One tenth of SPbU’s students are international citizens
Autumn 2016, as many as 2,000 students from 44 countries have arrived at SPbU, 9.04 % of the total student body.
As a rule, international students come from China (619 students), Kazakhstan (199 students), and Ukraine (98 students). However, SPbU seems attracting to those who live in Japan, Switzerland, Singapore, Belgium, USA and others. The University enrolled 683 international students to the international exchange programmes in 2016/17 academic year, with most of them coming from Germany (124 students).
All the international students who have registered at the buddy-programme can have a mentor student who is responsible for:
- Meeting an international student at the airport
- Getting around the city and University
- General guidance
It helps international students to develop their inter-cultural communication skills, make their English more fluent, and make them feel at ease in a new environment.
SPbU’s international students have the same right as the Russian students. They can become volunteers and help in organizing the University’s events (from holidays to graduation ceremony). They can become members of the committee on the month student allowances and commissions on changing the course of study and resuming study. They can take part in congresses, forums, conferences in Russia and beyond. Apart from the Student Union, they are actively engaged in SPbU’s International Student Club.
Another opportunity for you to study at SPbU is additional educational programmes. The most popular programmes are Russian Language as a Foreign Language. Main Course and Russian Language as a Foreign Language. Short-Term Course.
1,230 students completed the programmes in the Russian language in 2016/17 academic year.
International students mostly come from China, Korea, Japan, Italy, Switzerland, and USA. Over 60% students who completed these courses continue their study on the main graduate or under-graduate programmes.
For the international students, the most popular areas of study are Political Science (581 students), Biology, History, Psychology, and Philosophy (50 students). Among those who opted for Political Sciences are citizens of the USA, UK, France, and Japan to name but a few.