Rector Aleksei Chumachenko Presented Annual Report at Academic Council Meeting
On February 2, SSU held a meeting of the academic councils of its institutes and faculties. There Rector Aleksei Chumachenko delivered the 2020 report and spoke about the main directions of the university development.
In his introduction, Aleksey Nikolayevich stressed that the challenges of the time associated with the new coronavirus infection COVID-19 entailed new decisions and affected all areas of the university's work. The organization of training sessions, exams, defenses of coursework and final qualification works changed. Large-scale purchases of personal protective equipment and protective equipment for university premises were carried out. The work of the university website was corrected taking into account educational work and the organization of distance learning. The social issues of helping students and staff who fell ill with a new infection or were in contact with infected people were resolved.
The rector noted that all structural divisions of the university, from the security service to business executives, played an important role in organizing student training and the admission campaign, a huge burden fell on the Institute of Electronic and Distance Learning and the Educational Department. The electronic resources of the scientific library turned out to be in demand as never before.
The year was darkened by a series of sad events: D.I. Trubetskov, V.S. Anischenko, Yu.I. Levin, R.Z. Nazarova are scientists and teachers whose role in the history of the university can hardly be overestimated.
Despite the difficulties, 2020 will be remembered for both new advances in science, and significant transformations of university buildings as a result of repair and restoration work, and the creation of an endowment fund. The initiative of the Chairman of the State Duma V.V. Volodin on the creation of the Faculty of Fundamental Medicine and Medical Technologies: all the necessary regulatory and methodological documents were prepared, a license to conduct educational activities was obtained, 50 budgetary places were allocated, the premises for the faculty are being put in order.
“The relevance and promise of interdisciplinary training in such specialties as“ Medical Biochemistry ”,“ Medical Biophysics ”,“ Medical Cybernetics ”is obvious. The fact is that in modern medicine a huge role is assigned to technical and technological equipment, IT-technologies, which allow at a high level and effectively carry out laboratory and instrumental diagnostics for the detection of various diseases, including at an early stage. The new faculty of SSU begins to train specialists for the medicine of the future, ”A.N. Chumachenko.
In addition, the Faculty of Physics, the Faculty of Nonlinear Processes, and the Faculty of Nano- and Biomedical Technologies have merged into the Institute of Physics "in the name of the entire corporation of university physicists entering new educational and scientific orbits." Today, with all the nuances and differences, the three faculties have similar objects of study and a common methodological base. The rector thanked Valerii Anikin, S.B. Venig, remembered with a kind word Yu.I. Levin, deans, who all these years led their faculties successfully and with good results.
The speaker recalled that the university honorably celebrated the 75th anniversary of the Great Victory. Dozens of actions were held. The online project “SSU: Immortal Regiment” became a notable event. The book "Their names are in our memory" was prepared and published.
The university managed not to reduce its indicators in the global rankings of universities. In 2020 SSU for the fifth time was included in the list of the best universities in the world according to the Times Higher Education magazine. The university looks good in the QS rating, showing positive dynamics since entering this rating in 2014. “I would like to emphasize that it is not easy to maintain the occupied positions in the global rankings, this is the result of the enormous work of the entire university staff. Our task for the next year is to preserve these high places, ”noted Aleksey Nikolaevich.
The rector called the development of an educational consortium using the format of network programs as the most important tasks in the field of education development. SSU became a member of the Consortium of the Center for Quantum Technologies of Moscow State University. Work has begun on the creation and launch of an online master's program. Colleges prepared for the demonstration exam. The Balashov Institute has begun the implementation of the PEDCLASS project aimed at attracting potential applicants. The first graduation of SSU students, who studied under the program "IT-support of the economic and financial activities of the enterprise", which is implemented jointly with the company "Nornickel - Shared Service Center", took place. Alexey Nikolaevich noted the importance of creating online courses as a popular area of activity. The speaker emphasized the new role that additional vocational education should play. This is not only advanced training and professional retraining of teachers and students of the university, but also a significant expansion of the range of activities ordered by external partners. To optimize this work, the Centre for Professional Development and Business Strategy was created at IDPO.
In his report, the rector emphasized that the research and innovation activities of the university reached a new level. SSU was included in the number of universities of the first category, thanks to which the university successfully participated in the competition for grants to update the instrument base. Within the framework of the five-year program, the purchase of laboratory equipment, which is most in demand at the university, is already underway.
The most important event of the year was the creation of the Scientific Medical Center under the leadership of RAS Corresponding Member Valerii Tuchin. The center is interdisciplinary in nature and brings together scientists, chemists, physicists, biologists, psychologists, specialists in the field of mathematical modeling and computer science. The creation of the Center will not only give a new impetus for the systemic development of fundamental medical research, but will also serve as a scientific base for the new faculty.
The rector drew the attention of those present to the annual growth in the proportion of young scientists participating in scientific projects of the university. The total volume of grant funding for scientific research during the reporting period became the maximum in recent years.
The number of publications in top-rated magazines is constantly growing. One of the reasons for this growth is the entry of Saratov University journals into the international systems of information and analytical scientific citation. In total, 14 scientific journals are published at SSU, two of which are included in the Web of Sciences, three in Scopus. The rector separately noted research teams and young scientists who showed particularly high results.
In the report, the rector also touched on the successes in youth policy: SSU remains the main regional platform for the movement of student teams, students have repeatedly confirmed their status as the best in the country, won grants for the implementation of projects, athletes brought victory in competitions.
The development of cooperation with foreign universities and international organizations continues. SSU strengthened its position in the educational market of China. Cooperation between SSU and Germany received a new impetus.
A.N. Chumachenko noted the increased role of the university website, on which relevant information appeared and new sections were created to help students and employees during the period of remote work. The university website has improved its ranking compared to last year.
Speaking about the financial activities of SSU, the rector drew the attention of the meeting participants to the growth of the average salary of university employees and the fulfillment of indicators according to the "Roadmap". He reminded about the large-scale works on modernization of the SSU infrastructure.
The rector said that in connection with the completion of the development program of NRU SSU, the University Development Program until 2030 will be developed by March 2021. In conclusion, A.N. Chumachenko thanked all employees of the university for their dedicated work in a difficult pandemic year.
SSU President L.Yu. Kossovich, dean of the FNBMT S. B. Venig, director of the scientific medical center V.V. Tuchin, Director of the Institute of Chemistry, Head of the SSU Instrument Base Update Program I.Yu. Goryacheva, director of the Institute of Philology and Journalism L.S. Borisova, activist of the SSU volunteer center Sofia Tsyganova, director of the Institute of Continuing Professional Education Yu.G. Golub. Each of them briefly spoke about important events in their areas of activity. The speakers noted the scale of the work carried out at the university, the relevance and timeliness of the decisions made, the successful overcoming of the difficulties of 2020.
Leonid Kossovich emphasized the success of the university's long-term work in the field of medical research and development, reminded of the existing laboratories and the projects being implemented in them.
Sergei Wenig said about the merger of the three faculties into the Institute of Physics, noting that such a decision is already bearing fruit - a new profile in the field of Physics is being created within the framework of the network master's program together with Moscow State University.
Valerii Tuchin spoke about the work of the scientific medical center, which is being built in accordance with the demands of the time and world trends. He named the existing laboratories and listed a number of new laboratories that are planned to be opened on the basis of the created scientific unit.
Yurii Golub spoke about the creation of the Center for Professional Development and Business Strategies. He noted the transformation of the university campus, whose individual buildings, in his opinion, have not seen such an impressive renovation in many years.
Irina Goryacheva, noting the interdisciplinary and multifunctional nature of the equipment already purchased. Lyudmila Borisova paid attention in her speech to the organization of the educational process in a distance mode. Sofya Tsyganova highlighted the work of the Volunteer Centre during the pandemic, spoke about the victory of student projects in the competition for grants.
The Academic Council approved the 2020 report.