Meeting old friends and reminiscing student years: St Petersburg University holds the Alumni Day

St Petersburg University is one of the leading universities both in Russia and abroad: the University is home to over 10,000 employees and more than 30,000 students, including foreign citizens from 140 countries, said Nikolay Kropachev, Rector of St Petersburg University, Corresponding Member of the Russian Academy of Sciences. The University offers 524 academic programmes to prepare high-calibre personnel in various fields.

My primary goal is not only to enjoy the meeting, but also to show you what the University is like today.

Nikolay Kropachev, Rector of St Petersburg University, Corresponding Member of the Russian Academy of Sciences

The Rector focused on the enormous scientific and educational potential and achievements of St Petersburg University. He also shed light on the rapidly developing active international activities. Over the past five years, the University has expanded the number of academic programmes with a Chinese component from 46 to 91 programmes. 

Nikolay Kropachev also presented the successes of St Petersburg University in the field of online education. The University is the leader of the national platform "Open Education" both in the number of courses and programmes and in the number of students. It is also the first Russian university to sign an agreement with the largest Chinese national online educational platform XuetangX. What is more is that the University is the only Russian partner of the Indonesia Cyber Education Institute (ICE Institute).

The University actively develops interdisciplinary research and publishes more than 20 academic journals. The University graduates hold high positions in foreign countries and actively participate in the development of not only their alma mater, but also the economic, scientific and cultural sectors of the country, added Sergey Andryushin, Vice-Rector for International Affairs at St Petersburg University. 

The meeting featured a discussion with a specific focus on former students, doctoral students and employees united by the proud name of St Petersburg University. Nikolay Kropachev suggested that the graduates should influence the development and life of the University. They can contact the Virtual Reception to express their ideas and suggestions. "You are our graduates. Participate in the life of the University, inspire us, demand from us! You have every right to do so. We will be happy to make our line of interaction convenient, bright and useful for all of you," added the Rector of St Petersburg University. The discussion brought together University graduates from different years. Among them were the following: Anna Mitianina, Commissioner for Children’s Rights in St Petersburg; Kairat Sarybay, Secretary General of the Conference on Interaction and Confidence-Building Measures in Asia; Elena Borisenko, Deputy Chairperson of the Management Board of Gazprombank; and Dmitriy Poltorak, General Director of Lartech. 

The University plays an important role in everyone’s life, bridging the past, present and future, said Anna Mitianina, Commissioner for Children’s Rights in St Petersburg. In this regard, the contribution of St Petersburg University to Russian education, to the training of strong competitive specialists is extremely valuable. Russian culture is fascinating for many students from different countries, so the professionalism and high qualifications of educators is essential, said Kairat Sarybay, Secretary General of the Conference on Interaction and Confidence-Building Measures in Asia.

Decency, loyalty and patriotism. These are the qualities that a true educator should have, and the educators at St Petersburg University have all of them.

Kairat Sarybay, Secretary General of the Conference on Interaction and Confidence-Building Measures in Asia

Research centres play a very important role for the University, said Elena Borisenko, Deputy Chairperson of the Management Board of Gazprombank. "Today, science lacks importance and recognition. It needs to be developed to strengthen the economy, for technological sovereignty, for the independence of our country, for our specialists," said Elena Borisenko. 

Dmitriy Poltorak, General Director of Lartech, spoke about the importance of developing artificial intelligence. He highlighted a key problem. Despite the successful cooperation of many companies with leading global firms, we still need to develop clear rules for regulating digital technologies in Russia. Among the tasks of Lartech is to train artificial intelligence on a large amount of data, said Dmitriy Poltorak.

During the discussion, experts and guests of the event expressed their own ideas about how they could define St Petersburg University. According to the voting results, 62% of guests associate the University with classical education, 47% of votes are given to the option "research centre", and in third place (15 % of votes) is the answer "source of personnel", on a par with the options "business partner" and "centre for expert advice".

The Alumni Day held a meeting with Tatiana Chernigovskaya, Director of the Institute for Cognitive Studies at St Petersburg University. The meeting was in the format of a conversation between Tatiana Chernigovskaya and Roman Gerasimov, a graduate of St Petersburg University and TV presenter. Tatiana Chernigovskaya spoke about the brain as the most complex connection in the Universe. She also shed light on the need to train our brain to ensure that it works well.

Plasticity is the ability to form new connections in the brain. We all have neural networks in our heads that are not only incredibly complex, but also constantly rewritten. Everything therefore depends on who you communicate with, what you read, what films you watch, what music you listen to, what you think about. It all matters.

Tatiana Chernigovskaya, Director of the Institute for Cognitive Studies at St Petersburg University

The participants also focused on modern teenagers’ tendency to multitasking, namely their ability to undertake various activities in the same time period. It is extremely important to develop yourself and your existing abilities, since the brain and personality are inextricably linked, said Professor of St Petersburg University.

The best thing we can do for ourselves is to get to know ourselves while we are still alive. You need to find out who you were born as, not who you turned out to be. Genetics is a blank. You can be born a Mozart, but never become one.

Tatiana Chernigovskaya, Director of the Institute for Cognitive Studies of St Petersburg University

As part of the celebration of the Alumni Day, the University held business sessions, popular science lectures, workshops, excursions and introductions to the collections of St Petersburg University museums and concerts. Throughout the week after the ceremonial event, the academic and research subdivisions held meetings of educators and graduates of different years.