Minutes of the Rector’s Meeting

Vaccination against COVID-19

The meeting participants once again discussed the progress of vaccination for COVID-19 among the staff and students at St Petersburg University. Over the past week, the overall number of vaccinated students across the University has reached 30.89%. As for the academic and research staff, this indicator amounts to 92%.

The information on the students’ vaccination across the areas of study

Area of study	Students with vaccination, past disease certificates, medical exemption certificates (as of 22 November 2021)	Students with vaccination, past disease certificates, medical exemption certificates (as of 29 November 2021)	Students with vaccination, past disease certificates, medical exemption certificates (as of 3 December 2021)
Institute for Competition Development and Antimonopoly Regulation	8.3 %	75 %	91.67 %
Asian and African Studies	55.5 %	57.7 %	62.17 %
Institute of Chemistry	41 %	48.3 %	54.68 %
Physical Training and Sports (bachelor’s programme)	46.3 %	45.2 %	52.38 %
Biology	42.2 %	44.8 %	47.13 %
Medicine	35.3 %	38.4 %	45.7 %
Mathematics and Computer Science	29 %	36.9 %	43.06 %
Institute for Cognitive Studies	47.1 %	44.4 %	41.18 %
Institute of Pedagogy	31.8 %	28.8 %	40.95 %
Physics	33.7 %	35.5 %	39.87 %
Institute of Earth Sciences	35.3 %	37.1 %	39.11 %
Philology	31.3 %	32.8 %	34.71 %
Liberal Arts and Sciences	28.8 %	31.5 %	33.73 %
Psychology	29 %	31.1 %	33.47 %
Institute of Philosophy	29.6 %	30.8 %	33.44 %
Institute of History	29.6 %	31.5 %	33.33 %
Mathematics and Mechanics	30.1 %	31.5 %	33.33 %
Applied Mathematics and Control Processes	24.7 %	26.8 %	31.9 %
Medical College	26.9 %	26.8 %	30.36 %
International Relations	25.3 %	26.6 %	30.16 %
Management	22 %	23.6 %	25.2 %
Sociology	21.8 %	23.1 %	24.15 %
Law	21.1 %	21.8 %	23.94 %
Political Science	21 %	21.5 %	22.51 %
Dental Medicine and Medical Technologies	15.5 %	15.3 %	21.12 %
Economics	17.6 %	17.7 %	18.89 %
Arts	14 %	14.5 %	16.4 %
School of Journalism and Mass Communication	15.2 %	15.2 %	16.09 %
Physical Training (non-university level higher education, excluding under age students)	4.4 %	5.7 %	12.45 %
Total	26.4 %	27.9 %	30.89 %

Marina Lavrikova, Senior Vice-Rector for Academic Activities, pointed out that in 9 student teams the indicator of vaccination exceeds 40%, in 11 — from 30 to 40%, and in 9 — under 30%. At the same time, she reminded that 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%.

Marina Lavrikova added that students are regularly explained the importance of vaccination and the need to inform about it through the Personal Account. A video guide on inserting data into the Personal Account has been developed to make the explanation more vivid.

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

Subdivision	General number	Vaccinated	Antibodies	Medical exemption	Percentage as of 26 November 2021	Percentage as of 3 December 2021
Academic Gymnasium	83	59	6	8	85.9 %	88 %
Faculty of Biology	281	238	26	7	93.2 %	96.4 %
Military Training Centre	32	29	3	0	100 %	100 %
Faculty of Asian and African Studies	150	115	19	11	96 %	96.7 %
School of Journalism and Mass Communication	112	86	16	10	100 %	100 %
Graduate School of Management	81	61	8	5	91.4 %	91.4 %
Institute of Earth Sciences	217	199	14	4	100 %	100 %
Institute of History	126	109	9	8	100 %	100 %
Institute for Cognitive Studies	20	16	3	1	100 %	100 %
Institute of Pedagogy	7	6	1	0	100 %	100 %
Institute for Competition Development and Antimonopoly Regulation	9	6	3	0	100 %	100 %
Institute of Philosophy	143	119	13	9	91.9 %	98.6 %
Institute of Chemistry	218	190	19	9	100 %	100 %
Department of Physical Training and Sports	54	40	4	10	100 %	100 %
College of Physical Training and Sports, Economics and Technology	78	49	12	4	78.2 %	83.3 %
Mathematics and Mechanics Faculty	279	218	22	2	86.3 %	86.7 %
Medical College	22	18	3	1	100 %	100 %
Faculty of Medicine	326	243	24	6	83.4 %	83.7 %
Faculty of Applied Mathematics and Control Processes	178	137	26	9	95.5 %	96.6 %
Faculty of Foreign Languages	298	194	32	18	81.2 %	81.9 %
Faculty of Arts	104	86	9	4	92.3 %	95.2 %
Faculty of Mathematics and Computer Science	175	128	8	1	78.3 %	78.3 %
School of International Relations	119	83	15	15	89.1 %	95 %
Faculty of Political Science	44	29	9	1	90.7 %	88.6 %
Faculty of Psychology	131	105	17	8	95.4 %	99.2 %
Faculty of Liberal Arts and Sciences	89	68	5	0	82 %	82 %
Faculty of Sociology	94	70	7	4	86.2 %	86.2 %
Faculty of Dental Medicine and Medical Technologies	90	54	17	2	81.1 %	81.1 %
Faculty of Physics	446	394	39	10	92.2 %	99.3 %
Faculty of Philology	474	319	58	24	81.4 %	84.6 %
Faculty of Economics	157	126	14	10	94.3 %	95.5 %
Faculty of Law	136	106	22	7	99 %	99.3 %
TOTAL	4773	3700	483	208	89.9 %	92 %

According to Vladimir Eremeev, Vice-Rector for Human Resources, only six staff teams have not reached the established vaccination indicator of 80%, while in nine staff teams this indicator has reached 100%.

Current issues with organising the teaching and learning process

Over the past week, Virtual Reception received 39 enquiries addressed to the Senior Vice-Rector for Academic Activities from students and teachers including 27 enquiries related to various educational and methodological issues. Additionally, 23 enquiries were registered in the student enquiry register.

According to Marina Lavrikova, Senior Vice-Rector for Academic Activities, the enquiries covered various topics including the following: studying at St Petersburg University; using the online invigilation system ‘Examus’ (Why does St Petersburg University use an invigilation system?); expulsion of a student related to the use of information and communication technologies; disagreement with the grade in the elective course in ‘Philosophy’; conditions of receiving a diploma with honours; procedure of choosing a research supervisor of the graduation project (On the procedure of selecting a research supervisor of the graduation project); helping Marcel Luke Gouater (On helping Marcel Luke Gouater); possibility to provide an academic leave; academic workload of students at St Petersburg University; terms and conditions of student exchange; vaccination for a foreign citizen for internship purposes; retrieving documents from a personal file; providing status certificates; carrying out winter interim assessment exclusively with the use of information and communication technologies; and keeping the graduation project in St Petersburg University Repository. All enquiries are being addressed and responded in a timely manner.

Marina Lavrikova spoke about some enquiries in more detail. One of them was about providing help for the student that had gone to the University of Helsinki (Finland) for an exchange programme. Marina Lavrikova reminded that the University of Helsinki has been a partner of St Petersburg University since 1993. According to the agreement between the universities, no more than six students per term or no more than three students per full academic year shall take part in the academic mobility on both sides within one academic year. The University of Helsinki is one of the most demanded universities among the students of St Petersburg University. The average number of applications to take part in the academic mobility programmes per one competition is about 25-30.

In accordance with the agreement between St Petersburg University and the University of Helsinki, the procedure and conditions of academic mobility are defined in Annex № 1 to Order № 8408/1 dated 2 September 2021 ‘On establishing the competition procedure for students of St Petersburg University to take part in academic mobility programmes’. A student exchange protocol provides for a scholarship covering the accommodation. At the same time, the amount of scholarship is not specified by the agreement (paragraph 2.4.1 of the agreement with the University of Helsinki). The final amount of the scholarship is defined by the host institution independently and is stated in the acceptance letter that serves as a basis for visa application. In previous years, the scholarship of the University of Helsinki varied from 450 to 600 euros depending on the term. The cost of accommodation in the hall of residence in Helsinki ranges from 300 to 400 euros. Thus, the scholarship covered the accommodation in full leaving some means for students’ expenses. Following the decision of the University of Helsinki, the student was offered a scholarship of 450 euros per month to cover accommodation costs.

Due to changes in financial conditions at the University of Helsinki and termination of the FIRST programme (Russian-Finnish student exchange programme funded by the Ministry of Education and Culture of Finland that provided grants for Russian students) and in view of many years of fruitful cooperation between the University of Helsinki and St Petersburg University, Sergey Andryushin, Deputy Rector for International Affairs, is studying the possibility of including the University of Helsinki in the list of priority partner universities.

This status will allow for additional financial support to students in the form of a single stipend of 50,000 roubles on the part of St Petersburg University in the scope of one quota per term. This scholarship will be enough to cover transport costs, medical insurance, and some personal expenses of a student.

A University graduate sent an enquiry to the Virtual Reception with a request to deal with the issue related to a citizen of Cameroon (On helping Marcel Luke Gouater), who was left without any assistance and support after a serious operation. With a reference to a publication by the ‘Bumaga’ online newspaper, the person describes the severity of the foreign citizen’s situation to the administration of St Petersburg University.

In response to the enquiry of the University graduate, it was clarified that no foreign citizen under such name and last name were found in the lists of students enrolled in degree or non-degree programmes, preparatory courses or among applicants. Based on the open-source information (Helping out: citizens of St Petersburg collect money for a seriously ill student from Cameroon), it can be assumed that the young man was probably a student of the St Petersburg Institute of Arts and Restoration.

Over the past week, multiple enquiries were related to the use of online invigilation system during the winter interim assessment. Detail responses were sent in response to the enquiries. The responses are available in the Virtual Reception section on the University website (Why does St Petersburg University use an online invigilation system?; Invigilation during the interim assessments; Using an online invigilation system during tests and examinations; Resitting the examination with the use of invigilation; Efficiency of invigilation; Will the online invigilation system be improved?).

Marina Lavrikova reported that the classes follow the timetable in a hybrid format or with the use of information and communication technologies according to the information from the heads of the academic and research subdivisions.

She added that Order № 11339/1 dated 25 November 2021 ‘On establishing the Procedure of the interim assessment in the 2021/22 academic year’ was issued to provide for sanitary and epidemiological well-being, protection of life and health of students, prevention of the novel coronavirus disease (COVID-19) spread, and in view of the current epidemiological situation and proposals from the heads of academic and research subdivisions of the University. The order specified administrative requirements to the interim assessment, tests, examinations and demonstrations of activities with the use of information and communication technology; documentation and acknowledgement of the interim assessment with the use of information and communication technologies; and control over the procedure of the interim assessment with the use of information and communication technologies.

According to Marina Lavrikova, the meetings with the representatives of the student councils were not held by some heads of subdivisions, while many subdivisions held such meetings.

At such meetings, the heads of the Institute of Philosophy, the Faculty of Arts, the Faculty of Biology, the Faculty of Sociology, the Faculty of Applied Mathematics and Control Processes, and the Faculty of Liberal Arts and Sciences discussed the measures on increasing the number of vaccinated students with the representatives of the Student Councils. The Dean of the Faculty of Biology spoke about the biological and medical aspects of the SARS-CoV-2 virus, reminded of the possible consequences of the disease and stressed that the format of studies depends on the number of vaccinated people. The need to get vaccinated and reflection on the vaccination data in the Personal Account was clarified to the students.

At the meeting, the Director of the Institute of Chemistry and representatives of the Student Council discussed the format of studies for those who are forced to study remotely. The Director underscored that the students in the field of ‘Chemistry’ have to acquire practical skills. An individual timetable for completing laboratory works is provided for the students who have to study remotely. The Director of the Institute of Chemistry was also asked about organised vaccination for international students. She clarified that the information on this issue was published in the Virtual Reception materials (Vaccination of Russian and international students against COVID-19 and flue at St Petersburg University).

The Heads of the Institute of History, the Faculty of Sociology, the Faculty of Physics, the Faculty of Biology, and the Faculty of Economics clarified to the student council representatives the procedure of the interim assessment in the disciplines taught in the form of distance learning. The Senior Deputy Dean of the Faculty of Biology asked the representatives of the Student Council to clarify to students that the procedure of taking tests with the use of an online invigilation system has clear rules. She reminded about the relevant information video (Minutes of the Rector’s meeting dated 9 August 2021) and asked to collect questions from students on the use of the Examus platform (in a written form). She also added that the Director of the Centre for E-learning Development can clarify the questions on taking a test with the use of an online invigilation system. In case of interest on the part of students, a relevant meeting with the Director of the Centre can be organised.

During the meeting with students, the Director of the Institute of History said that a detailed written response was given to the enquiry of the Student Council Chairperson regarding the use of the Examus system. The Director summarised the response and reminded that the tasks at tests and examinations should be performed independently. The Director of the Institute also reminded the students that before the final assessment, every student receives a detailed list of violations leading to a negative result of invigilation (systematically taking the eyes off the screen, using a cell phone, using help of third persons, etc.) Invigilators watch the video and assign a status based on the overall activity of the students. In case of a ‘fail’ grade, the student has a right to resist the exam twice. The second resitting is performed in front of an assessment committee. The decision of the assessment committee is considered final. The Director of the Institute also noted that the students can turn to the head of the relevant academic office with other questions related to academic activities.

At the meeting, the Director of the Institute of History and the students also discussed that one of the teachers kept arriving late for the lectures. To resolve this issue, the Director asked the students to provide detailed information in a written form stating the groups and disciplines involved in the incident.

Cancelling state assessment in 2020 and granting the right to the graduates to take state examinations in 2021

In view of a special situation related to anti-pandemic restrictions caused by the COVID-19 pandemic and in accordance with Order № 3706/1 dated 28 April 2020 ‘On introducing changes into the documents on education and teaching materials in the part of state final assessment in the 2019/20 academic year’, carrying out a final graduation assessment in the form of a state examination in the degree programmes of higher education and secondary vocational training in May-June 2020 was cancelled (apart from the bachelor’s programmes in ‘Law’ and clinical residency programmes).

Marina Lavrikova, Senior Vice-Rector for Academic Activities, reminded that in 2020, two students, Mikhail Ignatev and Rafik Kerimov, completing their education in the bachelor’s programmes in ‘Asian and African Studies’ sent an enquiry to the Virtual Reception. They expressed concern about the absence of state examinations preventing them from confirming the knowledge of rare Eastern languages at the state level. In their opinion, the absence of final examinations in the diplomas could have an adverse effect on their future employment and entering a master’s programme of St Petersburg University.

Taking into account the enquiries from the graduates of 2020 related to ‘formal confirmation’ of the knowledge and skills acquired by them in the process of education, it was decided to provide everyone whose state examination was cancelled in 2020 with an opportunity to take such examination during the state final assessment in 2021 (Minutes of the Rector’s meeting dated 19 May 2020).

In 2021, three enquiries with a request to take a final state examination were received from the graduates of St Petersburg University bachelor’s programme in the field of ‘Asian and African Studies’.

In 2021, all graduates of 2020 took state final examination in the following disciplines: Chinese, French, Thai, English, and Japanese. All of them received an excellent grade together with relevant documents on performing the programme of the State Final Assessment in the form of a state examination.

Development of accreditation indicators for the academic programmes of higher education

In June 2018, Nikolay Kropachev, Rector of St Petersburg University, Yaroslav Kuzminov, Rector of the Higher School of Economics, and Aleksandr Shokhin, President of the Russian Union of Industrialists and Entrepreneurs, turned to Vladimir Putin, President of the Russian Federation with a request to assign the Government of the Russian Federation with a task to amend the system of higher education quality control and assessment.

Elvira Zeletdinova, Vice-Rector for Academic Activities and Teaching Methods, reminded that following the Rector’s Order, representatives of St Petersburg University were included in the working group within a subcommittee on improving control (oversight) and licencing functions of the federal executive authorities at the governmental committee on implementing the administrative reform. It is supervised by: Elena Shmeleva, Co-chairperson of the All-Russia People’s Front Headquarters, Director of the Foundation ‘Talent and Success’; and Sergey Rukavishnikov, Official Secretary of Deputy Director of the Federal Service for Supervision in Education and Science (Rozobrnadzor).

Elvira Zeletdinova said that the work on amending the model of state accreditation of educational activity has been performed for over three years. During this time, dozens of proposals and expert conclusions on the part of St Petersburg University have been forwarded. Almost all of these proposals have been taken into consideration.

Following the amendments to the Federal Law ‘On education’, a model of new accreditation indicators was developed and approved instead of the criteria based exclusively on the requirements of the Federal State Educational Standard of Higher Education.

Moreover, previously these indicators were not always clearly defined, which has led to their free interpretation on the part of Rozobrnadzor experts. This problem was especially relevant to the universities that had the right to operate under their own educational standards.

New accreditation indicators for academic programmes of higher education become effective starting 1 March 2022 till 1 September 2024. The work on the new accreditation model is underway. Currently, the methodology of applying the established indicators is being developed.

The field of ‘Theology’ has been included in the licence for educational activity

From 26 October to 22 November, following the Federal Service for Surveillance on Consumer Rights Protection and Human Wellbeing (Rospotrebnadzor) order 1405 dated 22 October 2021, an unscheduled inspection of the Federal State Budgetary Educational Institution of Higher Education ‘Saint Petersburg University’ was conducted in relation to the request of including a new master’s programme ‘Theology’ in the academic activity.

Elvira Zeletdinova, Vice-Rector for Academic Activities and Teaching Methods, said that the licence request was based on the new academic programme of higher education ‘Jewish Theology’ in the field of ‘Theology’ developed under the supervision of Igor Tantlevskii, Professor in the Department of Jewish Culture (approved by Order № 315 dated 6 February 2020).

Elvira Zeletdinova noted that specialists of various services and divisions took part in preparing the University for the process of receiving the licence. They prepared documents on the teaching materials of the programme, and inspected the buildings and structures for compliance with the established standards including availability for disabled people, which requires a special type of inspection.

The Rospotrebnadzor inspection took place on 19 November. The building at 5a Mendeleevskaya Line (Institute of Philosophy) was inspected with the use of distant communication means over audio and video communication.

During the inspection, the following was found:

• infrastructure to provide for the educational activity, equipped classrooms to perform educational activity under the declared degree programme in ‘Theology’ requiring licencing
• developed and approved degree programme requiring licencing
• special conditions for students with special needs; no unconfirmed or false information in the presented documents
• validity of the information in the request for the licence has been confirmed

St Petersburg University received a letter from Rospotrebnadzor informing of a positive decision.

Participation of St Petersburg University in holding the ‘I am a Professional’ Olympiad

The All-Russian Student Olympiad ‘I am a Professional’ is one of the flagship projects of the Presidential platform ‘Russia — Land of Opportunity’ implemented with the support of the Ministry of Science and Higher Education of the Russian Federation. Following the results of the contest held by the Association of Organisers for Student Olympiads ‘I am a Professional’, the University was granted the right to hold the All-Russian Student Olympiad ‘I am a Professional’ in four directions: ‘Philology’, ‘Linguistics’, ‘Geography’ and ‘Law’ (St Petersburg University organises four sections of the All-Russian Student Olympiad ‘I am a Professional’).

Aleksandr Babich, Vice-Rector for Student Affairs and Admissions, noted that while the University will hold the Olympiad in the fields of ‘Philology’ (in the session of the 2019/2020 academic year, the field was called ‘Linguistics and Literature Studies’) and ‘Law’ already for the fourth time, the fields of ‘Linguistics’ and ‘Geography’ are new.

Aleksandr Babich said that the number of participants in the selection stage is growing every year. In the 2019/2020 academic year, 3,179 people took part in the field of ‘Law’ and 1,908 people in the field of ‘Linguistics and Literature Studies’. In the 2020/2021 academic year, these numbers have grown to 5,094 people (60% growth) in the field of ‘Law’ and 2,577 people (35% growth) in the field of ‘Linguistics and Literature Studies’. Students of bachelor’s, master’s and specialist’s programmes showed great interest in taking part in the participation in the All-Russian Student Olympiad ‘I am a Professional’ (The fifth season of the All-Russian Student Olympiad ‘I am a Professional’ starts).

Registration of participants for the selection stage will last till 7 December, while the selection contest itself will take place from 10 to 26 December 2021.

Aleksandr Babich underscored that the Olympiad is held in close cooperation with the employers including the following partner organisations: the Russian Geographical Society; the Institute of Russian Literature (the Pushkin House); the Institute for Linguistic Studies of the Russian Academy of Sciences; Group of companies ‘ Prosveshcheniye’; Group of companies ‘Geoscan’; EF Education First — an international educational company specialising in international language programmes, Storytel — one of the world largest subscription services for audio and electronic books, lectures and podcasts; Alfa-Bank; legal companies Versus Legal and Dentons; and the Notary Chamber of St Petersburg to name just a few.

Results of St Petersburg University participation in the grant competition of the Russian Science Foundation

On 30 November, the Russian Science Foundation completed its most large-scale contest for funding scientific research of small separate research teams. Over 9,000 applications were submitted, of which 1,822 projects were supported following expert assessment.

25% of directors of the supported projects are young scientists under 39 years old and 34% of directors are women. The supported projects will be implemented in 2022-2023 by small research teams of up to four people. The average grant size is 1.49 mln roubles per year. The four leading universities with the largest number of winners are: Lomonosov Moscow State University (131); St Petersburg University (93); the Ural Federal University (29); and the Higher School of Economics (27).

According to Sergey Mikushev, Vice-Rector for Research, 301 applications were submitted for the contest on the part of St Petersburg University, of which 93 applications were supported (31% of the number of applications submitted by St Petersburg University). 15 of these projects are supervised by young scientists under 39 years old.

Comparative data on the number of submitted and supported applications from St Petersburg University across the fields of study and subdivisions:

Across the areas of study:

Area of study	Submitted	Supported	%
Mathematics, informatics and systems science	24	6	25 %
Physics and space sciences	33	10	30 %
Chemistry and materials sciences	48	11	23 %
Biology and life sciences	37	14	38 %
Fundamental research for medicine	11	3	27 %
Agricultural sciences	4	3	75 %
Earth Sciences	32	10	31 %
Humanities and Social Sciences	99	34	34 %
Engineering	13	2	15 %
Total	301	93	31 %

Across the subdivisions:

Subdivision	Submitted	Supported	%
Faculty of Physics	55	14	25 %
Institute of Chemistry	40	13	33 %
Faculty of Biology	36	19	53 %
Institute of Earth Sciences	26	8	31 %
Mathematics and Mechanics Faculty	23	3	13 %
Faculty of Psychology	18	13	72 %
Institute of History	14	5	36 %
Institute of Philosophy	12	5	42 %
Faculty of Applied Mathematics and Control Processes	10	1	10 %
Faculty of Philology	10	4	40 %
Faculty of Sociology	9	1	11 %
Faculty of Economics	9	0	0 %
School of Journalism and Mass Communication	5	1	20 %
Faculty of Political Science	5	0	0 %
Faculty of Asian and African Studies	4	2	50 %
Faculty of Medicine	4	0	0 %
Faculty of Mathematics and Computer Science	4	2	50 %
School of International Relations	3	2	67 %
Faculty of Liberal Arts and Sciences	3	0	0 %
Faculty of Law	3	0	0 %
Graduate School of Management	2	0	0 %
Pirogov Clinic of High Medical Technologies	1	0	0 %
Science educational centre ‘Mathematical Robotics and Artificial Intelligence’	1	0	0 %
World-class research centre ‘Agrotechnologies of the future’	1	0	0 %
Distributed Ledger Technologies Centre at St Petersburg University	1	0	0 %
External user	2	0	0 %
Total	301	93	31 %

The field of study ‘Biology and Life Sciences’ showed the highest number of submitted and supported applications with 38% or 14 supported applications out of 37 submitted (among the fields that received over 20 applications). The field of ‘Chemistry and Materials Sciences’ showed the lowest results with 23% or 11 supported applications out of 48 submitted applications.

The leaders in the number of supported applications include the staff teams at: the Faculty of Biology (19 applications); the Faculty of Physics (14 applications); the Institute of Chemistry (13 applications); and the Faculty of Psychology (13 applications).

St Petersburg University has become the absolute leader in the number of supported applications in St Petersburg. The second place is taken by ITMO University (18) and the third by Peter the Great St Petersburg Polytechnic University.

See below the statistics for the grants received by research and educational organisations in St Petersburg

Name	№ of grants
St Petersburg University	93
ITMO University	18
Peter the Great St Petersburg Polytechnic University	13
Sechenov Institute of Evolutionary Physiology and Biochemistry of the Russian Academy of Sciences (RAS)	10
Zoological Institute of the Russian Academy of Sciences	9
Herzen State Pedagogical University of Russia	9
Ioffe Physical-Technical Institute of the Russian Academy of Sciences	9
Komarov Botanical Institute of the Russian Academy of Sciences	6
Saint Petersburg Electrotechnical University LETI	6
St Petersburg Federal Research Centre of the Russian Academy of Sciences	6
Institute of Russian Literature (the Pushkin House) of the Russian Academy of Sciences	5
Institute of Cytology of the Russian Academy of Sciences	5
All-Russia Research Institute of Agricultural Microbiology	4
Institute of Precambrian Geology and Geochronology of the Russian Academy of Sciences	4
Institute for the History of Material Culture of the Russian Academy of Sciences	4
Pavlov Institute of Physiology of the Russian Academy of Sciences	4
Alferov Saint Petersburg National Research Academic University of the Russian Academy of Sciences	4
Institute of Macromolecular Compounds of the Russian Academy of Sciences	3
Institute for Linguistic Studies of the Russian Academy of Sciences	3
Institute of Experimental Medicine	3
St Petersburg Department of Steklov Mathematical Institute of the Russian Academy of Sciences	3
Arctic and Antarctic Research Institute	2
All-Russian Research Institute of Biological Plant Protection	2
State Research Center of the Russian Federation Concern CSRI Elektropribor, JSC	2
Almazov National Medical Research Centre of the Ministry of Health of the Russian Federation	2
Petrov National Medicine Research Centre of Oncology of the Ministry of Health of the Russian Federation	2
Grebenshchikov Institute of Silicate Chemistry of the Russian Academy of Sciences	2
Saint Petersburg State Forestry University	2
St Petersburg State Institute of Technology (Technical University)	2
Agrophysical Research Institute	1
Vavilov All-Russian Institute of Plant Genetic Resources	1
Russian Geological Research Institute	1
Pulkovo Astronomical Observatory of the Russian Academy of Sciences	1
Institute for Problems in Mechanical Engineering of the Russian Academy of Sciences	1
Institute for Electrophysics and Electric Power of the Russian Academy of Sciences	1
Scientific Foundation ‘Nansen International Environmental and Remote Sensing Centre’	1
St Petersburg State Transport University	1
Saint Petersburg Mining University	1
Saint Petersburg State University of Veterinary Medicine	1
Bonch-Bruevich Saint Petersburg State University of Telecommunications	1

Sergey Mikushev underscored two grants that will be implemented by interdisciplinary teams:

• ‘Impact of near-guard cells on guard movements’ project directed by Anatoly Pautov, Professor in the Department of Botany at the Faculty of Biology;
• ‘Dialogue of ideologies: formal models of world-view discussions in the Jewish community in the Antiquity and the Middle Ages’ directed by Igor Tantlevskii, Professor in the Department of Jewish Culture at the Institute of Philosophy.

Sergey Mikushev pointed out that recently the grant conditions of the Russian Science Foundation have changed in a significant way demonstrating more restraints in the part of spending the grant funds. There are a lot of entry-level staff among the grant winners at St Petersburg University including assistant lecturers and even an engineer. In the near future, Vice-Rector for Research will organise a meeting for the contest winners. Directors and deans were given a task to collect among the team members and present a list of questions from the authors of applications to the Russian Science Foundation within a week.

Participation of St Petersburg University in the development of the ‘Science’ domain

On 23 October, an official presentation of the GosTech platform took place in the coordination centre at the Government of the Russian Federation. The approaches to the development of specific fields and their content were discussed during the presentation.

The development of the GosTech platform is performed in accordance with Russian Government Order № 676 dated 6 July 2015 ‘On the requirements to the procedure of creating, developing, putting into operation, operation and termination of state information systems and further storage of the data in their data bases’.

Anastasiia Iarmosh, Vice-Rector for Strategic Development and Partnership, said that this platform will provide for digital transformation of the key fields in the modern Russian economic activity. It is aimed at increasing the quality of services and forming a new customer experience. According to the estimate of the project directors, over 850 state information systems of the federal level and 3,700 state information systems of the regional level should migrate to the GosTech platform. The major fields (domains) and groups of services to be deployed in 2022 are ‘Healthcare’, ‘Science and Education’, ‘Social Treasury’, ‘Construction’, and ‘Public Administration’. Following the project concept, a domain is the sphere of national activity with a common segment of service consumers.

On 19 November, following the invitation of the coordination centre at the Government of the Russian Federation, an expert group from St Petersburg University headed by Sergei Belov, Dean of the Faculty of Law, was joined to the implementation of the ‘Science and Education’ domain to develop legislative basis of the suggested IT-solutions. Currently, the architecture of the ‘Science’ domain includes the majority of the required services from grant application management and research project administration (virtual project office) to registration of intellectual activity results and access to research infrastructure.

Operating processes and principles of services provided by the concept touch upon a large corpus of current regulations and require elaboration of proposals on amendments, updates or development of fundamentally new documents. For example, currently the Russian legislation lacks uniformity in the regulation of access to the centres with a shared access to research equipment and unique research policies (terms of access, lists of services, defining the cost for standard services, uniform tariffs across Russia). This creates restrictions for barrier-free access and equal terms in using state public property.

On 30 November, the participants of the meeting of the working group on the ‘Science’ domain development at the coordination centre took the decision to include specific services and solutions from teams of developers from universities in the IT-development. Anastasiia Iarmosh underscored that currently St Petersburg University is the only university that managed to gather a team to take part in the project in due time that fully corresponds to the declared profile, competencies, composition and managed to send the application for participation on 1 December 2021. The team of the Mathematics and Mechanics Faculty headed by Professor Andrei Terekhov will start working on the IT tasks of the ‘Science’ domain already in the first quarter of 2022.

Tasks performed by the directors of the academic and research subdivisions

Every head of the academic and research subdivision of the University has to perform the requirements and duties stated in the additional agreement to the contract of employment concluded with the dean of the faculty or the director of the institute. These duties are later specified in the by-laws issued by the University officials in various spheres of activity.

Vladimir Eremeev, Vice-Rector for Human Resources, noted that the heads of subdivisions can be given tasks and can give tasks in a written form through the Delo information system and in an oral form in relation to the issues within their sphere of responsibility. The response to the request on providing proposals or specific information cannot and should not be just ‘Read and Understood’.

Vladimir Eremeev, Vice-Rector for Human Resources, gave an example: only eight out of 27 heads of academic and research subdivisions responded to the task to provide proposals on preparing publications in scientific journals about the achievements of the University scientists for the 300th anniversary of St Petersburg University (Minutes of the Rector’s meeting dated 11 October 2021). Some of these responses were as follow: ‘We will prepare the publications later’, ‘anniversary publications are not quoted by the journals’. Some heads of subdivisions provided the lists of already published materials.

Vice-Rectors and other University officials will be given a task to immediately inform Vice-Rector for Human Resources about the cases when heads of academic and research subdivisions avoid solving the problems of the University and fail to perform the relevant tasks. Such information will be used to take relevant rapid measures when distributing incentive payments.

List of image-building events in 2022 has been approved

On 2 December, Order № 11618/1 ‘On approving the list of image-building events for 2022’. The list features 20 large-scale events of St Petersburg University including the following: events dedicated to the memorable dates of our country (the Day of Lifting the Siege of Leningrad, Victory Day); University festivals (St Petersburg University Birthday, Matriculation Ceremony); large forums (the Labour Forum, the Legal Forum, the Economic Forum, the Cultural Forum, the ‘Army’ Forum); large exhibitions (Moscow International Education Fair, St Petersburg International Scientific and Educational Salon, St Petersburg International Book Salon, VUZPROMEXPO exhibition and forum); and other events. This year, the list of image building events has included a grand opening and closing of the season in the Botanical Garden at St Petersburg University.

In 2019, St Petersburg University held 16 image-building events, in 2020 — 20 events, and in 2021 — 21 events.

The list of events open for the general public is traditionally expanded with new events. The coming year will not be an exception. Directors and deans were offered to read the Order and send their proposals to Olga Tulsanova, Deputy Senior Vice-Rector for Event Management and Partner Relations.

The process of mailing the Minutes of the Rector’s meetings

On 11 November, Order № 10879/1 was amended in the part related to organising mass mailing of minutes of the Rector’s meetings to the University staff and students. Now, the Head of the Public Relations Department has to send the minutes of the Rector’s meetings to staff and students within three hours from the moment of their publication on the website of St Petersburg University. Minutes of the Rector’s meetings shall be sent to corporate electronic addresses of the University staff and students.

Activities on reducing debtor indebtedness

The University has been working on reducing the debtor indebtedness for over 10 years. In the beginning, the University dealt with the largest delinquent payers. However, in the recent years, the work on all the debtors with even small debts has been performed.

Yury Penov, Deputy Rector for Legal Affairs, said that due to these efforts extended in the course of many years, the indebtedness started to reduce. Although it is not a significant reduction, the general debt is gradually shrinking in many spheres including rent and services provided by the University. Here is an example of this meticulous work: for the students to pay their debts on accommodation in the halls of residence, the staff of the administrative service have to write and send a notice to every delinquent payer on the amount of debt. Then, if the debt has not been paid, they have to file a suit to the court and start enforcement proceedings. Many students pay their debts on a voluntary basis and the sum of general debt is reducing.

Yury Penov said that recently the University has started to conclude licence agreements on the use of intellectual activity products, for example, the ‘CryptoVeche’ software enabling the organisations to hold voting online. However, some organisations regularly forget to pay for the services provided by this software. According to one of the recent inspections of the debtor indebtedness, the so-called ‘The St Petersburg University’s Alumni Association’ has not paid for this service in time. Access to the software has been terminated due to the failure to pay out the debt.