In 2016 St. Petersburg University will open admissions to 205 main educational master programmes and profiles (157 main educational programmes), 16 of them being new ones. They have been developed in collaboration with partner employers and foreign partner universities.
The applicability of each new master programme has been defined by those who are most interested in training professionals in the relevant fields of knowledge — the employers.' 'There was a very important criterion in our choice of master programmes: there must be a partner among the employers who could confirm that the curriculum is truly essential and they are eager to offer internships to our students in the course of studies,' Ekaterina Babelyuk adds.
SPbU's academic partners are major foreign universities. In collaboration with them double degree programmes and student exchange programmes are implemented. SPbU has signed about 350 agreements with foreign higher education institutions from 65 countries. The University has enough resources to organise the educational process not only in Russian — at present admissions are open to 14 programmes taught in foreign languages.
In 2016/2017 St. Petersburg University will be more open to international applicants as well as to those who come from other regions of Russia. Starting from 1 March 2016 every applicant will be granted access to a Personal Account, that meaning all the documents required for application (copies of the passport and educational credentials as well as photos) can be submitted electronically from anywhere in the world. What is more, the University annually increases the proportion of admissions tests held in the form of a competitive selection of documents (portfolio). Such a way of admissions test organisation makes it possible to evaluate not only the applicants' level of knowledge (thanks to the essay component which is a creative element of the examination demonstrating the applicant's performance level) but also his or her motivation to study as well as professional training skills and scientific achievements, if any. To pass such an admissions test, the applicant even does not need to come to St. Petersburg in person. The portfolio, like the other documents, must be uploaded to the applicant's Personal Account.'
'The time frames for admissions tests will be changed in 2016/2017. Written examinations will be held in August, not at SPbU only but also in other Russian higher education institutions. At our university they will be organised from 11 to 16 August,' Ekaterina Babelyuk says. 'We have retained the opportunity to submit the documents electronically, in the portfolio format. Since 1 March any applicant may submit the whole set of the required documents through his or her Personal Account and then simply wait for the enrollment.'
To see the whole list of new programmes click here