The Choice That Defines the Future: Open House Day Took Place at SUSU

In just several months, university applicants will have to make up their minds regarding their future profession and the university to study in. South Ural State University organised the Open House Day in order to help school leavers and college graduates to answer the question of where to go for studying.

The Rector of SUSU, Aleksandr Shestakov, was the first one who took the stage of the Activity Hall and delivered a speech for the university applicants and their parents and present them the strategy of the university’s development for the next few years:

“In order to be successful, one needs to learn from those who know a lot and can do a lot. SUSU has the status of a national research university and is included in Programme 5-100. This means acknowledgment of the university level, of it being supported by the Government of the Russian Federation, and of the fact that we are constantly working on the strategy of the university’s development, which our future depends on. We have determined three general directions: ‘Digital Industry’, ‘Materials Science’ and ‘Ecology’, which are extremely topical for everyone at the present stage.”

Within a certain strategy, new educational centres are planned to be opened, including the ones on digital industry and artificial intelligence, supervised by internationally-acknowledged foreign scientists.

Also, the Rector told university applicants about benefits that they are going to get, having entered SUSU. The benefits include elite education and project-based learning, the new educational technology introduced at SUSU in September of 2018, targeted at development of specific projects for relevant needs of employers. Another advantages provided by the university are the possibility to complete supplementary education programmes, training for subject-related Olympiads, and advanced learning of English language.

SUSU’s most important advantage among many Russian higher education institutions is considered its positions in the global research and education space:

“There are more than twenty thousand universities around the world, and only some of them form the ‘elite’ of higher education. SUSU is the only university of the Chelyabinsk region included in the most authoritative university ranking called QS World University Ranking, and holds a very remarkable position, the 811th,” noted Vice-Rector for International Relations, Olga Yaroshenko. “Moreover, our university is listed in three subject rankings according to Round University Ranking. Among Russian higher education institutions, we are placed the 41st in engineering sciences, the 37th in social sciences, and the 15th in natural sciences.”

Besides, Vice-Rector for International Relations told university applicants about the opportunity to complete double degree programmes. When taking part in such programmes, students complete their studies in the world’s leading educational institutions and get two documents on education: a SUSU diploma and a diploma issued by the partner university from abroad. Moreover, SUSU students can take part in academic mobility programmes and go for internships to Germany, Czech Republic, China, and many other countries.

Konstantin Krikunov, Deputy Head of the Faculty of Military Education, the only one such Faculty in the Chelyabinsk region established at SUSU, explained that students of the university can master not only a civil specialty, but also a military one. According to results of 2017-2018, SUSU’s Faculty of Military Education was acknowledged as one of the best faculties of military training in the country. Starting from September 1st of 2019, according to the federal law on restructuring the system of military training in civil higher education institutions, the Faculty will be renamed into the Military Training Centre, though it won’t cause any cardinal changes to its operation:

“In this year’s March, the Government published a decree prescribing to establish centres of military training, and from now on, as it was announced in mass media, such centres will be able to perform training of students of all higher education institutions. It is possible to be so in the future, although right now there were no explicit decisions made on this issue, and we will keep performing training of students, but exceptionally of those from SUSU.”

Upon graduation from the university, a student, who successfully completed one’s education in the Military training Centre, will be awarded a rank as a lieutenant, sergeant, or private, and released to the reserve of the Military Forces of the Russian Federation without actual assignment for military duty. Meanwhile, students will have a chance to sign a contract and get recruited for military service not only to the Military Forces of Russia, but also to the Federal Security Service, Department of Internal Affairs, public prosecution office, Investigating Committee, or the Ministry of Emergency Situations.

Up-to-date information regarding detail of how to get admissions to SUSU was presented by executive secretary of the Admissions Committee, Aleksandr Gubarev. Admissions campaign starts on June 20; this year, SUSU provides more than 2700 quotas for state-funded education. There are three ways one can submit the documents: come to the university in person, submit them online or send via email. In their applications, university applicants can specify three majors to which they would like to get enrolled.

“The specificity of our university is in the fact that we allow our applicants to set these three majors in the order of priority. If a university applicant doesn’t get enough points to get enrolled in the first major, he or she can get admissions to the second one, and so on. This allows forming the application just once, and there is no need to once again come to the university in order to rewrite it. Moreover, SUSU provides another unique opportunity for its applicants: if you present the original of your school certificate or diploma, we grant you the access to a personal account, where you can edit your application online.”

SUSU takes into account personal achievements of school leavers and grants them additional points. When submitting an application, SUSU applicants can bring honorary credentials or certificates from Olympiads or any other intellectual, creative or professional contests or sport competitions, including the GTO (Ready for Labor and Defense) badge. Based on these documents, as specified in the Regulations of Admissions, university applicants can be awarded extra points (up to 10 additional points overall).

Moreover, university applicants who are the winners or prize holders of Olympiads, the list of which has been approved by the Ministry of Education and Science of the Russian Federation, have a chance to get enrolled to SUSU for state-funded education without entrance exams, or automatically get 100 points on the subject corresponding to the Olympiad profile.

School leavers with high EGE (unified State Examination) scores get special advantages when submitting their applications. A programme called “SUSU Best” will start its operation at the university specially for those who gets more than 210 points upon results of the exams.

“The Shared Consulting Centre will provide university applicants with information regarding the bonuses that SUSU grants for EGE high achievers. One of such bonuses is a personal scholarship of South Ural State University I the amount of 10 000 rubles, which is paid in the first semester over five years. To get the scholarship, one needs to get enrolled to SUSU with a result of 240 points or more by the results of the Unified State Examination,” stressed Deputy Vice-Rector for Academic Affairs, Yulia Bolotina.

Also, university applicants and their parents learned about the SUSU campus, which nowadays can place 4 000 students. Dormitories are located close to academic buildings, the campus is surrounded by a pine forest and parks and provides all conditions necessary for a comfortable life. By the May of 2020, construction of a new “three-star” dormitory intended for 1 500 residents is planned to be finished.

After the official part, university applicants took part in meetings with directors and representatives of higher schools and institutes of SUSU. There they could ask their questions of concern regarding certain spheres and majors.

“I would like to get enrolled to the Faculty of Psychology, but I haven’t made up my mind regarding a certain major yet. Today I’ve learned that SUSU has such a major as, for example, Psychology of Employment Activity, and this seemed to be very interesting for me. I hope to manage to choose the most perspective major and get enrolled successfully. Thanks for the opportunity to learn more about the university,” said SUSU applicant, Svetlana Kraynova.

Within the framework of the open day, the presentation of the international educational project Erasmus + 585596-EPP-1-2017-1-DE-EPPKA2-CBHEJP “Fostering internationalization in agricultural engineering in Iran and Russia” was held. The project aims to develop a new master's educational program of the international level "Agromechatronics". In addition to SUSU, universities in Russia, Iran and the European Union participate in the development of the program. The “Agromechatronics” master program is being developed based on the latest global developments in the field of mechatronics and robotization in the agro-industrial complex and food industry. The first set on the master's program at SUSU is planned for the 2020 academic year. During the presentation of the project, the lecturers of the department of mechatronics and automation at SUSU told future students about the main disciplines of the master's program and demonstrated the new training equipment – the KUKA training robotic cell, acquired under the Erasmus + grant.

Within the admissions campaign in June and July, foresight sessions and traditional meetings with the Rector will be held for future SUSU students. You can read more about the dates of the beginning and termination of document admissions, as well as of special terms, exams and other advantages provided by the university, by visiting the portal for SUSU applicants.