in Russia along with education in Australia, Great Britain, Germany, Canada, China, and the USA, which are traditionally attractive for applicants.

Open Doors is held on Master’s and PhD track, online, in Russian or English at participant’s choice.

Key figures for the Olympiad of 2022:

21 organising universities; 14 subject areas; more than one-third of the scientific subject areas of international science map are reflected in the Olympiad subjects; 750 people involved in a distributed project office; 196 countries; 78,000 participants; 1,700 winners and prize winners.

The 2022 Olympiad had 28,000 participants in the postgraduate track, including 300 winners and prize-winners.1,700 foreign participants became the Olympiad winners and prize-winners. They will have the right to apply for the full scholarship for full-time studies at one of the Russian university within the quota of the Government of the Russian Federation for foreign citizens

The Olympiad is organized in 14 subject areas. The most popular among foreign participants of the Olympiad are the profiles «Business and management», «Engineering and technology», «Computer science and data science». Top 3 most demanded subject areas chosen by the participants are — Financial Management, Computer Science and Artificial Intelligence, International Relations.