St Petersburg International Economic Forum 2023: St Petersburg University and Sber to prepare specialists in the field of information law and data protection

The new master’s programme "Information Law and Data Protection" is aimed to prepare lawyers in the legal aspects of processing and protecting information − primarily personal data. The content of the programme is structured in the way as to provide a set of competencies necessary for working in a law firm or a company focused on digital transformation or necessary to become a specialist in the legal aspects of personal data processing.

One of the distinguishing features of the programme is interdisciplinarity. Some disciplines are prepared jointly with representatives of other areas and reflect the strong aspects of the University. The discipline "Introduction to the Digital Economy" was prepared jointly with economists at St Petersburg University, while the discipline "Media Philosophy and Law" was prepared with the philosophers at the University, who opened and developed the Centre for Media Philosophy at St Petersburg University and are engaged in gaining a deeper and comprehensive understanding of the human place in the digital world.

Marina Lavrikova, Senior Vice-Rector for Academic Activities at St Petersburg University

One of the goals of the network programme developed by St Petersburg University and Sberbank will be the training of digital lawyers. According to Vladislav Arkhipov, Head of the programme, Head of the Department of Theory and History of State and Law, Director of the Centre for Research on Information Security and Digital Transformation at St Petersburg University, the content of the disciplines is much broader than the term "digital law" implies.

‘When it comes to digital law, we are always concerned with legal relations, the subject of which is data, information and information technology. It is important to take into account that today the emphasis is naturally shifted to end-to-end digital technologies of artificial intelligence, distributed ledger technologies, virtual and augmented reality to name just a few. The master’s programme developed at St Petersburg University will prepare specialists for this general professional field,’ explained Vladislav Arkhipov.

Network academic programmes ensure that the educational environment of St Petersburg University is open and accessible throughout Russia by combining the expert and professional potential of the oldest university in Russia and the competencies of partner companies.

On the part of St Petersburg University, the content of the programme is underpinned by the personal long-term practical experience of the academic supervisor of the programme, Professor Vladislav Arkhipov, as an adviser on intellectual property, information technology and telecommunications.

‘Sber has been cooperating with St Petersburg University for many years. St Petersburg University staff and students have access to our cloud platforms. Students participate in our student accelerator, while academic staff study at the Digital Summer School. At the heart of our partnership is the maximum convergence of theory with production. Today, the labour market is actively transforming, new professions are appearing regularly, and current professions are changing dramatically. A specialist in the field of information law and data protection is a profession of the future, that is in demand in any company that creates technologies or uses them in production processes. Meanwhile, there are still very few academic programmes in this field. We and St Petersburg University are ready to fill this gap by opening the first master’s programme in this area,’ said Andrey Ocheretny, Head of the Centre for Academic Partnerships at Sberbank.

On the part of Sberbank, the concept of the programme has been prepared with the participation of specialists in the field of personal data protection to create a separate module aimed at developing the skills in legal aspects of personal data processing. The combination of a deep theoretical approach and fundamental practice-oriented approach is what distinguishes the academic programme of St Petersburg University and Sberbank.