TPU rector: a world-class university will solve global challenges

TOMSK, Dec 9 – RIA Tomsk. Universities and research institutes of Tomsk discussed ways of cooperation of scientific and educational opportunities at a strategic session on the "Big University" project. Why the collaboration defeats "jealousy" and what projects can be implemented as early as 2020, the acting rector of TPU Victor Dyomin told RIA Tomsk.

Earlier it was reported that the strategic session to discuss what the "Big University" could become was held at Tomsk State University from December 2 to December 6.

Leaders and employees of all Tomsk universities, academic research institutes, authorities, as well as experts from the Moscow School of Management "Skolkovo" – the ideologists of the "5-100" project, took part in its work. And not as observers – but as full participants. Work went in the directions of "science", "education", "promotion", "city" and "management".

It was also previously reported that the "Big University" project involves the unification of all universities and research institutes of Tomsk into a single scientific and educational consortium with the preservation of the legal autonomy of all participants. The main objective of the project – is to obtain a synergistic effect from the addition of scientific, educational and infrastructural opportunities for full competition with world university centers.

"During the session, the participants agreed that only the Big University can meet global issues, be commensurate with big challenges", – the acting rector of TPU Victor Dyomin told RIA Tomsk.

According to him, one of such challenges could be "Global Earth changes, ecology, quality of life". "At the same time, the quality of life, of course, is associated with the environment, technological environment, society, human development. Therefore, the designated global multifaceted complex task can be divided into large areas – specializations.

These are "Global monitoring and prevention of environmental disasters", "Development of new oil and gas fields", "New chemistry", "Electronics and communications", "Materials science",  "Biotechnologies", "Active longevity", "Advanced educational technologies", "Social and humanitarian sphere", – Victor Demin told.

He noted that each of these areas also represents a major complex task, which cannot be solved by each of Tomsk universities and research institutes alone, and also requires active collaboration.

Resource pooling

"To solve such problems it's required resources (human, financial, material), so only a world-class university can meet a big challenge. It is this university that is the center of attraction for people who can create productive activities around themselves, as well as for globally oriented companies along with their resources", – says Victor Dyomin.

In his opinion, all this creates the basis for the new economy of the Tomsk region as the region of knowledge. Therefore, most of the listed specializations are indicated in the specializations of the Tomsk REC.

"Various versions of similar universities took part in the review (at the session), examples of which exist in the global scientific and educational space (University of Cambridge, University of Oxford, University of London, University of California and others).

It is obvious that for a clearer formulation of the structure and management scheme of such a university, further thorough legal study and adjustment of legal and regulatory documents relating not only to educational and scientific organizations, but also to the urban structure, is needed", – says the acting rector of Tomsk Polytechnic.

Such work is planned with taking into account the fact that the session participants agreed that the construction of the Big University should allow universities and research institutes to unite to solve large problems, obtain new quality results, optimize resources, eliminate duplication of processes, but at the same time retain legal entities, individuality, traditions.

"According to the results of the session, such a university appears to be a community of autonomous responsible organizations operating within the framework of an agreed strategy and uniform rules", – Victor Dyomin sums up.

Action plan

As Victor Dyomin said, during the session tasks and directions were identified in which it is possible to start integrating already now:

"This is the creation of joint services, such as library resources, intellectual property rights management, joint core facilities centres and science parks. Currently, work has begun on the organization of a joint university admission campaign, student resettlement center, joint entrepreneurship center and the like. Some of them are supposed to be implemented as early as 2020".

The same is true for large research directions; on them have been preliminarily determined organizations that will coordinate joint works.

For example, Zuev Institute of Atmospheric Optics of the Siberian Branch of the RAS was identified as the coordinator for the "Global monitoring and prevention of environmental disasters" direction, TPU – for the "Development of new oil and gas fields", Siberian State Medical University (SSMU) – for the "Active longevity", Tomsk State University of Control Systems and Radioelectronics (TUSUR) – for the "Electronics and communications" and so on.

As Victor Dyomin emphasized, Tomsk Polytechnic University is represented in almost all directions, not only in the oil and gas industry. It is obvious that in the direction of "Biomed" there will be a collaboration of TPU with SSMU, for global monitoring - with Tomsk State University and Institute of Atmospheric Optics. In the direction of "New Chemistry" there is already tight integration with TSU.

"Almost everywhere there is already a collaboration, so we understand the movement towards joint projects and services", – Victor Dyomin concluded.

According to the "rector" working group of the strategic session, in 2035 100 thousand students will study at the "Big University", 35-40% of whom – are foreigners (mainly from foreign countries). The budget should triple (today the budget of all organizations included in the "Big University" is about 5 billion rubles), and in the international rankings it will enter the top-200 of the world and the top-5 of Russian universities.

Behind all these beautiful figures there is also great practical benefit: as experts have calculated, the "Big University" and its subsequent integration into a world-class regional scientific and educational center will allow the Tomsk region to increase Russia's gross domestic product (GDP) by 1%.

The results of the work within the framework of the strategic session will be summarized and presented to the government of the Russian Federation, as well as in the report of the governor to the President of the country.

Reference:

Tomsk Polytechnic University – is the leading technical university of the country. It's founded in 1896 as Tomsk Technological Institute of Practical Engineers of Emperor Nicholas II. It became the first engineering university in the Asian part of the country. Today TPU – is the largest technical university beyond the Urals; enters the top 10 universities of Russia and the top 400 universities of the world. Since 2013 participates in the "5-100" program to increase competitiveness in the world.

It includes 10 research and engineering schools, three research and educational centers. More than 1.5 thousand scientific and pedagogical workers work at Tomsk Polytechnic University, about 13.5 thousand students and graduate students study. The amount of R&D – is 2 billion rubles, the R&D object in the interests of industrial partners – is 1 billion rubles, TPU ranks the third among Russian universities in terms of this indicator.