The Department of Finance, Money Circulation and Credit at the School of Economics and Management of South Ural State University was the first one in the Chelyabinsk Region to start training specialists in the field of finance. The Department’s graduates are among the top management of companies of the federal and international scale.
First Department Training Financial Experts in South Ural
The Department of Finance, Money Circulation and Credit is one of the oldest at South Ural State University. It was established back in 1951 and was called Economics and Organization of Mechanical Engineering Production. In 1996, it became the first one in the region to open the Finance and Credit speciality, and for over twenty years now the Department’s lecturers have been training in-demand specialists.
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“Our Department’s lecturers have been pioneers in many ways. They were the first ones to teach financial disciplines in the fields that were little known of in Russia back then: market economy was only beginning to be implemented into our system. For instance, the equity market did not exist in our country then even in a declarative way, but we were already teaching our students to work in this field of financial activity. Now the higher education has been reconstructed, and a two-cycle system emerged. But within the frameworks of this system we have a program called Finance and Credit. We remain loyal to the field of finance and try to pass on the experience and qualification to our graduates,” shares Head of the Department of Finance, Money Circulation and Credit, Professor, Doctor of Sciences (Economics) Igor Baev.
A company cannot function without a financial expert. It is namely the financial manager who solves the tasks on planning the money flows, budget split, and taking out loans. A competent financial expert not only boosts the profits of his/her company, but also significantly contributes into the development of his/her country’s economy.
“Economics is impossible without finances since economic performances are assessed through money. The financial terminology is also used in everyday life. Every person is a financial expert to a certain extent. We manage our life through managing our money flows. It proves only one thing, that we cannot live without finances. And it’s simply a must to know the mechanisms of forming of the financial flows. So we’ve been teaching people this for over twenty years now,” notes Igor Aleksandrovich.
Department’s Graduates among the Top Management of Russian and International Companies
Competent financial experts are in demand in any organisation the activity of which is related to goods producing or services rendering. The Department trains specialists who upon the university graduation get employed in the major Russian and international companies.
“Our Department’s graduates work in different sectors: our graduates are engaged in banking and consulting, hold high positions in broker companies, investment funds, and in government authorities, in the fields of industry and construction. While many of them climb up to the leading positions. All of it only proves the versatility of the profession of a Financial Expert,” shares Doctor of Sciences (Economics), Professor at the Department Elena Vaisman.
Many of the Department’s graduates work in the major world organisations, including such companies as Ernst & Young, PricewaterhouseCoopers, KPMG, Deloitte, Touche, and Tohmatsu. Former students of our Department manage the financial structures of such Russian organisations as Otkrytie Broker Company, Kantsbyuro, ChelPipe, Magnitogorsk Iron & Steel Works, Elektromashina plant, and others. Also, they hold high positions in the Federal Treasury Department for the Chelyabinsk Region, in the Ministry of Finance, and the region’s Ministry for Economic Development.
Among the Department’s graduates, for instance, are Deputy Executive of the Chelyabinsk Division of Sberbank of Russia Andrey Ruchay, Deputy Chairman of the Management Board of PJSC Chelyabinvestbank Dmitry Piskunov, Chairman of the Management Board of OJSC Bank Snezhinskiy Fedor Bogdanchikov, Financial Director of Chelyabinsk Mechanical Plant Tatiana Zheleznova, Director for Program and Targeted Planning of Rossiiskie Kosmicheskie Sistemy LLC (Russian Space Systems) Elena Asanova, Head of the Fusion Marketing Service at PG Metran Maria Berezina, and other prominent figures of the financial sector.
“Every year, representatives of big companies visit us, hold interviews, business games, and choose those who suit them from among our students,” notes the Head of the Department. “I mean PricewaterhouseCoopers company, and employees from various banks and other organisations. We receive requests for the best graduates of the Department already during the time of the 3rd and the 4th years of their study, so many of these guys upon completing their studies already know where they will be working.”
Financial Experts of the Digital Economy Generation
The Department’s specialists keep improving the academic process in compliance with the requirements of the today’s world.
“We’re training specialists who are able to work under the changing conditions, develop new technologies, and participate in implementing those. Currently we’re in the state of the Fourth Industrial Revolution, and digitalization of society, and we undoubtedly take this into consideration for the academic process. Our students master cryptoeconomics, digital economics, and many other fields,” shares Associate Professor of the Department, Candidate of Sciences (Economics) Lidiya Galkina.
This year in particular, two groups were gathered at the Department: full-time students and part-time students, who will train under the new Master’s program on Strategic and Corporate Management in the Context of Digital Economy. It aims at training highly qualified specialists having knowledge in the fields of Economics, Management, and Information Technologies, and ready to work in the conditions of a digital reality. The program implies teaching such modern disciplines as Economy of Knowledge, Agile Methods of Management, Internet of Things, and Cryptoeconomics and the Use of the Blockchain Technology.
“Besides the Master’s program, the new disciplines are also included into other curricula. Starting from this year we will gain experience on training specialists who will have mastered the newest fields of digital economy. In the process of teaching, we constantly use such programs as Project Expert, Alt-Invest, as well as programs related to broker activity and financial analytics,” stresses Associate Professor of the Department, Candidate of Sciences (Economics) Irina Solovyova.
Within the frameworks of the project-based learning an agreement was signed by the Department with REM company (Russian Electrical Motors), where students take internship and gain real work experience. Currently negotiations are being held on signing an agreement with a cryptofund, where the future financial experts will be able to study this field in details.