We are closer to the end of the academic year - the most extraordinaryone in the history of education in Russia and in the world for many decades. Alexey Burmistrov, Vice-rector for Academic Affairs, told reporters about how exams and defense of graduation theses will be held in KNRTU, as well as other issues of the educational process that are currently of concern to students and their parents.


Everything goes as planned

— We meet the end of the academic year in unusual conditions: the threat of the pandemic and the decisive measures taken by the country's leadership to contain it, have put forward a demand to all universities in the country to quickly transfer the educational process to the online space keeping the high quality of education. A fundamental decision was made: to adhere to the existing curricula as much as possible. I think we have managed this task!

Exams and defenses will be held online

— The most exciting topic is how exams and graduate defense will be organized. Here, we will also follow the principle of "do as planned". Both state exams, in those areas where they are provided for in the curriculum, and graduate defenses will be held within the established deadlines. We are ready to organize them online. In May, about 130 exams were passed remotely, it was a good preparation for the upcoming exam session.

The technology has been worked out, and all June exams will also be organized remotely using such services as Moodle, Zoom, MS Teams and Google Classes.

Diplomas still have to be printed

— For the defense, we reserved 5,000 seats in the MS Teams system, which allows to demonstrate diagrams and drawings, among other things. In the near future, all graduate students will get personal access to the system, as well as members of the State Examination Commission (SEC). The defenses will be mandatory carried out with video recording and files will be stored on our servers. Identification of the student's personality is also provided, although, it makes the situation much easier that all graduates are known by the members of the SEC in person.

As for the issuance of diplomas, we think that the situation will soon return to normal and problems with the physical awarding of diplomas will disappear. Of course, we would like to do this in a festive atmosphere, according to our tradition.

Teaching Department continuesit's work

— All educational services of KNRTU have returned to the presence mode and you can solve current issues with them, including getting the necessary documents, such as certificates. Students still do not have free access to the buildings, but if you need to issue a document, our employee will come down to the entrance hall. Moreover, workers of deans' offices are also present at the workplace, so you can contact them if necessary. All issues related to academic debt and deductions are resolved in a regular manner.

Issues regardingthe academic debt in the current conditions are regulated by a specially developed university regulation, which provides for work in the Electronic University system: the student sends a personal message to the teacher, who gives the student the tasks necessary to obtain credit. If you need to pass an exam, the mechanism remains the same, but the exam is implemented with video fixation.

I also want to note that, as in previous years, an additional exam session will be organized and students will have the opportunity to liquidate their academic debts, but... I wish everyone to pass the exams successfully from the first time!

Tuition fees — there will be no increases!

— For all students starting from the second year and above, the tuition fee will not be increased this year! This is a straightforward decision! There will not even be a cost adjustment for the amount of inflation, which was previously a common practice in all universities in the country.

As for the cost of training first-year students, which we will accept this year on an off-budget basis, the price is set by the Russian Ministry of Education and Science.

Practice will take place

— Due to the spread of the coronavirus infection, in some cases it was impossible to conduct practice in enterprises. Therefore, we have created a mechanism for practical training in specialized departments and laboratories.

However, as soon as possible, we will organize a full-fledged industrial practice for students, especially since all our partner companies have positive attitude and are ready to accept our students again as the level of epidemiological danger decreases.

Pull ups and jumps will be postponed for now

— In the context of the coronavirus pandemic, it was impossible to conduct physical education classes in the usual format (they are included in the schedule from the first to the third year with every semester grades). Since the course of physical education has a theoretical component, classes were organized in the form of lectures, as well as in the form of individual training. In any case, the acceptance of credits will take place taking into account the peculiar situation in which both teachers and students find themselves.

Scholarships are under control

- Scholarships to students during the period of self-isolation are paid in full and on time. This also applies to increased scholarships. There are a lot of questions about the increased scholarships: as you know, they are appointed every semester, and many students are afraid that they will not be able to collect a representative portfolio, because almost all types of activities stopped in March. Nevertheless, there were a lot of events even in a short period of time in February-March, and many students managed to significantly replenish their portfolio. Now many activities, including even the popular large-scale festival "Student Spring", are held in an online format.

Everything will be fine

— I would like to say that the University, our teachers and students quickly adapted to the new mode of work. I am glad that the students are still willing to learn, despite all the difficulties of this time.

Our teachers have gained extensive experience in organizing various forms of educational activities online. I am sure that everything will be fine and we will get back to our usual working rhythm in the autumn.