St. Petersburg State Marine Technical University

Every year thousands of young men and women enter universities. St. Petersburg Marine Technical University may be the aim of many applicants. Besides day-time faculties there is a faculty of evening and distance education for part-time students who work during the day. The applicants go in for entrance examinations in spring and summer before the new academic year begins.

If the applicants want to have a good command of the subject in which they will take exams, they attend preparatory courses.

St. Petersburg Marine Technical University is one of the largest higher schools in our country. It (then the Shipbuilding Institute) came into being (возник) in 1930. At first there were only two faculties at the Institute – the Shipbuilding Faculty and the Marine Engineering Faculty (машиностроительный). In 1939 the Faculty of Economics appeared and the Faculty of Designing Marine Devices started to function in 1945. In 1978 a new faculty for the students of the first and second years was organized. It has many departments. It is called now the Faculty of Natural Sciences and Humanities.

The University now trains students in various fields of shipbuilding and other sciences. There are more than forty departments at our University. The academic staff consists of highly qualified lecturers and professors. Many outstanding scientists who worked at the University made it famous. They are P.F. Papkovich, Yu. A. Shimansky, V.L. Pozdyunin, N.E. Putov, V.V. Semyonov-Tan-Shansky and others.

At the University students attend lectures and classes or work in the laboratories, where they carry out a lot of experiments. These laboratories are equipped with up-to-date instruments and devices. It generally takes five years and a half to graduate from the University. All students get practical experience during their program at the University.

Most students receive grants. The amount of the grant depends on the results of the exams. The first two years of studies are the most difficult ones. The students may have up to 30 hours a week of seminars, lectures and classes. Sport is also compulsory during the first years of studies. Student’s life is a very full one, both academically and culturally.

Students have holidays twice a year – after the end of each examination period. Unfortunately, there are some students who fail exams because they work by fits and starts.

In their final year students write diploma projects. They get the engineer’s degree after satisfactory completion of the program and defending the diploma project. When they graduate from the University, they go into industry or research, some go into teaching or business.

Now more and more young people understand that education provides the younger generation not only with fundamental knowledge

but with social and practical ideas.

1.38. Additional material to the lesson: