© РИА Томск. Павел Стефанский
TOMSK, Jan 16 – RIA Tomsk. Opportunity to defend a
graduate qualification work in form of a startup in 2019 get all students of
Tomsk Polytechnic University (TPU); in order to stimulate interest of such
projects, the university help with search of financing to start a business, the
head of TPU School of Engineering Entrepreneurship Stepan Khachin told RIA
Tomsk on Wednesday.
© РИА Томск. Таисия Воронцова
Earlier it was reported that the Ministry of Education
and Science suggested universities to actively engage in the practice of
protecting business projects instead of theses. The ministry also plans to
create venture funds with the participation of universities, their graduates
and partner companies to help student start-ups. TPU was one of the first in
Russia to use the practice of startups protecting.
According to Khachin, any TPU graduate in 2019 may
defend a qualification work in the form of a startup. The diploma project in
this case, as well as the traditional one, will have to contain the relevance
and scientific novelty, therefore, involves a much more complex work in
preparation. At the university, they intend to stimulate the interest of
graduates of engineering schools specifically for the preparation of startups.
"We understand that not all students want to do
business, and we do not expect that 100% of graduation works will be protected
as a startup, but a certain percentage of students think about it (5-7%) ... We
help (them) to find funding for the project from outside funds (for example,
under the “UMNIK” program) and through TPU contests where it is possible to get
a prize for prize-winning places”, – the interlocutor of the agency told.
He specified that TPU award for startup financing can
reach 180 thousand rubles. Under the program "UMNIK" the maximum
amount is – 500 thousand rubles for two years.
Earlier it was also reported that for the first time
in TPU startups instead of graduation projects were defended by graduates in
2017. These were undergraduates who were trained under the program
"Entrepreneurship in Innovation". The projects were evaluated by
invited business professionals and heads of support structures for innovative
companies.