Distance learning at SPbU: plenty of opportunity for everyone
SPbU’s Rector Nikolay Kropachev has met with a student in Law, a part-time on-line bachelor main educational programme.
The Doctor of Law and SPbU’s graduate first met in 2014 at the Fresher’s Day, and now they have met to sum up preliminary results and discuss plans for the future and research interests.
Nikolay Kuznetsov is a fourth-year student. The bachelor degree in law is real now. Sill… When Nikolay was two and a half years old, meningitis made him blind, deaf, and unable to speak. Cochlear implantation and rehabilitation restored hearing and speech, but not sight. At 6, he started to study at a school for blind children at St Petersburg and lived a full life of a person who could hear. After graduating with honours, Nikolay had to make a decision where to study next. When he had been at the seventh grade, he had already made up his mind to become a lawyer, as he had been eager to delve into the law.
I set my heart on getting a degree in law, and I had no doubts to become a criminal lawyer.
SPbU’s student Nikolay Kuznetsov
“Although I have changed my preferences, criminal law is still rather interesting, — said Nikolay Kuznetsov. — All in all, to become a lawyer is my informed choice and a dream”.
In 2017, St Petersburg University has enrolled 10 students on an on-line main educational programme. Now those who have just graduated from school can be enrolled on a distance course offered by the top law school. The course is primarily designed for those who live outside St Petersburg or physically challenged.
Started in 2014, the bachelor part-time distance main educational programme in Law has now 40 students, including those who has a right to be enrolled under the quota.
You can study at SPbU wherever you are. We had a sports student who was constantly at the sessions, and performed at Sochi and was rather successful in learning as well.
SPbU’s Rector Nikolay Kropachev
What makes part-time education different from full-time education is that the students are allowed not to attend classes at the University. “The idea is that we can listen to the lectures on-line, while our full-time group-mates attend the lectures, or listen to the archived lectures, we also have webinars, A seminars conducted over the Internet, and individual consultation”, — said Nikolay Kuznetsov.
Rector asked about his academic success, and Nikolay Kuznetsov told that there were only two “satisfactory” marks among “excellent” and “good” marks, one them is in Civil Law. “Don’t blame yourself, Civil Law is highly difficult to study. Now you have no illusions that it is demanding to study law at SPbU. We have rigid requirements both for our students and applicants, we enrolled the best”.
80 %
government-funded places in the distance course in Law allocated for those who are entitled to be enrolled under the quota.
“The educational technologies make our education available to anyone and ensures that we can educate those who have limited opportunities. Primarily I mean those who need social protection”, — said Aleksandr Khurshudian, deputy director of the Admissions Office at SPbU.
The students asked Nikolay Kropechev: in a half a year, he will have to decide whether to pursue his education on master programme and what programme to choose. To make a right decision you should think of the subject that helped you pass your exams, said Nikolay Kropahcev. It was the theory of law, answered the student. “In this case, you know best where to study next. You have basic knowledge and studied theory, you are well aware where you want to move, now you have to choose what road to take. Today the most popular areas are criminal law and intellectual property law, especially on a national level”. Nikolay Kropachev invited Nikolay Kuznetsov to visit a round-table discussion at the International Cultural Forum that is to be held in November 16-18, 2017 in St Petersburg, thus ensuring that the student can delve into information access and copyright law.
They also discussed the opportunities to open a part-time master programme in Law that is primarily designed for those students who want to continue their education but have no opportunities to study full-time. Now it is only a plan, but if there is a demand, the programme has every chance to be opened.
Nikolay Kropachev also told him to think about working in law, rather than just delving into science: “Isn’t it fascinating to be able to help people? Law is primarily search for justice. Do you have any experience in helping others? Probably, some asked you for advice in legal sphere?” The student told that people, who know that he is a SPbU’s student, did ask him for advice. It was Rector who summed it up: “You know how it feels to help people. Don’t miss this opportunity”.