Victor Koksharov: "We Will Definitely Fulfill All Plans for the Development of the University"

16:39, December 21, 2022

The rector spoke about the results of 2022 and the prospects for development in 2023

How successful was the past year for UrFU, what projects have become new drivers of the university's development - about this and a lot of other Rector Viktor Koksharov told in an interview that was published today in the latest issue of the Ural Federal newspaper (No.22, December 19). 

Freshman influx

— Victor Anatolievich, what are the achievements of the university in the field of education by the end of 2022?

— The most important result was the successful admission campaign. We had an unprecedented influx of freshmen - more than 15,270 people, 18.5 percent more than last year. We admitted almost 9,170 of them on state-funded basis, which is a quarter more than a year ago. UrFU has the largest number of students studying on the state-funded basis among Russian universities.

This year we admitted more than 1,800 international students, 12 percent more than a year ago. The main countries, from which foreign students come, are Kazakhstan, China and Arab countries. There is a large increase of applicants to graduate and postgraduate programs - it is more than 70 percent. Overall, over the past three years the number of applicants has increased by 1.5 times, a phenomenal growth.

We pay great attention to attracting talented applicants. Therefore, we develop the system of our own Olympiads - Olympiad for high school students "Izumrud" and university-academic Olympiad in informatics. This year we enrolled 611 students based on the results of Olympiads and individual achievements. According to this indicator, we are among the top five universities in the country. We pay special scholarships to students with high USE scores, and we have 428 such students. 

— How does the university maintain and increase the high level of educational services?

— First, we are actively introducing modern educational technologies. We have created an information service for educational program managers, the "Online Course Directory", which contains more than 1,400 online courses and e-learning courses from 20 educational platforms of universities and industry partners. Our university has created about 200 online courses, 58 of which are posted on the "National Open Education Platform", where 28 universities cooperate with us, and the total number participants in the online courses of Ural Federal University in 2022 exceeds 1 million people. We are developing partnerships with leading universities in the field of online education and distance learning technologies, and have entered a new educational market by creating and hosting our first online course on China's leading and one of the world's largest distance education platforms, XuetangX. The number of classrooms with modern multimedia equipment for a hybrid learning format is growing in university buildings. This format makes it possible to create a seamless digital learning environment that provides equal opportunities for students who are in the classroom and are connected online. 

Another advanced educational technology: 4,600 of our students, 40% more than last year, are building individual educational trajectories. This technology makes it possible to independently choose the complexity of a particular discipline and the duration of its study. Thus, graduates from rural schools and lyceums feel comfortable studying at UrFU. The technology of individual educational trajectories has been introduced at three institutes of Ural Federal University: Engineering School of Information Technologies, Telecommunications and Control Systems, Institute of New Materials and Technologies, and Institute of Fundamental Education. Moreover, if earlier we applied individual educational trajectories only in Bachelor's degree programs, then in 2022 the model is scaled to the Master's degree level. Today, 278 Master's students are studying individual educational trajectories at Individual Student Trajectory internal services.

Our most important principle that ensures the competitiveness of the educational process at UrFU is practice-oriented. Hence the large-scale use of project-based learning formats and services for working with partners from the real sector of the economy. Project management takes place through the partner’s personal account. We are proud of this innovation, which has no analogues in Russia. Through the Partner's Personal Account service, interaction is conducted with 950 partners with whom the university provides bases of practice for students, internships, and more than 12 thousand students are involved in the implementation of projects. They realize that they are executing projects from real industry representatives, and this increases the motivation and responsibility of student performers. In the development of practice activities in the Master's program we focus on the training of interdisciplinary teams capable of working on projects of high complexity with a high level of uncertainty, which in the future will allow graduates to reduce the time of integration and adaptation at the enterprise, quickly forming teams in the field. Today already 30 graduate programs are being formed and developed in such project logic. For two years, 142 teams have implemented projects of technological partners from priority directions: Information Technology, Chemical Engineering and Pharmaceuticals, Electrical and Heat-power Engineering, Mechanical Engineering. The result of their work was 10 student startups with intellectual property consolidation, 26 inventions and utility models. 

Continuing the theme of digital education, I would like to mention the Digital Chair federal project. We selected 2,598 students for free training in additional competencies in programming, data processing, and analysis, and we plan to further increase their number. Our goal is to reach all of our students with additional digital competencies by 2030, if not sooner, together with our industrial partners.

The very important achievement of the year: we have successfully defended the project of the Ural Advanced Engineering School, we start training in appropriate programs. By 2030, we have to train more than 1,500 engineers for high-tech industries with advanced digital competencies. The government allocated 84.5 million rubles for the project launch in 2022, and in the next three years the total amount of state investments will be up to 1 billion rubles. Our industrial partners have guaranteed that by 2030 they will allocate another $2 billion for the development of the school's scientific potential. Our partner companies are extremely interested in "one-of-a-kind" specialists - designers, constructors, and technologists of the highest qualifications who have digital skills and are capable of creating new products in teams. Eight of our partners are involved in the project: Pipe Metallurgical Company, Sinara, Evraz, Kamaz, such companies as Uralhydromash, Ural Turbine Works, Urals Optical-Mechanical Plant, Ural Works of Civil Aviation. 

Development driver for the region

— Along with other major universities in the country, the university participates in the Priority 2030 strategic academic leadership program. What benefits has it brought to the university in the past year?

— Priority 2030 program is a very effective stimulus for the development of our university in all directions. By participating in the Priority 2030 program, UrFU becomes a technological hub and a driver of social and economic development for the entire Ural region.

Firstly, in accordance with the Priority 2030 program six youth laboratories work at the university. This year, the Ministry of Science and Higher Education of the Russian Federation allocated funds for the creation of two more youth laboratories - on digital counterparts in the electric power industry and on environmentally tolerant energy. The total amount of funds, allocated by the ministry to our university for the development of youth science this year, is estimated at 133 million rubles. In addition, there are special grants for postdocs and postgraduate scholarships with guaranteed post-graduate employment. These measures have made it possible to employ a large number of young scientists, and today we have almost 70 percent of scientists - under the age of 39. 

Secondly, thanks largely to support within the framework of the Priority 2030 program this year, the volume of scientific research has already grown by at least a quarter. By the end of 2022, the financing of research work should reach 2.6 billion rubles.

We are actively developing cooperation with the Academy of Sciences, especially with the institutes of the Ural Branch of the Russian Academy of Sciences. With the help of the Priority 2030 program and other external sources, we have created and financed 11 joint laboratories (the program finances 12 projects that are carried out in 11 joint laboratories - one of the joint laboratories carries out two projects). Another six laboratories that we selected through a competition, with a thorough examination by representatives of the Academy of Sciences, will work and are already working under the direction of leading Russian and foreign scientists.

Also within the framework of the Priority 2030 program about 80 million rubles have been allocated for joint projects with enterprises - development of technologies that should be implemented in the nearest future. By 2030, we must develop and transfer at least 10 world-class technologies to industry.

100 Startups by 2030

— What events are now taking place at UrFU at the intersection of education, science, and industrial production?

— The most important event is the creation of the engineering development center. Grant from the Ministry of Industry and Trade of the Russian Federation amounted to 255 million rubles. The center's function is to combine the efforts of our existing structures, such as the Engineering Center for Digital Technologies in Mechanical Engineering and the Experimental Production Plant, in order to promptly create the entire set of design documentation along with a prototype for industrial enterprises. The task is to establish import substitution of components that our enterprises have so far received from abroad.

The amount of funds already raised to solve this problem over the next two years is 700 million rubles, so we decided to build an additional production facility - a workshop of 3 thousand square meters, we are purchasing and will install the equipment. The first works that we performed for Kamaz and other major customers show that in the field of engineering, including reverse engineering, when the project documentation is developed on the basis of the finished prototype, we are leaders among Russian universities. This is confirmed by the data of the Agency of Technological Development, which is an authorized body of the government and the Ministry of Industry and Trade of the Russian Federation.

Next, we validated and fully technically launched the cyclotron in our Center for Nuclear Medicine according to the latest international GMP standards. Thus, we are ready for industrial production of deoxyglucose, a radiopharmaceutical that is used in PET centers to diagnose cancer. The next stage (and we have already received almost a full package of permits) is the launch, together with a partner, of the second stage of the Cyclotron Center for Nuclear Medicine and the production of radiopharmaceuticals for cancer therapy based on lutecium, radium, and, in the future, copper, starting next February. Our Cyclotron Center for Nuclear Medicine will be the first university center of such capacity in our country. It will meet the need for radiopharmaceuticals both for diagnostics of cancer diseases and, in the short term, for their therapy.

Continuing the theme of the connection between university education, science, and production, I would like to draw attention to our project Startup as a Diploma. This year we had 86 such startup projects, four times more than the year before. By 2030, we need to get to 100 startups, and they should be at the commercialization stage. This is a non-trivial task, since few startups survive. We are forming all the necessary infrastructure to solve the problem: Office of Innovations and Development has been created, a support system for technological entrepreneurship has been formed, and a startup studio has been opened.

This year we won competitions for grant financing of projects under the program Development of Technological Entrepreneurship in Russian Universities. The total amount of funding is 246 million rubles. The largest project is the creation of a startup studio. Its task is, with the assistance of the Sverdlovsk Region Government and on the basis of the University Technopark, to nurture technological teams and produce real startups that have passed all stages of formation and are provided with real financing. There are few such integrated and extensive systems of support for university innovations in Russia.

It is fundamentally important that almost half of all research and development works are commissioned by industrial companies and enterprises and funded by them. This year we will reach the level of 1.2-1.3 billion rubles. This includes such large companies as Rosatom, for which UrFU is the leading developer and performer in a number of strategic areas (materials for molten salt reactors, pyrochemical nuclear reprocessing, import-substituting permanent magnets for magnetomicroelectronics).

Connected to the industry

— What results does the World-Class Ural Interregional Research and Education Center have by the end of the year?

— UIREC brings together more than 70 participants from Sverdlovsk, Chelyabinsk and Kurgan regions, including 9 universities, 10 academic institutes and 54 enterprises. This year the government allocated almost 120 million rubles for the activities of our REC. 80 percent of the funds were used to support more than fifty technological projects, and the rest was spent on the implementation of educational programs for companies, conferences, and exhibitions. And the total amount of federal funds attracted for the activities of the center in 2022 is about 575 million rubles.

In addition, the REC accumulates significant amounts of funds from the regions: since 2021 the Sverdlovsk Region annually allocates 100 million rubles for the activities of the REC, the Chelyabinsk Region - 170 million for three years in total, starting from 2023. These funds are intended to support research of universities and enterprises, with the prerequisite of rapid implementation of joint projects. According to the terms of financing of the REC, the enterprises must invest in its activities at least 50% of the amount allocated by the government.

One of the main tasks of the center is the implementation of scientific and technological projects together with the industrial partners of UIREC, accelerated substitution of imported components, as a result of the implementation of these projects. Industrial partners are very interested in cooperation with UIREC and often give us orders for development of design documentation: how, from what, on what equipment, in what terms, from what material to produce this or that component and prototype, which are tested in real industrial conditions. Many designs and products that we offer are often superior to their imported analogies. 

Getting a new campus

— What is the place of the university at the international level?

— We are not reducing the level of international cooperation, actively developing our relations with numerous friendly countries. We continue to maintain high publication activity: according to the results of this year, the number of publications in scientific journals, which are indexed in the international databases Scopus and Web of Science, will not be less than last year.

The result of all our efforts: in the QS World University Ranking we moved up to 335th place, in four of the Rankings by Subject we are among the top 100 universities in the world. We are also well-represented in the Times Higher Education Rankings by Subject, with economics and business ranking among the top 200 universities. In the Shanghai Ranking, we are in 6th-7th place among Russian universities, sharing positions with such a respected university as MEPhI.

By the way, according to the Moscow International University Ranking, which is compiled by the RAEX agency, we are the only regional university in Russia, which has entered the ten most influential universities. According to Rosobrnadzor, UrFU ranks fourth in the country in terms of the number of applicants with high USE scores. The development of our infrastructure will increase the attractiveness of the university. Starting from the next admission, and it will be bigger than this year, we will provide all applicants with a guaranteed place in a dormitory.

— In 2023, Ural Federal University will host the University International Sports Festival. What is the university's readiness for this event?

— We are close to completing the construction of our new campus in the Novokoltsovsky District. We expect that in the spring of next year we will have a dormitory for 8.5 thousand people, a community and business center and a medical center. According to the World-Class Campuses program of the federal government and based on the results of the tender held, Sinara-Development will construct new buildings for Engineering School of Information Technologies, Telecommunications and Control Systems, Graduate School of Economics and Management and Specialized Education and Research Center with the total area of 100 thousand square meters. Besides, in Ekaterinburg we are building one more dormitory for almost 1330 places, it will be ready next spring as well.

There is a capital repair of two major sports facilities - the arena and the playing sports complex. The reconstruction of the university stadium has been completed and we hope to receive funding.  In a word, everything will be ready for the University International Sports Festival and the delegations of the participating countries.

— Victor Anatolievich, with what mood and with what wishes are you greeting the year 2023?

 We look to the future with confidence. We believe that all our plans for the development of the university and the implementation of our social programs related to the creation of comfortable conditions for living, studying, doing research, working, and increasing salaries will definitely be fulfilled. UrFU will surely confirm its status as a leading university, a technological hub and a driver of social and economic development not only in the Greater Ural, but in Russia as a whole. I wish all university employees, students, teachers and researchers good health, confidence in the future, success and a good mood.

Reference

The next issue of the Ural Federal newspaper will be published on January 23.

The news article was translated by UrFU International Marketing Office
info.international@urfu.ru, +7 (343) 375-45-19