Minutes of the Rector’s Meeting

Meeting of the St Petersburg University Board of Trustees

On 29 November, Dmitry Medvedev, Deputy Chairman of the Security Council of the Russian Federation, held a meeting of the St Petersburg University Board of Trustees.
It was attended by Valentina Matvienko, Chairwoman of the Federation Council of the Federal Assembly of the Russian Federation; Dmitry Chernyshenko, Chairperson of the Organising Committee on preparation and holding the 300th anniversary of St Petersburg University; Anton Siluanov, Minister of Finance of the Russian Federation; Valery Falkov, Minister of Science and Higher Education of the Russian Federation; Konstantin Chuychenko, Minister of Justice of the Russian Federation; Aleksei Kudrin, Head of the Accounts Chamber of the Russian Federation, Dean of the Faculty of Liberal Arts and Sciences; Igor Artemyev, Assistant to the Prime Minister of the Government of the Russian Federation; Anatoly Chubais, Special Representative of the President of the Russian Federation for Relations with International Organisations to Achieve Sustainable Development Goals;  Alexander Konovalov, Presidential Plenipotentiary Representative  in the Constitutional Court of the Russian Fedearation; Veronika Skvortsova, Head of the Federal Medical-Biological Agency; Alexander Sergeev, President of the Russian Academy of Sciences; Sergey Chebotarev, Head of the Secretariat of the Deputy Chairman, Security Council; Rector Nikolay Kropachev; Alexander Drozdenko, Governor of the Leningrad Region; Georgy Poltavchenko, Chairman of the Board of Directors of JSC USC; Konstantin Ernst, General Director of JSC Channel One; Andrey Kostin, President and Chairman of VTB Bank Management Board; Boris Kovalchuk, Chief Executive Officer of PJSC Inter RAO; Andrey Murov, Chairman of the Board of Directors of PJSC FGC UES, First Deputy General Director – Executive Director of PJSC Rosseti; Sergey Ivanov, Chief Executive Officer, Chairman of the Executive Committee of PJSC ALROSA; Vadim Semenov, General Director of New Digital Solutions LLC, Senior Independent Director of PJSC Rostelecom; Alexey Mordashev, Chairman of the Board of Directors of JSC Severstal; Natalia Mincheva, Vice-President on Human Resources and Social Issues, Director of the HR Department at PJSC NK ROSNEFT; and Marina Entaltseva, a graduate of St Petersburg University.

The St Petersburg University Strategic Plan and preparation to the 300th anniversary of the University to be celebrated in 2024 were discussed. According to Head of the St Petersburg University Board of Trustees Dmitry Medvedev, the University requires a large-scale comprehensive development of infrastructure from new buildings and computer networks to transport that students and staff use to travel to the University.

Two large-scale projects have been developed: the Development Area of the University and 'The Neva Delta' science and technology centre at St Petersburg University. Both projects are aimed at creating a modern campus and research centre. This will help the University to: create an advanced technological foundation for further development; foster its position among other universities in Russia; and successfully compete with other large universities.

Position of St Petersburg University at the RUR Reputation World University Ranking

On 18 November, the next issue of the RUR Reputation World University Rankings was published. St Petersburg University took 101st place in the global ranking and 3rd place in the Russian Federation.

According to Ivan Grigoriev, Advisor at the Rector’s Office, the methodology of the RUR Reputation World University Rankings is based on the use of the global survey of academic experts – Academic Reputation Survey. This survey is held annually within the framework of the Global Institutional Profiles Project with the goal to determine the indicators of the world leading universities by Clarivate Analytics company that supports Web of Science database. Before 2014, the data collected by the Global Institutional Profiles Project including the academic survey data were used to create the Times Higher Education (THE).

The expert invited to take part in the survey shall provide the following information:

• affiliation of the expert
• world region which the expert is most familiar with
• field of study or research under the classification of the Web of Science Core Collection
• the list of 15 universities in his or her region and 15 universities in the world that the expert considers to be the best in terms of research and education quality (separate categories) within the chosen field

The survey conditions do not allow for the expert to vote for the university of his or her affiliation and the universities cannot recommend experts to Clarivate Analytics. 

The report on the academic survey results in 2021 used for the RUR Reputation World University Rankings is provided on the Clarivate Analytics website. The survey was performed by 3,702 respondents from 116 countries from 13 April to 10 June 2021.

To compile the RUR reputation ranking, they use the number of votes from the academic experts on the quality of research and education submitted for a specific university.  At the same time, the data are specified taking into account the distribution of votes across regions and fields of study.  According to the data published on the RUR ranking agency website, specification is performed with the use of the expert vote distribution data: across regions (North America – 36 %, Central and South America – 6 %, Europe – 28 %, Asia – 20 %, Africa – 5 %, Oceania – 5 %); across fields of study (Social Sciences – 20 %, Engineering Sciences – 20 %, Medical Sciences – 19 %, Natural Sciences – 17 %, Life Sciences – 14 %, Humanities – 10 %).

Ivan Grigoriev pointed out that the University shall be included into the ranking list only in case it provided the information collected by the RUR ranking agency for the RUR World University Rankings general ranking in a given year. In particular, for this reason St Petersburg University is not featured in the rankings of 2016 and Novosibirsk State University – in the rankings of 2020 and 2021.

A more detail description of the reputation ranking methodology can be found on the RUR agency website.

The dynamics of the Russian universities that were included into the top 300 of the RUR Reputation World University Rankings in 2010-2021 was demonstrated to the directors of institutes and deans of faculties in the form of a table and a diagram.

The number of Russian universities has grown by 9.5 times in the RUR reputation ranking, while the number of Russian universities included into the top 300 has grown by three times within the recent decade.  The leadership of St Petersburg University in Russia and following the results of this ranking needs a more expressive confirmation. Ivan Grigoriev reminded that following the results of the last issue of the THE reputation ranking, St Petersburg University shares 2-4 places in Russia with the Moscow Institute of Physics and Technology and the Higher School of Economics. At the same time, positive dynamics can be found only in the Arts and Humanities, while in other fields the dynamics is negative. An important fact confirming the growth of competition (honest and dishonest) among Russian universities is that such dynamics is caused by the decrease in votes for St Petersburg University among Russian experts as opposed to international ones.

Directors of institutes and deans of faculties were given a task to analyse the information on the position of St Petersburg University in the RUR World Reputation Rankings and provide a draft of events to be implemented by the staff to increase the St Petersburg University reputation level (to the Rector) and additional lists of expert candidacies for the academic survey and employer survey by the QS Ranking Agency (to the Vice Rector for Academic Activities and Teaching Methods).

St Petersburg University received the third prestigious accreditation in business education (AACSB)

The Graduate School of Management at St Petersburg University (GSOM SPbU) was the first in Russia to receive the accreditation by the most prominent international associations: EQUIS, AMBA and AACSB. According to statistics, only one of 100 business schools in the world is extended such honour. In November, the Graduate School of Management at St Petersburg University was accredited by the AACSB (Association to Advance Collegiate Schools of Business). This accreditation confirms that the business school is transforming the education in view of the needs at the global market of human resources and introducing advanced digital technologies and best practices into the education process (GSOM at St Petersburg University is the first Russian business school to receive the triple crown accreditation).

According to Konstantin Krotov, Executive Director of the GSOM, the AACSB accreditation is the oldest accreditation in the area of business education in the world with the first accreditation granted in 1919. It is one of the three most prestigious accreditation globally together with EQUIS and АМВА. 901 business schools from 58 countries have been granted their accreditation. The Institute of Business Studies at the Russian Presidential Academy of National Economy and Public Administration (RANEPA) received the first accreditation in Russia in 2019. The decision on going through the AACSB accreditation process was taken at the meeting of the Advisory Board of the Graduate School of Management at St Petersburg University on 16 June 2016.

The importance of the AACSB accreditation for St Petersburg University:

• GSOM at St Petersburg University is on the list of 112 business schools in the world (under 1% of all business schools globally) that have all three prestigious international accreditations (‘triple crown’ accreditation): AMBA (2007), EQUIS (2012) and AACSB
• This prestigious accreditation will allow for a more active development of international relations with the world leading universities in the sphere of business education and research. It will enable the business school to attract international students for studies and leading international faculty for work as well as expand the existing relations and implement new projects
• Following the AACSB international standards (15) already helps to build the process of education in a more efficient manner as well as follow up on the results. It provides for high quality of education and meets the needs of the market. The accreditation process has taken five years, since it was necessary to demonstrate ‘closing the loop’, in other words, the results of implementing the standards.

Konstantin Krotov talked about the process of receiving the AACSB accreditation that consists of several stages:

The visit of the AACSB accreditation committee to the Graduate School of Management at St Petersburg University took place on 6 to 9 June 2021 in a remote format. MS Teams and Zoom platforms were used. During the visit, over 20 meetings of the committee with various stakeholders of the GSOM took place: University and GSOM management, representatives of the companies on the Advisory Board of the GSOM, teachers, students, graduates and administrative staff.  Over 60 teachers and staff members of the GSOM and St Petersburg University, eight representatives of corporate partners, over 20 students and graduates took part in the meetings. Virtual tours of both buildings of the GSOM were organised for the committee.

The main topics of the interviews included: the new strategy of the GSOM for 2025; internationalisation of the school; content and implementation of academic programmes; efforts on involving the GSOM graduates; research activity; career services for students and graduates; ties with corporate partners; quality assessment of the implemented academic programmes; and the resources available to the GSOM.  

Following the visit results, the committee voiced the decision to recommend the Graduate School of Management at St Petersburg University for the complete AACSB accreditation for five years. In November, the accreditation council ratified this decision.  During the final meeting of the visit, the AACSB committee pointed out the involvement of all the GSOM stakeholders into the business school development and their readiness to support the GSOM in its ambitious goals. 

The Graduate School of Management at St Petersburg University became the first business school in Russia to have all the three most prestigious international accreditations and to become one of the world leading business schools with the ‘triple crown’ accreditation.

Professor of St Petersburg University Igor Murin awarded the Medal of the Order for Merit to the Fatherland, First Class 

In accordance with Presidential Order № 671 dated 24 November 2021 ‘On awarding national decorations of the Russian Federation’ for merit in the research and teaching activity, training highly qualified specialists and many years of  conscientious work, Professor in the Department of Solid State Chemistry Igor Murin has been awarded the Order for Merit to the Fatherland, First Class (Professor of St Petersburg University awarded the Medal of the Order for Merit to the Fatherland, First Class). The meeting participants congratulated Igor Murin on the well-deserved decoration.

Microsurgery at the Pirogov Clinic of High Medical Technologies at St Petersburg University  

On 20 November,  surgeons from the Pirogov Clinic of High Medical Technologies at St Petersburg University successfully performed a replantation surgery reattaching a fragment of an index finger on an eight-year-old boy (from Latin ‘replantare’ – surgical reattachment of a part disengaged from the organism)  (Boy loses part of finger in accident – St Petersburg University Clinic operates).

Yury Fedotov, Director of the Pirogov Clinic of High Medical Technologies at St Petersburg University, said that the trauma was a result of an accident: a fragment of an index finger had been severed by an axe.  The child was directed to the Department of child’s traumatology and orthopaedics by the SOGAZ International Medical Centre within three hours after the accident. The surgical team worked quickly to put the bandages and stop the bleeding. Within 18 minutes after the patient had been admitted to the hospital, surgical manipulations began with the severed piece of the finger. Meanwhile, all the orthopaedics necessary tests and procedures before the anaesthesia and surgery were performed.

Within 45 minutes, the boy was taken to the operation room where the microsurgery on replantation of the severed piece of the finger was performed.  The surgery lasted five hours. During this time, the team of surgeons set and stabilised the bones with a pin, then sutured the flexor and extensor tendons of the finger, nerves, arteries, and veins.  The diameter of the blood vessels to be joined was about 0.3 millimetres.

After the surgery, the boy spent five days in the intensive care unit for antithrombotic therapy, which is a required postoperative stage.  Then, the boy was transferred to a regular ward in a satisfactory condition with a reattached vascularised finger. The small patient was discharged from the hospital several days after the successful operation.

Exhibition of artwork by the teachers and students at the Faculty of Arts

At 2pm on 1 December, the exhibition devoted to the implementation of art and design requests of the University by the teachers and students at the Faculty of Arts will open at the exhibition hall of the Twelve Collegia building.

Ivan Uralov, Senior Deputy Dean at the Faculty of Arts, reminded that despite the pandemic-related limitations, the University exhibition hall at the Twelve Collegia building remains open.

The creative report is presented in the form of a digest demonstrating the range of possibilities of the academic programmes in the field of art including restoration, design, music, theatre, applied informatics in arts and humanities, applied art, and film and television design.

Ivan Uralov invited all colleagues and University staff and students to attend the opening of the exhibition.  The exhibition can be viewed from 1 to 15 December.

Amendments to Governmental Order № 121 dated 13 March 2020

The restrictions introduced by the Governor’s Order № 121 dated 13 March 2020 ‘On the measures of countering the spread of the novel coronavirus disease (COVID-19) in St Petersburg’ remain in effect.

The last amendments were introduced by Order № 918 dated 25 November 2021. This Order extends the restrictive measures till 31 January 2022. The list of organisations that require QR-codes or a medical exemption certificate with a negative PCR test taken within three calendar days will include the public food service and retail except for pharmacies, fuelling stations and services without public areas.   This restriction will become effective starting 27 December 2021 as opposed to 1 December 2021 as planned initially.  The restrictive measures for the holiday period from 27 December 2021 to 9 January 2022 is under development.

Vaccination against COVID-19

The meeting participants continued to discuss the course of vaccination.  Over the past week, the general number of vaccinated staff at St Petersburg University including the persons with antibodies and medical exemption has significantly increased (up to 86%) exceeding the established indicator of 80%.  The indicator reaches 89.9% among the research and teaching staff.

The information on the students’ vaccination across the fields of study.

№	Field of study	Students with vaccination, past disease certificates, medical exemption (as of 29 November 2021)
1	Institute for Competition Development and Antimonopoly Regulation	75 %
2	Asian and African Studies	57.7 %
3	Institute of Chemistry	48.3 %
4	Physical Training (bachelor’s degree)	45.2 %
5	Biology	44.8 %
6	Institute for Cognitive Studies	44.4 %
7	Medicine	38.4 %
8	Institute of Earth Sciences	37.1 %
9	Mathematics and Computer Sciences	36.9 %
10	Physics	35.5 %
11	Philology	32.8 %
12	Institute of History	31.5 %
13	Liberal Arts and Sciences	31.5 %
14	Mathematics and Mechanics	31.5 %
15	Psychology	31.1 %
16	Institute of Philosophy	30.8 %
17	Institute of Pedagogy	28.8 %
18	Medical College	26.8 %
19	Applied Mathematics and Control Processes	26.8 %
20	International Relations	26.6 %
21	Management	23.6 %
22	Sociology	23.1 %
23	Law	21.8 %
24	Political Science	21.5 %
25	Economics	17.7 %
26	Dental Medicine and Medical Technologies	15.3 %
27	School of Journalism and Mass Communication	15.2 %
28	Arts	14.5 %
29	Physical Culture (non-university level higher education, excluding under age students)	5.7 %
	Total	27.9 %

Marina Lavrikova, Senior Vice Rector for Academic Activities, noted that the general vaccination level among students is slowly growing.  Only the students of the Institute for Competition Development and Antimonopoly Regulation (75%) and of the Faculty of Asian and African Studies exceeded the vaccination level of 50%. The 30% vaccination level has been reached by the students of 14 other fields.

Professor Tatiana Chernigovskaya said that some students did not insert the vaccination data in their personal accounts due to the lack of understanding how to do it.  A step-by-step guide had to be developed.   Marina Lavrikova said that on 26 November, the students received a regular information letter on the need to reflect the vaccination data in their personal accounts (my.spbu.ru). A guide on inserting the vaccination data has been additionally sent.   The Rector gave a task to Marina Lavrikova to prepare a video demonstrating the process of inserting the vaccination data in the personal account.

The information on the vaccination of research and teaching staff at the faculties and institutes.

Department	Total number	Vaccinated	Antibodies	Medical exemption	Growth	% as of 20 November 2021	% as of 26 November 2021
Academic Gymnasium	85	59	6	8	1	81.2 %	85.9 %
Faculty of Biology	281	234	26	2	11	87.9 %	93.2 %
Military Training Centre	32	29	3	0	1	100 %	100 %
Faculty of Asian and African Studies	151	115	19	11	2	95.4 %	96 %
School of Journalism and Mass Communication	113	87	16	10	13	85.6 %	100 %
Graduate School of Management	81	61	8	5	1	93.2 %	91.4 %
Institute of Earth Sciences	226	209	14	3	31	88.5 %	100 %
Institute of History	118	105	7	6	11	88.9 %	100 %
Institute for Cognitive Studies	20	16	3	1	0	100 %	100 %
Institute of Pedagogy	7	6	1	0	0	100 %	100 %
Institute for Competition Development and Antimonopoly Regulation	9	6	3	0	0	77.8 %	100 %
Institute of Philosophy	123	97	10	6	4	78.9 %	91.9 %
Institute of Chemistry	215	187	19	9	5	100 %	100 %
Department of Physical Training and Sports	54	40	4	10	0	98.1 %	100 %
College of Physical Training and Sports, Economics and Technology	78	45	12	4	0	76.9 %	78.2 %
Mathematics and Mechanics Faculty	277	216	22	1	8	85.2 %	86.3 %
Medical College	22	18	3	1	0	100 %	100 %
Medical Faculty	326	243	23	6	2	81.9 %	83.4 %
Faculty of Applied Mathematics and Control Processes	178	135	26	9	7	88.2 %	95.5 %
Faculty of Foreign Languages	298	193	31	18	0	77.2 %	81.2 %
Faculty of Arts	104	85	8	3	3	86.5 %	92.3 %
Faculty of Mathematics and Computer Sciences	175	128	8	1	0	77.2 %	78.3 %
School of International Relations	119	83	18	5	0	89.1 %	89.1 %
Faculty of Political Science	43	29	9	1	0	90.7 %	90.7 %
Faculty of Psychology	131	102	15	8	6	91.6 %	95.4 %
Faculty of Liberal Arts and Sciences	89	68	5	0	0	82 %	82 %
Faculty of Sociology	94	70	7	4	2	84 %	86.2 %
Faculty of Dental Medicine and Medical  Technologies	90	54	17	2	0	80 %	81.1 %
Faculty of Physics	446	378	27	6	37	83.7 %	92.2 %
Faculty of Philology	474	305	58	23	0	78.9 %	81.4 %
Faculty of Economics	159	126	14	10	5	91.1 %	94.3 %
Faculty of Law	101	82	18	0	0	99 %	99 %
TOTAL	4719	3611	460	173	150	85.7 %	89.9 %

Vice-Rector for Human Resources Vladimir Eremeev noted that the general level of vaccination at the University exceeded the established indicator (80%) reaching 86%. At the same time, the University staff should not become complacent, since medical exemption certificates are temporary and the level of antibodies has a tendency to reduce with time.  He pointed out that not all staff teams have reached the established level yet including the College of Physical Training and Sports, Economics and Technology (78.2%) and the Faculty of Mathematics and Computer Sciences (78.3%).  The immediate task of the staff teams is to reach 80% of vaccinated persons and persons with antibodies (excluding medical exemption).  As of today, the staff teams at the following faculties have not reached this level yet: the College of Physical Training and Sports, Economics and Technology (73.1%), the Faculty of Foreign Languages (75.2 %), the Academic Gymnasium (76.5 %), the Faculty of Philology (76.6 %), the Faculty of Mathematics and Computer Sciences (77.7 %), and the Faculty of Dental Medicine and Medical Technologies (78.9 %). 

The established format of the teaching and learning process remains unchanged. However, with the start of the new term, on-campus classes will be allowed only in those staff teams, where the vaccination level among teachers exceeds 80% and among students – 40%.

The meeting participants noted that at Moscow State University the Rector issued an order on suspension from work for those teachers who refused to get vaccinated against COVID-19.

Directors and deans were given a task to provide proposals on raising awareness among the staff team members on the need of vaccination as well as on organising effective control over timely revaccination to maintain the established collective immunity. 

Current issues with organising the teaching and learning process

Over the past week, Virtual Reception received 24 enquiries addressed to the Senior Vice-Rector for Academic Activities from students and teachers including nine enquiries related to various educational and methodological issues. Additionally, 21 enquiries were registered in the student enquiry register.

According to Marina Lavrikova, Senior Vice-Rector for Academic Activities, the enquiries covered various issues: transfer; results of tests in online courses (Why does St Petersburg University use an invigilator system?; On invigilation during the interim assessments; Using an invigilator system during tests and examinations; Resitting the examination with the use of invigilating;  On the efficiency of invigilating; Will the invigilating system be improved?); vaccination of international students at St Petersburg University for COVID-19; extracting documents from the student’s personal file; possibilities of distant learning at St Petersburg University; possibility of getting a European standard supplement to the diploma of St Petersburg University; possibility of getting a recommendation letter; interim assessment for the students of group 2 and 4 of the third year in the field of History; entering the Russian Federation by an international student; recommendation letter request; winter interim assessment; vaccination of an international student; changing the field of study; academic exchange; disagreeing with the examination grade; possibility of studying in Harbin and transferring tests and examination results; examination committee results; voluntary expulsion; and preparing documents for a visa. All enquiries are being addressed and responded in a timely manner.

Marina Lavrikova reported that the classes follow the timetable according to the information from the directors of the academic and research subdivisions.

The meetings with the representatives of the student councils were not held by some directors, while many subdivisions held such meetings.

According to Marina Lavrikova, at such meetings the heads of the School of Journalism and Mass Communication, the Institute of History, the Institute of Philosophy, the Institute of Chemistry, the Mathematics and Mechanics Faculty, the Faculty of Applied Mathematics and Control Processes, the Faculty of Political Science, the Faculty of Sociology, the Faculty of Arts, and the Faculty of Psychology discussed the measures on increasing the number of vaccinated students with the representatives of student councils.  The need to reflect the vaccination data in the personal account was emphasised.

During such a meeting, Acting Dean of the Faculty of Physics reminded of the need to provide the results of online surveys among the student community on the quality of academic programmes to the Chairperson of the Committee on the Academic Activity Quality Control in Physics and Astronomy.

During the meeting with the Student Council representatives, the Dean of the Faculty of Psychology was informed that the students work on the concept of video content for the channel of the Faculty of Psychology on Youtube ‘On psychology and psychologists first hand’ and their participation in filling the channel with content.

Heads of the School of Journalism and Mass Communication and the Institute of Chemistry explained the disciplinary measures imposed on the students (Minutes of the Rector’s meeting dated 8 November 2021).

During the meeting of the Dean of the Faculty of Medicine with the Trade Union members, the issues of organising extracurricular events were discussed.

At the meeting of the Dean of the Faculty of Economics with the Student Council, the following issues were discussed: the format of training (also during the interim assessment); elections to the Student Council Praesidium; and acquiring software licences to be used in the classroom and remotely (this question is clarified with the YouTube University Information Technology Service).

The Dean of the Faculty of Sociology was requested to optimise the timetable of classes for one of the tracks. The requests of the students will be taken into account where possible. Current issues in organising the teaching and learning process were also discussed at the meetings between the student councils and the Heads of the Institute of History, the Institute of Philosophy, the Institute of Chemistry, the Faculty of Sociology, the Faculty of Political Science, the Faculty of Philology, and the Faculty of Physics.

Academic title conferment procedure at St Petersburg University

On 19 November 2021, Order № 11181/1 ‘On the procedure of conferring academic titles at St Petersburg University’ cancelling Order № 6821/1 dated 1 September 2016 was issued.

According to Yury Penov, Vice-Rector for Legal Affairs, the order has to be issued in order to consolidate the amendments introduced into it. Over 160 amendments have been introduced to the order since its creation in 2016, which has caused inconveniences in working with it.

The issued order takes into account the comments and recommendations given by the Ministry of Science and Higher Education of the Russian Federation during the process of monitoring the activity of dissertation councils.

Participation of St Petersburg University experts in assessing the projects of the contest for funding scientific and technical projects performed by the Nizhegorodsky scientific and educational centre

St Petersburg University develops efficient partnership with the regions also within the framework of the key national priorities. Creating and developing a world class scientific and educational centre is one of the tasks of the national project ‘Science’ implemented within the framework of Governmental Order № 537 dated 30 April 2019 ‘On the measures of state support to the world class scientific and educational centre based on the integration of higher education organisations with research institutions and their cooperation with the companies in the real economic sector’.

Anastasiia Iarmosh, Vice-Rector for Strategic Development and Partnership, said that St Petersburg University takes part in two scientific and educational centres: ‘Engineering of the Future’ and ‘North: Territory of Sustainable Development’. It also provides support in teaching methodology and expert advice to ‘Innovative Solutions in the Agro-Industrial Complex’ (Belgorod) and ‘Technoplatforma 2035’ (Nizhny Novgorod).

In April 2021, at the strategic session on the development of ‘Technoplatfroma 2035’ scientific and educational centre on the basis of Alekseev Nizhny Novgorod State Technical University. A working meeting between Igor Fediushkin, Director of the Autonomous Nonprofit Organisation ‘Nizhegorodsky scientific and educational centre’, and Anastasiia Iarmosh, Vice-Rector for Research at St Petersburg University, took place.  The issues of organising public competition procedures were discussed. The St Petersburg University representative demonstrated regulations and principles that guide open selection procedures used during the competitions to support scientific research.  Possibilities of the Centre for Expert Advice at St Petersburg University were also demonstrated including expert core, experience in holding interdisciplinary expertise, scientific and technical expertise with the use of the Research Park infrastructure at St Petersburg University. Following the meeting results, the management of the ‘Technoplatforma 2035’ scientific and educational centre turned to St Petersburg University for external independent expertise of the applications competing for the funding of scientific and technical projects of the Nizhegorodsky scientific and educational centre participants.

In September, St Petersburg University experts performed expert assessment of 22 research and development projects forwarded by the competition committee of the scientific and educational centre. 41 University experts took part in the expert assessment including specialists in the field of physics, chemistry, medicine, biology, and psychology.  All the projects were interdisciplinary and were at the stage close to the integration of the developed technologies at production facilities. St Petersburg University provided for a unique team of experts that assessed the scientific component and potential to integrate the proposed concepts in industry, energy sector, transport, agriculture, construction, and medicine.

St Petersburg University experts were given a task to determine if the projects correspond to the current global level of development in the relevant fields and confirm the expediency of financial and organisational support to such developments as well as their integration on the part of the Nizhegorodsky scientific and educational centre. The teams of authors included not only scientists and engineers at the key universities of the Nizhny Novgorod Region (for example, Lobachevsky State University of Nizhny Novgorod and Privolzhsky Research Medical University),  but also specialists from research institutions of the Russian Academy of Science (in particular, the Institute of Applied Physics and the Institute of Chemistry of High Purity Substances) and developers of a number of technical parks and research and production facilities. Since St Petersburg University experts were given a task to assess the projects seeking state budget funding, the expertise was organised in such a way that the personal data of experts was closed both for the customer and for the project authors.

Anastasiia Iarmosh noted that the results of expert assessment performed by St Petersburg University specialists confirmed a high scientific level for the majority of the research projects as well as feasibility of the project development and integration programmes. At the same time, seven out of 22 projects submitted for expert assessment failed to receive recommendations for financial and administrative support, since their scientific foundations failed to correspond to the world level. This was pointed out at the expert conclusions by St Petersburg University forwarded to the Nizhegorodsky scientific and educational centre.

In November, the Supervisory Board of the Nizhegorodsky scientific and educational centre chaired by Governor of the Nizhny Novgorod Region Gleb Nikitin approved 13 winners of the competition for financial support to research and technical projects at the scientific and educational centre. Noteworthy, two projects that failed to receive a positive conclusion by the experts at St Petersburg University were included into the Gleb Nikitin list of winners. The management of the scientific and educational centre pointed out that the decision on the competition winners was taken based on the expert advice by St Petersburg University in the first place. However, the board also followed internal regulations in conducting expert assessment. For example, expert evaluation of market potential and commercialisation was performed together with the research and technical expertise by St Petersburg University in order to follow a comprehensive approach. This eventually affected the final ranking of the projects.   

Filling the Pure information system by the research and teaching staff

At the Rector’s meeting held on 1 November 2021, a comparative analysis of the Scopus database and the Pure information system in the aspect of publications in 2020 by the research and teaching staff at St Petersburg University was performed (Minutes of the Rector’s meeting dated 1 November 2021). The data on publications with the identification number of the articles in Scopus was extracted from the Pure information system.  Following the meeting results, all directors of academic and research subdivisions were forwarded the information on the publications that were not inserted into the system.

For three weeks, enquiries from research and teaching staff were sent to the address of the Vice-Rector for Research and the Research Support Service.  Sergey Mikushev, Vice-Rector for Research, noted that only due to such feedback it was possible to identify five typical issues interfering with accurate statistics on publication activity of the whole organisation.

1. Publications in the Pure system are present (inserted), but the year of publication does not correspond to the data in the Scopus database.

Solution: research and teaching staff member should send a request to eliminate the issue to the relevant subdivision at the St Petersburg University Library.

2. Publications in the Pure system are present (inserted), but there is not identification number of the article from Scopus. The publication is ‘tied’ to the author and author's subdivision. Such a problem arises when uploading the publication ‘by hand’ or when importing the publication data from other databases (not Scopus).

Solution: the data should be verified once a quarter with the help of the heads of the academic and research subdivisions. To minimise the discrepancy of data, the research and teaching staff can update the information independently following the guidelines on ‘Updating the information on publications in the Pure system’ published on the St Petersburg University website.

3. In 2020, 211 publications stating affiliation with St Petersburg University were inserted into the Pure system. At the same time, the information on affiliation with St Petersburg University is missing on the publication page in the Scopus database. It can be caused by a technical error when indexing the publications in the Scopus database. Or when importing their publications, the authors may mistakenly indicate affiliation with St Petersburg University (when this is not the case), thus, distorting the results in all data export and reports based on the Pure. 

Subdivision	Number of publications
Faculty of Biology	16
Faculty of Asian and African Studies	2
Auxiliary Department on Diagnostic and Treatment	1
School of Journalism and Mass Communication	1
Institute of High Medical Technologies	3
Institute of History at St Petersburg University	4
Institute of Earth Sciences	32
Institute of Translational Biomedicine	1
Institute of Philosophy	1
Institute of Chemistry at St Petersburg University	6
Spin Optics Laboratory	2
Faculty of Medicine	19
International Relations	2
Sociology	1
Research, Educational and Clinical Centre of Radial Diagnostics and Nuclear Medicine	9
Faculty of Arts	1
Faculty of Mathematics and Computer Sciences	6
Mathematics and Mechanics Faculty	40
Faculty of Applied Mathematics and Control Processes	6
Faculty of Psychology	2
Faculty of Liberal Arts and Sciences	8
Faculty of Dental Medicine and Medical Technologies	7
Faculty of Physics	30
Faculty of Philology	10
Faculty of Law	1

Solution: the data should be verified once a quarter with the help of the heads of the academic and research subdivisions. The guidelines ‘How to state the affiliation correctly in the publication data’ is published on the St Petersburg University website.

Currently, additional verification on the part of authors is required for 211 publications in 2020. Either the affiliation should be stated correctly, or an enquiry to the Scopus support service should be sent with a request to eliminate the discrepancy.  The directors and deans will be sent the lists of publications to eliminate the discrepancy.

4. Separate chapters of monographs are indexed in the WoS and Scopus. When comparing the data from Pure and Scopus, the exported data on non-inserted publications included lines with separate chapters of monographs.  The opinion of Professor Robert Evarestov was totally supported. He was the first to notice the fact that the information on the monograph as a whole as opposed to separate chapters should be inserted into the Pure system.  This fact will be taken into account during the subsequent data verifications.

5. Publications are listed in the Pure system. However, they were reported missing in the system following the verification results.  All the enquiries of the kind were verified in detail and it was found that the publications were introduced into the Pure system after the date of forming the list for data verification (after 24 October 2021), but before forwarding such information to the directors and deans of the academic and research subdivisions.

Sergey Mikushev pointed out that when working with export and analysis of publications, it was found that the papers listed in the Pure system as published in 2020, while in fact they were published in 2021, show 2021 as the year of publication if indexed in Scopus database. This type of mistake is directly related to the verification of data in the Pure system at St Petersburg University. He asked Marina Karpova, Director of the M. Gorky Scientific Library of St Petersburg University, to increase control over data verification and implementation of Order № 11617/1 dated 30 November 2018 ‘On administering information in the Pure system’.

Sergey Mikushev thanked research and teaching staff for their responses and verification of data on publications in the Pure system. Only due to joint work we have a chance to introduce changes and improve the Pure information system.

He suggested that the lists of those St Petersburg University staff shall be created, who include the information on publications affiliated with St Petersburg University into the Pure system in the absence of such affiliation.  The first list of the kind is ready (List). Directors and deans were asked to provide their opinion on this issue.

Measures on increasing grant activity

On 19 November, Order № 3978/1р was issued ‘On the measures of increasing grant activity’. On the one hand, the goal of the order is to pay attention of the directors of academic and research subdivisions to the need in continuous search of possible collaborations with serious international specialists aimed at organising joint scientific research. On the other hand, the order determines the time period of conducting the assessment of the quality of support provided to the Research and Development projects by the staff at the Research Support Service. 

Visit of the Governmental Delegation of the Republic of Sakha to St Petersburg University

St Petersburg University continues to render continuous support to regions and subjects of the Russian Federation in their social and economic development. At the moment, effective partnership has been organised at the level of executive authorities in the regions. Working groups have been created and rad maps have been drawn in the Republic of Karelia, Perm Krai, and the Nizhny Novgorod Region.

A delegation of the Republic of Sakha (Yakutia) visited St Petersburg University. Aysen Nikolayev, Head of the Republic of Sakha, initiated the visit (St Petersburg University and the Republic of Sakha discuss future partnerships and collaborations). According to Vice-Rector for Strategic Development and Partnership Anastasiia Iarmosh, the delegates focused on specific formats of collaboration in the field of science, education, digital solutions and innovative projects between St Petersburg University and executive authorities and companies of the region aimed at positive effects in social and economic development in the Republic of Sakha.

Special attention was given to the participation of St Petersburg University in developing a scientific and educational centre ‘North: Territory of Sustainable Development’. In July 2021, it became a winner in the third stage of the competitive selection for world class scientific and educational centres (Governmental Order № 537 dated 30 April 2019) and has to become one of the drivers of economic development in the region for the near future.

During the visit, it was pointed out that implementation of academic programmes focused on the local needs of the human resources market will be planned for 2021-2022. Currently, an additional agreement is being developed. It is aimed at implementing an industry-based project on training personnel at St Petersburg University on the basis of the world class scientific and educational centre ‘North: Territory of Sustainable Development’.

One of the major problems in the current management of the distributed system of scientific and educational centres’ consortia is related to modern management tools. Such tools allow for the heads of the regions to receive analytical and monitoring data, control the achievement indicators and the efficiency of distributing funds. Digital solutions and tools allowing to solve these problems and available at St Petersburg University were demonstrated to the representatives of the Sakha delegations.  The Yakut colleagues got acquainted with the Research Information Management System (RIMS) patented by St Petersburg University. It is an example of a unified environment to implement research and integration projects of research and educational centres based on their own infrastructure. The ‘CryptoVeche’ service developed by St Petersburg University is a solution that allows for prompt and open joint decision making within the research and educational centre consortium. The possibilities of expert evaluations by the Centre for Expert Advice were also demonstrated on the example of the ‘Technoplatforma 2035’ scientific and educational centre. Currently, St Petersburg University is already working with the executive authorities in the Republic of Sakha (Yakutia) to define the first organisation to integrate digital services of St Petersburg University on a pro-bono basis.

Another vector of cooperation in the interregional level is the creation of special national infrastructure to support climate projects including carbon test sites and carbon farms.  St Petersburg University invited the Republic of Sakha (Yakutia) to participate in the project of creating a joint carbon test site ‘Ladoga’.  Carrying out joint research, developing and testing distant and on-land control of the climate parameters, enhancing metrological and methodological base will demonstrate the efficiency of decisions and interconnection of regional initiatives in the field. The proposal of St Petersburg University was supported.

Anastasiia Iarmosh pointed out that currently promising development projects are supported not only by local initiatives of interested companies and foundations, but also at the federal level provided they comply with the national development goals. Collaboration in the field of research and education should also focus on the new level and format of interaction. Directors and deans were given a task to prepare proposals on the participation of experts and research teams at St Petersburg University in implementing national project goals and regional development programmes in accordance with their competencies and expertise.

Students violating the internal regulations at the halls of residence at St Petersburg University

As  it is known, on the night of 18 September to 19 September, in the territory of the halls of residence in the Petrodvortsovy District of St Petersburg, a group of University students violated at length the requirements of the legislation of the Russian Federation, internal regulations of St Petersburg University, including the observations of silence at night time, alcoholic products ban in the territory of an educational organisation and the current anti-epidemic restrictions (Minutes of the Rector’s meetings dated 20 September 2021, dated 1 November 2021). The students were detained by the law enforcement officers and charged with administrative offence provided by the Administrative Offence Code of the Russian Federation, namely: drinking alcohol in forbidden places (article 20.20); appearing in public places under intoxication (article 20.21); petty crime, i.e. violation of public order and expressing overt disrespect to the public (article 20.1); and insubordination to the lawful order of a police officer (article 19.3).

Acts of relevant violations were drawn in relation to the students that violated the legislation of the Russian Federation and the University by-laws. Based on these acts, the students were imposed disciplinary action in accordance with the established procedure. Taking into account all the above mentioned circumstances, the six students were imposed disciplinary action in the form of expulsion and one student was given an admonition (Minutes of the Rector’s meeting dated 8 November 2021).

Following this event, students and the Student Council of St Petersburg University sent a number of enquiries including to the Virtual Reception with a request to cancel the expulsion orders for the six students, since the punishment is disproportional to the violation in their opinion.  The response is published here.

The University also received enquiries of an opposite nature when students pointed at the right choice of the disciplinary measure (On the expulsion of students caused by the violation of the legislation of the Russian Federation and St Petersburg University by-laws on the night of 18 September to 19 September in the territory of the halls of residence).

Students also enquire, including via the Virtual Reception, that some students gather and make noise at night at the halls of residence, violate local regulations, and disturb other students in taking rest or preparing for classes. The students disturbed by the noise and behaviour of their neighbours call the police.  The information on violating the University by-laws by the University students in 2021 was discussed at the Rector’s meetings  dated 11 October 2021 and dated 15 November 2021.

In October-November 2021, violations of local regulations by 24 students were recorded in the territory of the halls of residence including making noise at night time, smoking, drinking alcohol, damaging the University property, and access control violations.

Awareness raising activities are performed among students following all cases of violations. Documents on imposing disciplinary actions are drafted and sent to the student councils to account for the students’ opinion.   The students that performed violations will be imposed disciplinary action including expulsion.

Directors of institutes and deans of faculties were requested to discuss with the student councils the need to observe the requirements of the legislation of the Russian Federation as well as the University by-laws by the students at the halls of residence.

Actions of student Aleksei Pachin

The situation of Aleksei Pachin, who allowed using abusive language at the Student Council meeting (Decision of the Ethics Committee dated 8 October 2021), continues to be discussed on social networks, in the enquiries to the Virtual Reception, etc. Recently, another enquiry was sent to the Virtual Reception from the University students describing inexcusable behaviour of the same student back in 2017. Then, Aleksei Pachin together with two friends, one of whom was not a University student, disturbed the residents of the hall of residence and caused damage to the University property being under alcoholic intoxication.  Relevant acts were drawn and the damage was assessed.  One of the students violating the order was expelled.

Liudmila Iatina, Deputy Head of the Department for Youth Affairs, stood up then for Aleksei Pachin.  She addressed Vice-Rector Ekaterina Babelyuk saying that Aleksei Pachin had taken the blame and was ready to compensate for the damage. She mentioned his merits and success in studies asking to give him a reprimand.  In his note, Aleksei Pachin claimed that he had realised his guilt, felt sorry about the incident and promised not to violate discipline any more.   It looks like the inappropriate punishment made him completely forget about his promises at the meeting of the University Student Council.

It served as a vivid lesson of how negligence and lack of severity and insistence in following the rules at the University eventually lead to recurrence in one way or another.

Dismissal of Michael Freese, Assistant Lecturer in the Department for Theory and Methodology for Teaching Arts and Humanities

St Petersburg University received a letter from the Federal Security Service of the Russian Federation informing that Michael Freese, Assistant Lecturer in the Department for Theory and Methodology for Teaching Arts and Humanities at the Faculty of Liberal Arts and Sciences, shall not be granted access to the Russian Federation for five years. He has to leave the Russian Federation within three days. According to paragraph 9, part 1 of article 83 of the Labour Code of the Russian Federation, the contract of employment with Michael Freese was terminated on 26 November 2021 (On terminating labour relations with a teacher at the Faculty of Liberal Arts and Sciences, Is it true that a teacher of St Petersburg University was detained on his way to work?).

According to Vice-Rector for Human Resources Vladimir Eremeev, Michael Freese was born on 21 January 1986 in the state of Maine, the USA. In 2008, he graduated from Wheaton College in Massachusetts with a bachelor's degree in Russian studies.   From 2008 to 2010, he taught English in Elista and Volgograd under the Fulbright programme. In 2012, he graduated from the European University at St Petersburg with a master’s degree in Russian studies.

In 2013, he entered the Intercultural Education master’s programme at the Faculty of Liberal Arts and Sciences, where he defended his graduation project titled ‘Factors affecting the self-assessment level among American and Russian school children’. Upon graduation from the master’s programme, he entered an aspirantura programme in ‘Education and Pedagogical Sciences’.  He has no scientific degree.

Under the initiative of the Faculty, he was attracted as a teacher of English under a civil contract in 2018 and 2019 at the Faculty of Liberal Arts and Sciences. In September 2019, he was admitted as a full time assistant lecturer in the Department for Theory and Methodology for Teaching Arts and Humanities at the Faculty of Liberal Arts and Sciences.

The meeting participants were especially surprised with the list of disciplines taught by Michael Freese: ‘Acting’ (in English), ‘Language and Thinking’ (in English), and ‘English’ (practical course).

Many people noted that neither of the disciplines corresponds to the education received by Michael Freese. He is not a specialist in acting skills, philosophy, psychology or teaching English. Deputy Dean of the Faculty of Liberal Arts and Sciences Danila Raskov explained that Michael Freese taught practical classes in English as a native speaker. Another staff member taught the course in ‘Acting’. However, his classes had to be translated, since the students were promised that the course would be taught in English and ‘we decided to invite Michael as an interpreter to help the teacher’.  As for the course on ‘Language and Thinking’, it is quite simple: ‘the name of the course fails to correspond to the content’. This course was just called that way. It is a course neither on philosophy, nor on psychology. It is aimed at enhancing student’s abilities in creating various text types and Michael Freese helped the students in this task as a native speaker.

In this regards, Professor Tatiana Chernigovskaya recalled that a few years ago (before the pandemic), when the students of the Faculty of Liberal Arts and Sciences travelled to the USA for full-time studies, teachers on the American side complained about the English language skills among the students of the Faculty, which prevented them from mastering the disciplines. Teachers at other Institutes and Faculties (the Graduate School of Management, the School of International Relations, the Faculty of Asian and African Studies, the Faculty of Law) noted that there were no similar concerns and complains in relation to the students of their respective faculties.

Following the discussion and suggestion of Senior Deputy Dean at the Faculty of Liberal Arts and Sciences, a quality check of teaching English and other disciplines in the ‘Liberal Arts and Sciences’ programme will be held. The distribution of teaching assignments will also be reviewed.

Cancellation of the event with the participation of Alexey Kavokin

A lecture about a quantum computer with the participation of Alexey Kavokin, Head of the Spin Optics Laboratory at St Petersburg University, planned to be held at the St Petersburg University Alumni Association, was cancelled. Alexey Kavokin refused to take part in the event after being informed that the ‘association’ does not represent interests of the University and St Petersburg University has terminated the agreement with this organisation. Sergey Andryushin, Acting Head of the Department for Alumni Affairs, underscored that Alexey Kavokin withdrew his consent to give a lecture.

A relevant enquiry was also sent to the Virtual Reception and Alexey Kavokin responded to it personally (Why was an event with the participation of Alexey Kavokin cancelled?).

Similar situations reflecting dishonest behaviour of the ‘association’ in the part of using the names of St Petersburg University scientists happened before. They used the name of Tatiana Chernigovskaya, Director of the Institute for Cognitive Studies at St Petersburg University, (Does Tatiana Chernigovskaya take part in the project ‘Let’s speak and write correctly!’ named after Liudmila Verbitskaya?) and Andrei Astvatsaturov, Director of the Nabokov Museum at St Petersburg University (Does Andrei Astvatsaturov take part in the project ‘Let’s speak and write correctly!’ named after Liudmila Verbitskaya?).

Changes in human resources

Due to voluntary resignation of Vitaliy Vlasov, Head of the Security Department at St Petersburg University, Vladislav Vandyshev, who previously worked as Deputy Head of the department, was appointed Acting Head of the department.

Due to voluntary resignation of Svetlana Mozhaiskaia, Head of the Contract Service at St Petersburg University, Iuliia Kravchenko, who previously worked as the Head of the Procurement Department at St Petersburg University, was appointed Acting Head of the Contract Service.

A competition to fill both positions will be announced and everyone will be able to take part in it.

An order was signed confirming that Elvira Zeletdinova shall be transferred to the position of Vice-Rector for Academic Activities and Teaching Methods at St Petersburg University on 1 December 2021 upon successful completion of the probation period.