Saint Petersburg State University

About city

The city, in fact, had 3 names. Historically, the city was called and renamed several times, but always in honor of the great politicians – Peter the Great and Vladimir Lenin. Until 1914 – St. Petersburg, from 1914 to 1924 – Petrograd, from 1924 to 1992 – Leningrad, from 1992 – again St. Petersburg. Saint Petersburg is really worth visiting for everyone and let us consider some really interesting facts about this city.

There are 12 movable bridges in total, and they are raised at specific times (usually early night) and lowered early in the morning. These magnificent works of architecture are terribly inconvenient: after a certain hour, moving between the Petrograd and Central districts suddenly becomes complicated. So, if you’re up late visiting friends, you might as well stay over.

About three million people visit the Hermitage Museum annually, but none has ever seen the whole, vast collection of Russia’s most famous museum. It is estimated that if a visitor spent around one minute at each exhibit, it would take more than a decade to go round the entire museum.

The deepest metro in the world is in St. Petersburg. The city was built on a swampy area, so the subway tunnels had to be laid under the bedrock. The tunnels of the St. Petersburg metro lie at a depth of about 70-80 meters.

Peter & Paul Cathedral is the highest cathedral in Russia. The height of its bell tower is 122.5 meters. By the way, from 1733 to 2012, the cathedral was the tallest building in St. Petersburg, and until 1952 it was the tallest in Russia.

The Hermitage collection has about 3 million exhibits located in 350 rooms of five buildings. To inspect the entire collection, lingering at each exhibit for only 1 minute, you will have to spend 8 years of life and walk more than 20 kilometers.

The length of the Neva River is only 74 km, but despite this, it flows through the territory a little less than the territory of Italy. The Neva delta includes the lakes Ladoga, Onega, Saimaa, Ilmen, as well as the Svir, Volkhov and Vuoksa rivers. In the world there is only one similar water system – the Great Lakes in North America. The main river of St. Petersburg Neva carries more water than the Don and the Dnieper combined.

St. Petersburg is the capital of trams. The length of the tram tracks in the city is more than 600 km. This fact is listed in the Guinness Book of Records.

The first public museum in Russia was founded in St. Petersburg. In 1714, Peter the Great opened the first public museum in Russia, the Kunstkamera, in St. Petersburg. Today it is the most famous museum of anthropology and ethnography in Russia. The museum collection has over a million expositions revealing the ethnographic and historical features of the people all over the world.

About Saint Petersburg State University

Saint Petersburg State University is a Russian federal state-owned higher education institution based in Saint Petersburg. It is considered to be the oldest and one of the largest universities in Russia. During the Soviet period, it was known as Leningrad State University. The university is Russia’s oldest university, founded in 1724 by Peter the Great, which predates the foundation of Moscow State University in 1755.

There is a surprising and an important fact that the university has a reputation for having educated the majority of Russia’s political elite, including presidents Vladimir Putin and Dmitry Medvedev, both of whom studied Law at the university. Saint Petersburg state university is included in all ratings and lists of the best universities in the world and is one of the leaders in all indicators in Russia.

It is made up of  the Academic Gymnasium, the Medical College, the College of Physical culture and Sports, Economics and Technology. The university has two primary campuses: one on Vasilievsky Island and the other in Peterhof.

It has 24 faculties and institutes which are further subdivided into departments, and other main structural subdivisions, including the Sports Department, Rectorate, Gorky Scientific Library, Academic Gymnasium, publishing house, and clinic.

Saint Petersburg State University has produced a number of Nobel Prize winners. In international rankings, the university was ranked 240^th in 2013/2014, by the QS World University Rankings, it was placed 351–400^th by the Times Higher Education World University Rankings and 301–400^th  by the Academic Ranking of World Universities outperforming the rest of universities in Russia excluding Moscow State University.

The quantity of students is more than 32400 and the number of teachers is over 13000.

Prime Ministers Pyotr Stolypin and Dimitry Medvedev of Russia, the President and former Prime Minister of Russia Vladimir Putin, and the President of Lithuania Dalia Grybauskaitė are alumni, as is the mathematician Mikhail Gromov.

The quantity of international students is increasing year by year. The university is really proud of those persistent, ambitious international students who come to study hard with the purpose of realizing all their dreams in the future. Saint Petersburg University is the place where every single student is highly educated and respected. It is prestigious, beneficial and worth applying to.

SPbSU is made up of 24 specialized faculties, which are:

• Faculty of Applied Mathematics and Control Processes
• Faculty of Biology
• Institute of Chemistry
• Faculty of Dentistryand Medical Technology
• Faculty of Economics
• Institute of Earth Sciences
• Institute of History
• School of InternatiS^Sonal Relations
• Faculty of Law
• Faculty of Liberal Artsand Sciences
• Faculty of Mathematics and Mechanics
• Faculty of Medicine
• Faculty of Oriental Studies
• Faculty of Arts
• Faculty of Philology
• Institute of Philosophy
• Faculty of Physics
• Faculty of Political Science
• Faculty of Psychology
• Faculty of Sociology
• Graduate School of Management
• Military Faculty
• School of Journalism and Mass Communications
  • Faculty of Applied Communications
  • Faculty of Journalism

There is also a Department of Physical Culture and Sports.

Fields of study:

• General Medicine
• Dentistry
• Astronomy
• Mathematics
• IT
• Physics
• Biology
• Geology
• Oil and gas business
• Chemistry
• Ecology
• Journalism
• Management
• Political sciences
• Phycology
• Social work
• Sociology
• Tourism
• Economics
• Law
• Graphic design
• Art history
• Physical education and sport

Campuses

The university has two main campuses: on Vasilievsky Island in the historic city center and in Peterhof (formerly Petrodvorets), a southwestern suburb, which can be reached by railway from the city’s Baltiysky Rail Terminal. The main building of the university, Twelve Collegia, is on Vasilievsky Island and includes the Library, the Faculty of Biology and the Institute of Earth Sciences. The Faculty of Philology and the Faculty of Oriental Studies share the nearby 18th-century Petrine Baroque building on Universitetskaya Embankment of the Bolshaya Neva, designed by Domenico Trezzini and originally built as the Palace of Peter II of Russia. The New Gostiny Dvor designed by Giacomo Quarenghi and built in the 19th century in that part of the island is occupied by the Institute of History, Institute of Philosophy. The Faculty of Psychology is in front of it on Admiral Makarov Embankment of the Malaya Neva. The Graduate School of Management, School of Journalism and Mass Communications, Faculty of Medicine, Faculty of Dentistry and Medical Technologies, Faculty of Law and Faculty of Military Studies are on Vasilievsky Island, but farther to the west. Four other social science faculties are east of the city center on the southern bank of the Neva: the Faculty of Economics is not far from the Chernyshevskaya metro station, while the Faculty of Sociology, Faculty of Political Science and the School of International Relations occupy historical buildings of Smolny Convent.

The new suburban campus consists of the Faculty of Applied Mathematics and Control Processes, Institute of Chemistry, Faculty of Mathematics and Mechanics, and Faculty of Physics, which are in modern buildings in Peterhof. Nearby the Peterhof campus there is a beautiful park area called Sergievka. In the Sergievka park there are buildings of the Faculty of Biology. One of the Sergievka’s park sights is a carved from a boulder head of a hero.

About accommodation

Currently SPbSU provides approximately 12,800 places in its halls of residence.
All accommodation is furnished for living and studying; the halls have laundry facilities, cafes, canteens, shops, gyms and fitness facilities, and ATMs. All rooms have Internet access.

Most of the rooms at the Dormitory are single, though there are several double ones. Each single room is equipped with:

• 1 bed
• 1 desk
• a wardrobe
• a toilet room with a shower
• bed linen and towels are provided and changed once a week

Kitchen and laundry room are located on each floor. Each kitchen is equipped with a microwave oven, an electric cooker, and a fridge. Basic utensils are provided.

Dormitories are located in 15 mitutes walk from the university. There are some sports grounds, shops, gyms etc for our students.