MOSCOW, January 25 (Itar-Tass) — Prime Minister Vladimir Putin is to tour Tomsk on the Day of Russian Studentry, or St.Tatiana Day. On Wednesday he will visit Tomsk Polytechnical University to familiarize himself with the students' scientific work, and meet with the students of Tomsk-based institutions of higher learning. Student orgaizations themselves selected their representatives to be present at a meeting with the Premier, pointed out an official of the Russian Federation government.
Tomsk is rightfully referred to as a city of students. This is Russia's only city the charter of which seals the scientific-and-educational sector as a city-forming one. About 100,000 students currently receive higher professional education at Tomsk-based higher learning establishments. Almost every fifth resident of the city is a student. The city boasts 18 state-run institutions of higher learning, among them six universities, and two non-state institutes and ten branches of higher learning establishments based in other cities.
Tomsk ranks the first in Russia by the per capita concentration of science research personnel of top qualification (over 5,000 Doctors and Masters of Science). Local institutions of higher learning are reckoned among the leaders in Russian education. They train specialists in more than 300 qualifications, 60 of which are connected with priority areas of modernization and technological development of the country. About 50 percent of students come from other towns and nine percent are citizens of 30 foreign states.
While in Tomsk, Putin will also meet with the directors of a number of major enterprises of the region, such as the Tomskneftekhim (petrochemistiry), the Siberian Chemical Complex, the Vostok Gazprom (gas industry, East), the Sibkabel (cables), the Siberian Agrarian Company, etc.