Minutes of the Rector’s Meeting
Current issues with organising the academic process
Last week, the Virtual Reception received 35 enquiries from students and teachers including 23 enquiries on academic issues addressed to the Senior Vice-Rector for Academic Activities and Teaching Methods. Seven enquiries were sent to the e-mail of the Vice-Rector. The most urgent issues were addressed in detail. They will be published in the full report of the Rector’s Meeting (The quality of the heating system in hall of residence № 18;St Petersburg University branch in Tashkent;Competition for funding to cover participation in student olympiads, intellectual contests, conferences and other scientific events in 2021; Imposing disciplinary liability).
Organisation of the teaching and learning process in the spring semester
Based on the proposals of institute directors and faculty deans, it was decided that the classes will continue to be held with the use of information and computer technologies from 11 to 28 February. Then, the issues of changing the class format will be reconsidered taking into account the epidemiological situation in St Petersburg.
Introducing additional business-oriented comprehensive degree programmes for schoolchildren into the academic process
Since 2019, the formats aimed at developing technopreneurship skills in schoolchildren have been introduced in the academic process of comprehensive secondary education programmes (St Petersburg University Academic Gymnasium named after Dmitry Faddeev). Detail information on the development of such learning formats will be published in the full report of the Rector’s Meeting.
The recipient of the Tsander Prize of the Russian Academy of Sciences – Professor of St Petersburg University Alexey Tikhonov
The results of the competition of the Russian Academy of Sciences for the Prize of Friedrich Tsander for outstanding theoretical work in the area of rocket and space science have been announced. In 2020, the Tsander Prize was given to Doctor of Physics and Mathematics Alexey Tikhonov, Professor in the Department of Theoretical and Applied Mechanics at St Petersburg University, for a series of research papers on ‘Electrodynamic control and stabilisation of the spacecraft spin movement’.
Who has not provided the originals of orders and decrees?
In December 2020, the Rector's meeting already addressed the issue of reintroducing the possibility for the signing officers to make records and request registration of the scan-copies of orders, decrees, and outgoing letters with the use of electronic document management system Delo (Minutes of the Rector's meeting dated 21 December 2020). It was decided to provide such right to the officials who fulfil the requests on providing the employees of the document support department with the document originals in full and in a timely manner. On the day of the current Rector’s meeting, four officials still have to provide the originals of LPA for 2020 (1,412 documents). The Vice Rector for Human Resources was informed about it and will ask the officials for explanations as well as take the decision on imposing disciplinary liability.
Closing the records of 2020
Order № 4644 dated 29 December 2020 was issued in relation to closing the records of 2020. Accordingly, by 1 February 2021, the heads of structural subdivisions of St Petersburg University are responsible for updating the due date or discarding the orders due in 2020. If the due date is not transferred into the records of 2021, such orders will be automatically discarded on 1 February 2021.
The meeting of the St Petersburg University Collegium of Honorary Professors
On 20 January, the meeting of the St Petersburg University Collegium of Honorary Professors took place. The Collegium considered the candidates for the title of St Petersburg University emeritus professor. The University Rector Nikolay Kropachev spoke at the meeting about the achievements, problems and plans. He also addressed the questions of the Collegium members.
The bust of Zeki Velidi Togan
As it is known, in 2007 upon the request of Bashkortostan administration and with the support of the Faculty of Asian and African Studies (Dean Evgenii Zelenev), the University administration gave consent to install the bust of Zeki Velidi Togan near the building at 11 University Embankment. A bust of Zeki Velidi Togan was produced in Bashkortostan on the basis of the government contract using Bashkortostan budget resources of over 3 million roubles at 2007 values. Back then, a street and the National library in Ufa were already named after Zeki Velidi Togan. Several years after the installation of the bust, the University started to receive enquiries
from the citizens and legal entities questioning the legality of St Petersburg University activity on installing the bust. In this regard, in September 2019, the University appealed to the Prosecutor's office requesting to check the legality of such activity (Minutes of the Rector's meeting dated 28 December 2020). On 18 January 2021, the University received a document based on the findings of the Prosecutor’s office of the Vasileostrovsky District. According to this document, the University should take immediate measures on rectifying the discovered flaws and preventing further violations, and organise examination of evidence with a representative of the Prosecutor's office.
Organising COVID-19 vaccination
Alla Shaboltas, Dean of the Faculty of Psychology, inquired about the time frame of organising COVID-19 vaccination for the University employees and students. As previously reported, the University held negotiations and received preliminary consent of Polyclinic № 4 of the Vasileostrovsky District and St Nikolas Hospital on condition that the government allocates the required number of the Sputnik V vaccine doses specifically for the University. St Petersburg University filed a relevant request to the Administration of St Petersburg.