Minutes of the Rector’s Meeting

The University members of the academic staff are the laureates of the Professor of the Year Award and the Dean of the Year Award

The Professor Forum 2021 ’Science and Technology of the 21st Century: Trends and Prospects’, has held a solemn ceremony of giving the national awards of the Russian Professorial Assembly. Among the winners of the prestigious awards are professors at St Petersburg University.

The laureates are: Professor Tatiana Chernigovskaya, Director of the Institute for Cognitive Studies; Professor Elena Kazakova, Director of the Institute of Pedagogy; and Professor Iurii Shcherbuk, Dean of the Faculty of Dental Medcine and Medical Technologies.

The winners in the Dean of the Year category were two representatives from St Petersburg University: Nikolai Skvortsov, Dean of the Faculty of Sociology at St Petersburg University; and Petr Iablonskii, Dean of the Faculty of Medicine at St Petersburg University (Professors and deans of St Petersburg University receive awards from the Russian Professorial Assembly).

The participants of the meeting congratulated their colleagues on receiving the awards.

Current issues with organising the teaching and learning process

Over the past period, the Virtual Reception received 33 enquiries submitted by students and academic staff (including 13 enquiries relating to academic issues and methodological issues) addressed to the Senior Vice-Rector for Academic Activities and Teaching Methods, with 17 enquiries registered at the catalogue of student enquiries.

The enquiries vary in topics: rules and regulations for choosing the topics of the graduation projects; submitting the data on getting vaccinated against COVID-19 by the University international students through personal accounts; obtaining full information in the notice of education at St Petersburg University; submitting changes in personal data; access for students and postgraduate students to the University premises; submitting data on graduating the University to the UK’s Health and Care Professions Council (HCPC); learning foreign languages at St Petersburg University; academic transfer to another academic programme; academic transfer to another university; issuing an academic notice, notice of education, and notice of non-attendance to the assessment board to resit the elective discipline ‘Business Etiquette’; Russian Census (Will there be a response to the appeal of the Student Council regarding the practice within the framework of the Russian Census?; If I do not sign an agreement with Rosstat, am I obliged to do an internship there?; How can you refuse to work in the Russian Census?). All submitted enquiries are followed by checkups and responded in due course and manner.

According to information from the heads of most academic and research divisions, no problems in organising the teaching and learning process have been identified. Classes are delivered according to the schedule in a blended format. There were no appeals, complaints, or comments submitted by students or academic staff.

At the Institute of Earth Sciences, there was a problem with the timetable for an academic programme. The timetable for one academic group for Monday, 27 September, did not have a discipline ’Geophysical Fields in Geoecology’. There were no data on the name of the member of the academic staff who was to deliver the class; the format of delivering the class; or the room where the class was scheduled to be delivered. This elective discipline was included in the timetable before the procedure for choosing elective disciplines was over. So, the timetable had an error and did not have necessary data. Now, the procedure of choosing elective disciplines is over and the data is displayed in the timetable correctly.

Due to the large number of second-year international students in all areas of study who have not come to study in the Russian Federation, additional five academic groups in physical culture were formed for distance learning using information and communication technologies.

Some heads of divisions and departments did not meet with student councils over the past week.

The Director of the College of Physical Training and Sports, Economics and Technology held meetings with student activists and second-, third-, and fourth-year students to discuss internships (in each profile of the field of study). 27 agreements for internships were approved, signed, and registered, with potential jobs for students being taken into account.

The Chairperson of the Student Council and the Chairperson of the Research Committee of the Student Council asked the Director of the Institute of History to help in organising an open lecture by a lecturer from the European University at St Petersburg at the premises of St Petersburg University. The Director of the Institute of History refused to allow students to organise this event and explained that the administration of the European University at St Petersburg could organise lectures by its academic staff in its premises, and the University students can attend these lectures in compliance with all safety measures.

There was a meeting between the Dean of the Faculty of Arts and representatives of the Student Council to discuss the current issues. Among them were: the results of increased state academic scholarships; the matriculation ceremony for first-year students; and an enquiry submitted by third-year students in relation to a possible technical failure during online testing in the discipline ’Language of Effective Communication’. The necessary instructions have been issued.

The meeting between the Dean of the Faculty of Medicine and representatives of the Student Council focused on the issue of approving the topics of graduation projects of sixth-year students. They discussed Order № 2882/1 ‘On the requirements for research supervisors of students’ graduation projects’ dated 31 March 2017. The procedure to change the topics of projects was explained to students. Representatives of the Student Council made a presentation on the prospects for the development of student research community in surgery and presented proposals for organising extracurricular activities for students to develop practical surgical and microsurgical skills. The Student Council was informed about the Simulation Centre at St Petersburg University and the procedure to gain access to this centre. Representatives of the Student Council made a presentation on the multicentre international study MOPED and offered to disseminate information about it.

A representative of the Student Council asked the Director of the Institute of Earth Sciences about the possibility for students to work in the Russian Census and receive a salary. Any students in any area of study can take part in the Russian Census. The Student Council was proposed to form a list of those wishing to take part in the Russian Census with academic groups being identified and submit it to the Internship Department.

The issue of organising the internship of students in the Federal State Statistics Service (Rosstat) in St Petersburg and the Leningrad Region (participation in the Russian Census) was also discussed at meetings with student councils, students, and Director of the Institute of History, Director of the Institute of Philosophy, Dean of the Faculty of Sociology, and Dean of the Faculty of Philology. During the meetings with student councils, they were informed about the organisation of work of census takers, their training, signing civil contracts, and issuing insurance against accidents to name just a few.

The participants of the Rector’s meeting discussed the participation of the University students in the Russian Census. It was noted that a student would not be able to take part in the census if an agreement was not signed between a student and Rosstat. Signing a civil contract is possible only the parties have reached an agreement. In other words, both a student and the Federal State Statistics Service (Rosstat) can refuse to sign a contract (Is the practice as part of the Russian Census obligatory for St Petersburg University students?). The Director of the Institute of Philosophy Nikita Kuznetsov said that during conversations with students he explained to them that students in philosophy who did not undergo practical training during the Russian Census would have the opportunity to have practice at a later time within the framework of the sociological research to enable students to acquire the same soft skills as they could acquire during the Census.

We continued to discuss the forms of encouraging census participants and medical students (Minutes of the Rector’s meeting dated 27 September 2021). Ivan Pchelin, Acting Dean of the Faculty of Medicine, said that the administration of the Faculty of Medicine supported the initiative to reward students for working with patients with the new coronavirus disease. Both in 2020 and in 2021, among the individual achievements of students to be admitted to the clinical residency programme was ‘employment in the positions of medical workers with higher education or secondary vocational education, in the positions of junior medical personnel and (or) the completing practical training in the academic programme in medicine (specialist’s programme, bachelor’s programme, master’s programme), if the specified activities and (or) practical training included activities for the diagnosis and treatment of coronavirus disease and their total duration is at least 30 calendar days’ (Clause 3.18).

In 2021, 121 out of 249 persons enrolled in clinical residency programmes at the Faculty of Medicine, scored points under Clause 3.18.

Incident at the meeting of the Student Council at St Petersburg University

On 24 September, there was a meeting of the Student Council at St Petersburg University. A postgraduate student in economics was invited to take part in the meeting. During the meeting, he used vulgar language when communicating with the students. The meeting of the Student Council was broadcast online on the Internet. When the meeting was over, the recording of this meeting was posted in the public account of the Student Council on the social network Vkontakte.

The postgraduate student’s behaviour provoked a negative reaction from most of students and their parents. They submitted relevant enquiries and appeals, including those to the University’s Virtual Reception (Is it possible to send University students away with a flea in their ear?). The incident was widely covered in media. The overall number of those who read this news is tens of thousands of people.

It was noted that such news negatively affects the reputation of the University. The University’s Student and Staff Code of Conduct establishes the most important duty of all University students and staff to: honour academic staff; respect colleagues and students; support friendly relations both inside and outside the University; and create an atmosphere of mutual understanding and cooperation.

An appeal relating to the incident was sent to law enforcement agencies and the University Ethics Commission.

Weekend trips to the health-improving complex ‘Universitetskiy’ for the University students

In order to organise recreation for the University students, the University offers weekend trips to the health-improving complex ‘Universitetskiy’. In total, 11 weekend trips are planned, with a total number of students up to 1,100 people.

Organisation of weekend trips to the health-improving complex ‘Universitetskiy’ in the autumn semester of the 2021/22 academic year is in accordance with the Regulations on providing vouchers to St Petersburg University students to the health-improving complex ‘Universitetskiy’ for weekend trips, approved by Order № 9339/1 (Regulations).

The regulation takes into account measures to stop the spread of coronavirus disease (COVID-19). In particular, students can apply for vouchers for weekend trips to the health-improving complex ‘Universitetskiy’, if one of the following documents is submitted no later than one day before the first day of arrival:

• a certificate of vaccination against coronavirus (COVID-19)
• a certificate of having coronavirus disease (COVID-19) during six months before the arrival date
• a document confirming a medical exemption to the immunisation against coronavirus disease (COVID-19)
• a document confirming the negative result of a laboratory test for COVID-19 by the polymerase chain reaction (PCR) method carried out no earlier than three calendar days before the date of arrival

Meeting of the Rector Nikolay Kropachev with the Director for Technology Development at Gazprom Neft Alexei Vashkevich

On 1 October, the Rector of St Petersburg University Nikolay Kropachev met with Alexei Vashkevich, Director for Technology Development at Gazprom Neft. They discussed the strategy of institutional development of relations between the Gazpromneft Science & Technology Centre and St Petersburg University in education and research. Among the key topics the meeting focused on was a discussion of new approaches to managing large-scale projects. During the meeting, the participants pointed out the need to concentrate joint efforts to cope with the global challenges of the industry and to take them into account in the development priorities of St Petersburg University.

The first agreement between St Petersburg University and the Gazpromneft Science & Technology Centre was signed in 2017. The main areas of joint work today are the implementation of research and development and personnel training (joint academic programmes). The dynamics of how joint work has been developing is evidenced by the number of employees at St Petersburg University enaged in the projects. In 2019, 30 people were engaged in the projects, while in 2021 there were 75 people (academic staff at the Institute of Chemistry, the Institute of Earth Sciences and all three faculties of mathematics). In September 2021, St Petersburg University won the open competition ’Selection of applications for the right to sign an agreement to perform research and development, develop technical documentation, create research and technical products, and other work on the topic "Development of solutions in the framework of technology development projects and methodological, organisational and research and technical support of projects"’. The amount of the agreement signed between St Petersburg University and the Gazprom Neft Science & Technology Centre is 1.6 billion roubles. This agreement will ensure stable collaboration for the period up to 2030.

Indicators of research at St Petersburg University

Every year, in order to implement Order № 162 of the Ministry of Higher Education and Science of the Russian Federation dated 5 March 2014 (with amendments and additions), St Petersburg University is to send information about research through the account of the research organisation in the information system. The analysis of the scientometric indicators of St Petersburg University according to the reporting data for the last three years shows the following:

1. The number of postgraduate students of the organisation is increasing every year. There was a rise from 2,203 postgraduate students in 2018 to 2,378 in 2020. The number of doctoral students remains at the same level: 8, 7 and 10 in 2018, 2019 and 2020, respectively.
2. In 2020, the number of defended dissertations increased. There was a rise from 75 candidate dissertations in 2019 to 102 candidate dissertations in 2020; from 12 doctoral dissertations in 2019 to 21 doctoral dissertations in 2020. Nevertheless, similar indicators for 2018 (212 candidate dissertations and 33 doctoral dissertations) are still higher than the indicators for 2020.
3. From 2018 to 2020, there has been a consistent increase in indicators related to publication activity. This trend concerns both the number of publications in journals indexed in the Web of Science and Scopus, and the citation of these publications. Additionally, the overall impact factor of the journals in which the organisation’s articles are published also shows stable growth every year.

The share of publications in the Q1 journals from 2018 to 2020

The share of publications in the journals indexed in the Web of Science, per year, %
Quartile	2018	2019	2020
Q1	29.9	30.13	32.98
Q2	27.76	28.14	28.18
The share of the publications in the journals indexed in the Scopus, per year, %
Quartile	2018	2019	2020
Q1	27.3	28.8	28.8
Q2	19.6	20.8	21.7

4. The number of articles prepared together with international organisations is also increasing.

The share of publications with international co-authors, %
2018	2019	2020
34.38	35.22	35.94

5. The total number of research, design, and technological works over the past three years is increasing. In 2019, there was a slight decrease in the number of published works (published for the first time monographs, textbooks, dictionaries) compared to the same indicator in 2018 (279 in 2018; 252 in 2019). However, the number of such works in 2020 (283) exceeds the number for 2018.
6. The number of published periodicals remains at the same level (100 in 2017; 99 in 2018; 102 in 2020). The number of unpublished works of science (reports on research projects registered with the integrated national information system (EGISU) and expert evaluations conducted by St Petersburg University) increased from 435 in 2018 and 477 in 2019 to 486 in 2020.
7. The number of results of intellectual activity created over the past three years has remained approximately at the same level: 76 in 2018, 75 in 2019 and 77 in 2020. The number of results of intellectual activity with state registration and (or) legal protection in the Russian Federation increased from 33 in 2018 to 62 in 2020, and the number of those with legal protection outside the Russian Federation increased from two in 2018 to 15 in 2020 year.
8. Although in 2020 there were restrictive measures relating to coronavirus disease and there was a decrease in the number of competitions announced by the Russian Foundation for Basic Research (RFBR) (compared to 2018), in terms of grant activity for the period 2018–2020 there was a slight decrease in the number of RFBR grants (2018 — 600 grants, 2019 — 721 grants, 2020 — 702 grants) and an increase in the total number of the Russian Science Foundation (RSF) grants carried out at St Petersburg University (2018 — 171 grants, 2019 — 260 grants, 2020 — 263 grants). There is also a positive trend in new supported grants from the President of the Russian Federation (2018 — 22 grants, 2019 — 13 grants, 2020 — 24 grants).
9. In 2019, the number of small innovative enterprises created with the participation of the organisation increased from 49 to 61, and their total income increased from 111,987,000 roubles up to 116,851,000 roubles, respectively. In 2020, the indicators remained at the level of 2019.
10. The cost of remuneration of employees who performed research and development increased from 379,322,000.6 thousand roubles in 2018 up to 1,283,999,000.13 roubles in 2020.
11. In 2019 and 2020, the number of popular science publications produced by employees of the organisation has significantly decreased compared to 2018: 373 in 2018; 180 and 193 in 2019 and 2020, respectively.
12. The number of positive and neutral references to the organisation in the federal media has increased significantly: from 11,053 in 2018 to 38,951 in 2019 and 41,631 in 2020.
13. The number of hits (website traffic) of the official websites and (or) pages of the organisation posted on the information and telecommunications network of the Internet increased sharply in 2020: from 3,890,000 in 2018 and 4,070,000 in 2019 to 16,400,000 in 2020.

Every year, prizes named after prominent scientists awarded by the Russian Academy of Sciences and prizes awarded by the Russian Academy of Sciences for outstanding achievements by early-career researchers are awarded for the best research work. In 2020, the number of awards of the Russian Academy of Sciences has increased significantly compared to 2018 and 2019.

Prizes named after prominent scientists awarded by the Russian Academy of Sciences to St Petersburg University researchers in 2018 to 2020

Year	The number of awards	Award winners
2020	4	Nikolay Zelinsky Prize of the Russian Academy of Sciences — Valentin Ananikov Sergei Rubinstein Prize of the Russian Academy of Sciences — Irina Mironenko Alexander Veselovsky Prize of the Russian Academy of Sciences — Aleksei Sirenov Friedrich Tsander Prize of the Russian Academy of Sciences — Alexey Tikhonov
2019	4	Petr Rebinder Prize of the Russian Academy of Sciences — Anatolii Kuchma, Aleksandr Shchekin Vladimir Dal Gold Medal of the Russian Academy of Sciences— Valerii Mokienko Sergey Lebedev Prize of the Russian Academy of Sciences — Aleksandr Iakimanskii
2018	1	Aleksandr Andronov Prize of the Russian Academy of Sciences — Aleksandr Fradkov

The prizes awarded by the Russian Academy of Sciences to early-career researchers for the best research works in 2018 to 2020

Year	The number of awards	Award winners
2020	5	In the field of geology, geophysics, geochemistry, and mining sciences — Olga Iakubovich In the field of mathematics — Ivan Bochkov In the field of oceanology, physics of the atmosphere, and geography — Aleksandr Fedorov In the field of development and creation of devices, methods, technologies of the scientific and applied significance — Andrei Shishov In the field of agro-industrial complex — Ekaterina Ivanova
2019	1	In the field of history — Valentina Chikina
2018	1	In the field of geology, geophysics, geochemistry, and mining sciences — Elena Zhitova

In 2020 (compared to 2018), the number of received international awards and prizes also increased: 4 in 2018, 14 in 2019, 11 in 2020.

List of international prizes and awards 2018-2020

No	Name, position of a member of St Petersburg University who received an award (title,prize etc.)	Field of research at St Petersburg University (research area of the laureate)	Name of the award (title, prize etc.)	Name of the international university (organization) that awarded the prize (title etc.)
2018
1.	Alexander Novik, Associate Professor in the Department of General Linguistics	Philology	1st place (diploma) of the laureate and a national prize in the national competition of scientific monographs of the Academy of Sciences of Albania 2018 (Konkursi kombëtar për çmimin e Akademisë së Shkencave të Shqipërisë 2018)	Academy of Sciences of Albania
2.	Anna Chelnokova, Associate Professor in the Department of Indian Philology	Asian and African Studies	World Hindi Award (Vishwa Hindi Samman) for contributions to the study and promotion of Hindi	Ministry of External Affairs, Goverment of India
3.	Yehuda Shoenfeld, Chief Research Associate in the Laboratory of the Mosaic of Autoimmunity	Medicine	Medical and Scientific Contribution Award	Israeli Medical Association
4.	Vladimir Popondopulo, Professor in the Department of Commercial Law	Model lawmaking	Medal ’IPA CIS. 25 years.’ Resolution of the Interparliamentary Assembly of Member Nations of the Commonwealth of Independent States (IPA CIS) Council dated 12 April 12 2018 No 21	IPA CIS
2019
1.	Raul Gainetdinov, Professor, Laboratory of Neurobiology and Molecular Pharmacology, Director of the Institute of Translational Biomedicine	Pharmacology and toxicology	Highly Cited Researchers Award 2019	Web of Science
2.	Gennady Leonov, Dean of Mathematics and Mechanics Faculty	Cross-Field	Highly Cited Researchers Award 2019	Web of Science
3.	Nikolay Kuznetsov, Professor in the Department of Applied Cybernetics	Cross-Field	Highly Cited Researchers Award 2019	Web of Science
4.	Pavel Pevzner, Chief Advisor of the Centre for Algorithmic Biotechnology	Medicine	Paris Kanellakis Theory and Practice Award	Association for Computing Machinery
5.	Milena Rozhdestvenskaia, Professor in the Department of History of Russian Literature	Philology	Medal of the Imperial Orthodox Palestine Society (IOPS) in memory of Doctor of History, Deputy Chairperson of the IOPS, researcher and public figure Nikolai Lisovoi for professional activity on the study of historical, cultural and literary ties between Russia and the Middle East	International Public Organisation ’Imperial Orthodox Palestine Society’
6.	Alla Lapidus, Deputy Director, Centre for Algorithmic Biotechnology, Professor, Department of Cytology and Histology	Biology	Professor of the Year in Life Sciences	National award ’Professor of the Year’, Russian Professorial Assembly
7.	Elena Zernova, Associate Professor in the Department of Romance Philology	Philology	Member of the ‘Enxebre Orde da Vieira’	Orde da Vieira
8.	Irina Mikhailova, Professor, Department of Scandinavian and Dutch Philology	Philology	Martinus Nijhoff Vertaalprijs (Prins Bernhard Cultuurfonds Award for excellence in the translation of Dutch literature)	Prins Bernhard Cultuurfonds
9.	Alexander Knysh, Professor, Laboratory for Analysis and Modelling of Social Processes	International Relations	Award of the President of the Islamic Republic of Iran Hassan Rouhani for the book ’Sufism’, which was recognised as the Book of the Year in Iran in the category ‘Islamic Studies’	Award of the President of the Islamic Republic of Iran
10.	Vadim Kukushkin, Professor in the Department of Physical Organic Chemistry	Chemistry	Reaxys Award Russia 2019 in the nomination ’The number of citations of articles in the field of chemistry and on science materials among highly-cited authors’	Elsevier company and Mendeleev Russian Chemical Society
11.	Nadezhda Bokach, Professor in the Department of Physical Organic Chemistry	Chemistry	Reaxys Award Russia 2019 in the category ’For achievements in coordination chemistry’	Elsevier company and Mendeleev Russian Chemical Society
12.	Elena Grigorenko, Chief Research Associate in the Laboratory for Interdisciplinary Research of Human Development	Psychology	Mary Ainsworth Award for Excellence in Developmental Science	American Psychological Association
13.	Elena Grigorenko, Chief Research Associate in the Laboratory for Interdisciplinary Research of Human Development	Psychology	Mary Ainsworth Award for Excellence in Developmental Science	American Psychological Association
14.	Elena Grigorenko, Chief Research Associate in the Laboratory for Interdisciplinary Research of Human Development	Psychology	Distinguished Faculty Award	College of Liberal Arts and Social Sciences, University of Houston
2020
1.	Dmitrii Bolotin, Associate Professor in the Department of Physical Organic Chemistry	Chemistry	European Academy Award	EC
2.	Nikolay Kuznetsov, Professor in the Department of Applied Cybernetics	Mathematics, Mechanics	The Finnish Information Processing Association (TIVIA) Award, which was first awarded to a foreign scientist ( https://tivia.fi/2020/07/02/tivia-keski-suomi-ryn-vuoden-2019- tunnustusp ... )
3.	Raul Gainetdinov, Professor, Laboratory of Neurobiology and Molecular Pharmacology, Director of the Institute of Translational Biomedicine	Pharmacology and toxicology	Highly Cited Researchers Award 2019	Web of Science
4.	Gennady Leonov, Dean of the Mathematics and Mechanics Faculty	Cross-Field	Highly Cited Researchers Award 2019	Web of Science
5.	Nikolay Kuznetsov, Professor in the Department of Applied Cybernetic	Cross-Field	Highly Cited Researchers Award 2019	Web of Science
6.	Alexey Kavokin, Chief Research Associate, Spin Optics Laboratory	Mathematics, Physics	ISCS 2020 Quantum Devices Prize (the first Russian scientist to win the prize)	Compound Semiconductor Week 2021 in Sweden
7.	Arto Urtti, Head of the Laboratory of Biohybrid Technologies, Institute of Chemistry	Chemistry	Takeru & Aya Higuchi Memorial Lectureship Award	Academy of Pharmaceutical Science and Technology, Japan
8.	Elena Grigorenko, Chief Research Associate, Laboratory for Interdisciplinary Research of Human Development	Psychology	Translation Award	International Mind, Brain and Education Society (IMBES), USA
9.	German-Russian Interdisciplinary Science Centre (G-RISC)		Best joint German-Russian project	Winner of the project competition within the framework of the Russian-German Year of Scientific and Educational Partnerships 2018–2020
10.	Centre for German and European Studies		Best joint German-Russian project	Winner of the project competition within the framework of the Russian-German Year of Scientific and Educational Partnerships 2018–2020
11.	TRR 160: Coherent manipulation of interacting spin excitations in tailored semiconductors, St Petersburg University and Ioffe Institute		Best joint German-Russian project	Winner of the project competition within the framework of the Russian-German Year of Scientific and Educational Partnerships 2018–2020

Anti-corruption

In order to implement Federal Law № 273-FE ’On Anti-Corruption’ dated 25 December 2008 and Presidential Decree № 478 ’On the National Anti-Corruption Plan for 2021—2024′ dated 16 August 2021 in St Petersburg University, the University approved a plan of anti-corruption measures (Order № 9265/1 dated 29 September 2021). The directors and deans were instructed to send suggestions and comments for further improvement of work in this direction.

Using Okdesk to organise the remote learning and teaching process in Management

In spring 2020, the Graduate School of Management and the University had to move to distance learning. Most of the Rector’s Office staff that are responsible for implementing academic programmes and research in the field of management started to work remotely, as stipulated by the orders of Vice-Rectors. The Rector set the task for the IT departments of St Petersburg University to make this transition as seamless as possible to ensure the quality of the teaching and learning process.

The Rector’s Office staff that ensure the teaching and learning process in Management at ​​St Petersburg University faced a difficulty: almost everyone involved was outside the premises of the Mikhailovskaya Dacha Campus, including full-time engineers. To organise the teaching and learning process in such a difficult situation, a flexible application management system and comprehensive technical support were required to assist students and academic staff.

The transition to distance learning meant changes in the existing scenarios for the interaction of people involved. In particular, it was necessary to solve such non-trivial tasks as: monitoring behaviour of students during exams; creating special rooms for exams; equipping workplaces for students and academic staff; and organising operational communication channels to name just a few.

Following the results of a comparative analysis of various systems for the organisation of technical support for users within the framework of remote training for the academic programmes in Management, the accounting and order management system Okdesk was chosen. The Okdesk is a cloud system that enables the IT department in Management to: promptly receive various enquiries from users; distribute incoming enquiries among employees; clarify the details of their content (if necessary); and track the changing status of the received enquiries.

Academic staff and administrative staff that are responsible to ensure the teaching and learning process at the Graduate School of Management are computer literate. It was therefore possible to switch to remote work within one to two weeks and introduce a remote format of teaching students. It took another month to finely adjust all processes.

The simplified life cycle of an enquiry is as follows: students, academic staff, and employees submit their enquiries with a description of the problem that has arisen. During the exams, an enquiry submitted by a student or a member of academic staff is forwarded to the office of the acadcemic programme. Only after that, the enquiries get to the IT specialists.

The initial plans for leveraging technical support through remote learning by using the Okdesk expanded rapidly. The system ensures simultaneous operation of many different processes with high quality. It started to be used by other divisions of the Rector’s Office to support the teaching and learning process and research (the branch department of the Scientific Library, Research Support Services, PR, economic divisions, etc.). Apart from providing technical support for users, the Okdesk system set up parallel queues of enquiries for the branch department of the Library to provide access to electronic resources. Then, the Okdesk system set up parallel management of the enquiries of the branch department of the administrative, economic, and PR services.

As a result, the system ensured a much easier way for students and academic staff to contact various administration services because enquiries are created and distributed in an electronic form. The systematisation of the work of the services of the administration has made it possible to significantly increase the convenience and quality of handling incidents, and to increase the number of consultations. As part of implementation of the management system Okdesk, IT department syncronised the system and the University’s Technical Support Service OTRS. All applications of the University system will automatically enter the Okdesk system.

Among the promising technical tasks are: integration of the Okdesk and virtual PBX that is currenly being installed; and using the function of recurring enquiries to ensure operational advice and routine maintenance of individual infrastructure elements.

The ICT development strategy of St Petersburg University for the next three years provides for a revision of the landscape of communication services and the creation of a single digital platform for electronic interaction. What will underpin these changes will be the experience of using the Okdesk and experience in using a university-wide accounting system hardware running on the software Hardware Inspector, ITIL, and ITSM. These plans, as part of the digital transformation of St Petersburg University, are aimed to: increase the availability of St Petersburg University’s resources and services; reduce the time spent on processing electronic enquiries; and transparently assess the efficiency of the resources in use.

Actions of law enforcement officials in connection with violations of the legislation of the Russian Federation and by-laws of St Petersburg University

On 29 September, the Virtual Reception received an enquiry submitted by the Deputy Chairperson of the Student Council of the Faculty of Applied Mathematics and Control Process Vadim Suleimanov. He asked about the legitimacy of the actions of the police officers on 24 September to protect public order and the rule of law in the University’s halls of residence located in Peterhof.

In this regard, it was explained that in accordance with Article 1 of Federal Law № 3-FZ ’On Police’ dated 7 February 2011, the police can protect public order and ensure public safety in the assigned territory.

On the night of 18 to 19 September, in the halls of residence in the Petrodvortsovy District of St Petersburg, a group of students was involved in unlawful activities: violating the requirements of administrative legislation of the Russian Federation, internal rules of St Petersburg University, including provisions on keeping silence at night (administrative responsibility for violation of the peace and quiet of citizens in the night, at weekends and on public holidays established by Article 8 of Law of St Petersburg № 273-70 ‘On administrative offenses in St Petersburg’ dated 12 May 2010), a ban on the consumption of (drinking) alcohol products on the territory of the educational organisation (administrative responsibility is established by Article 20.20 of the Code of Administrative Offenses of the Russian Federation ), and requirements to prevent the spread of coronavirus disease (Minutes of the Rector’s meeting dated 20 September 2021 ). In this regard, the administration of the Department of the Russian Ministry of Internal Affairs for the Petrodvortsovy District of St Petersburg and Acting Deputy Rector for Security at the University Dmitry Gryaznov made a decision to periodically conduct patrols by police officers (with the involvement of employees of the Security Department at St Petersburg University) in the halls of residence in Peterhof.

Attention was drawn to the fact that, according to Paragraph 6 of Article 13 of Federal Law № 3-FZ ’On Police’ dated 7 February 2011, police officers have the right to patrol public places while performing the functions assigned to the police, which, as mentioned above, include the protection of public order and ensuring public safety.

Thus, the actions of the police officers to maintain public order on 24 September were legitimate and did not require any authorisation. The result of these events is detecting violations of the administrative legislation of the Russian Federation by students at St Petersburg University. In particular, seven students of the University were brought to administrative responsibility for committing offenses under Article 20.20 of the ’Code of Administrative Offenses of the Russian Federation’ (consumption of alcoholic beverages).

In order to conduct preventive measures to cope with disturbances of public order and to ensure the rule of law, there was submitted an enquiry to the chief of the Department of the Russian Ministry of Internal Affairs for the Petrodvortsovy District of St Petersburg. It was asked to open a police office in the University’s halls of residence (as it was done in Lomonosov Moscow State University and other universities across the Russian Federation).

Changes in human resources

The University Chief Engineer Maksim Ivanov was appointed as the Vice-Rector for Capital Construction at St Petersburg University.