Brief History

Ural Federal University is the oldest higher educational institution in the Ural region.  It was founded in Ekaterinburg in 1920 by the decree of Vladimir Lenin, the head of the Soviet Government.  After some time the University split into two: Ural State University (USU), specializing in fundamental, natural and mathematical sciences, humanities and social studies, and Ural Polytechnic Institute (UPI, later - Ural State Technical University, USTU-UPI) which was essentially focused on training engineers for metallurgical, heavy engineering, construction, radio technology and power engineering industries.  UPI was also engaged in the dynamic development of  the knowledge areas which were new for the USSR back then: nuclear power engineering, organic chemistry, telecommunication technologies.

Both universities maintained close ties with each other and their partners – Ural industrial enterprises, which turned Ekaterinburg into one of the largest university cities in Russia. Construction of the University campus started in the 1940-s; now it occupies the whole district in the city.

In 2008 the modernisation reform of the Russian higher education system was launched. A number of universities already having close relations were merged, received a federal status and additional financing.

Federal universities are located in Rostov-on-Don, Krasnoyarsk, Kazan, Arkhangelsk, Yakutsk, Kaliningrad, Vladivostok, Stavropol and Ekaterinburg. They now rank among Russia's top higher educational institutions along with Moscow State University and St.Petersburg State University. 

The merger process of USTU-UPI and USU to create Ural Federal University (UrFU) began in 2009 and was fully completed by the spring of 2011.