The Online School of St Petersburg University Brings Together Students from 12 Countries

The Online School of St Petersburg University was launched in Latvia in December 2018. In four years, the number of its participants has grown by 30 times, and the geography has expanded to 12 countries. Initially, classes were held in three disciplines: the Russian Language, Russian Literature, and Russian History. However, over time, general subjects were added at the request of students. Today, students can choose their schedule by choosing the most interesting of the ten disciplines: Mathematics, Physics, Chemistry, Biology, Geography, History, Natural Sciences, Russian, Literature and Social Studies. Every year, the scope of the school curriculum is widening: from this year onwards, pupils from fifth to final year can take part in the project, which now has classes for 10th and 11th grades. In France, at the suggestion of parents, distance learning has also begun for pupils from first to sixth grades. Since the beginning of September 2021, there have been around 100 students in the primary school.

The recordings of the lectures are available to the public so that anyone can view the recordings at any time, not only for this school year, but also for previous years.

‘Thus, the Online School of St Petersburg University has transformed from a small local project into an almost full-fledged school in a distance format, where you can study for 11 years in parallel with your regular classes,’ said Dmitry Ptyushkin, Director of the Language Testing Centre of St Petersburg University. ‘At the same time, studying in a primary school programme would seem to be an atypical activity for the University, but if you look at this decision deeper, it is the right one, as in this way we maximise opportunities for potential applicants at a very young age.’

The involvement of children is increasing, and the admission campaign is starting much earlier than it could be, years ahead of schedule. When we talk to the parents of schoolchildren, we hear from them: ‘Now my child wants to go to St Petersburg University, we will definitely try’.

Dmitry Ptyushkin, Director of the Language Testing Centre of St Petersburg University

Students who attend all classes from the beginning to the end of the course and successfully complete it receive certificates that give foreign applicants bonus points for admission to St Petersburg University through a portfolio competition. Also, this academic year, the Online School has introduced a system of interim certification. Although it is voluntary, about 44% of the students decided to take the test based on the results of the first half of the year and showed good results.

’It is important to us that the knowledge gained at the Online School helps the children in their everyday life and studies. We stay in touch with parents and parents’ associations and receive feedback from them on how the pupils who attend our classes have generally improved their performance in school. Some of them, who have never participated in Olympiads before, have started to qualify for major intellectual competitions in their home countries and perform better in them,’ said Dmitry Ptyushkin. ’Apart from that, good friendships among children are being established. It is not surprising when students from Kyrgyzstan, Kazakhstan, Egypt gather in one class and everyone can communicate with each other. The 21st century enables us to maintain relations with people who are very far away from us, but at the same time they become close.’

The Director of the Language Testing Centre of St Petersburg University said that the demand for attending the Online School classes is very high, so the University specialists are constantly improving the project and introducing new formats. For example, in addition to studying, students from different countries can take part in project activities to work together on research projects, as well as attend meetings of the international literature club and share impressions from the books they have read.