Immanuel Kant Baltic Federal University celebrates its 75th anniversary this year. Its rector, Doctor of Philosophy Alexander Fedorov, talked to TASS about what the university has become and what it will be, and explored the challenges of tomorrow's industrial, environmental and urban projects.
— This year your university celebrates its 75th anniversary. But it reached its present level a little more than 10 years ago. What is its mission now?
— The anniversary will be dedicated to the history of the Baltic Federal University's search for identity over the past 75 years. The institution emerged as a training center for pedagogical staff and for a long time remained a pedagogical institute, then became a classical university. At some point, the title "Russian State University" appeared in its name, and then, in 2011, which we are talking about, an important event happened for the university - it became a federal university. That is, it had its first large-scale multi-year development program and the first major investment in infrastructure, staff, laboratory facilities, and research support.
One of the important missions of our university is to ensure migration inflow to the Kaliningrad region. In the last admission campaign, the university achieved a 50 per cent intake of students from other regions and other countries, reaching 13 per cent of international students.
— Do BFU graduates stay in the Kaliningrad region?
— Our region is special. It lives by attracting human resources. In this context, a very important role of the university is to attract young and highly qualified personnel.
75% of university graduates, and it is a good indicator, stay to work in the region. This is a significant contribution to forming the intellectual and industrial elite in the region with the planning period of up to 15-20 years - building their own life routes, forming their own business, their own spheres of employment.
— How do you see Baltic Federal University, let's say, in 5-10 years? What is the place of the "Priority-2030" program in achieving the development goals?
— We will face an extremely difficult task of implementing a new development strategy in the next 10 years. This strategy, which is supported by the federal program "Priority-2030", comprises three main tasks for the university's development: establishing the university as a project university; establishing a territorial university, which implies deepest interaction with the region; creating a network university-hub, where each area of activity is supported by partners and implemented in a cooperative format.
— Now we can’t not ask you about the prospects of international cooperation. What are the problems, in which areas is it planned to intensify the work?
— BFU began diversifying its international activities back in 2019. Until that time, the university had a single goal - cooperation with the European Union countries. Now we have not just made a bid, but have taken a number of active steps to develop partnerships in South-East Asia and Latin America as well. And we have achieved quite good results.
We have established serious programs (somewhat hindered by the pandemic, which I hope will change now) with universities in China. We have a clear set of topics in biomedical and engineering research and development, which we will implement together with partners from Anhui and Shandong provinces. We have opened a center for Russian language and professional competences at Shandong Polytechnic University. We have formed a serious co-operation program with Anhui Medical University. The center in Shandong is already in operation, more than 150 students are studying there, which is not a bad start.
Now an important area for us is co-operation with Central Asian universities. At the end of May, we will be opening representative offices of Baltic Federal University in Samarkand and Bukhara, with an extensive exchange program of both students and teachers. In the next two years, our mobility will reach up to a thousand people on each side, and we are counting on a serious program of cooperation with universities in Kazakhstan and Kyrgyzstan, where around seven partners have appeared.
Last year we "took on board" 24 students from Ecuador for the first time.
Our medical education has an English-language track and is quite popular with Indian students. For all the difficulties we now have in securing payments, mobility, we see serious opportunities in these markets in the five years ahead.
None of the agreements will remain on paper. Three things are important for us - joint educational projects, joint research in limited fields and areas where we are truly leaders, and cultural contacts.
We have, I will not hide it, a serious relationship crisis with our partners from the European Union. The vast majority of programs, both educational and scientific, have been suspended or terminated. Nevertheless, a number of Bulgarian universities prolonged agreements with us, a number of research groups from Italy support our neuroscience research and continue to do so, jointly administering grants with us.
Several students who were expelled from foreign universities have come to us. Not very many, given the logistical problems. I would like to stress that our now all but former European partners, nevertheless, treated our students, who are on exchange programs, very tactfully. There have been no critical situations. We do not see unsolvable problems.
— The Russian government is developing new criteria for the effectiveness of scientific work, based on internal standards. What do you think of this process?
— These are entirely appropriate initiatives and decisions. The most important thing that I personally feel optimistic about is the rejection of... I'll use a neologism now... citation-centricity. It has been a fascinating adventure, which all Russian universities went through in the last 10-15 years, when we were trying with all our might to enter the global rankings. We have seen the global kitchen from the inside and gained certain positions. I will remind you that Russian universities started from scratch. The Baltic Federal University got to the 651-700 level in the QS world rankings last year, which is very good. We just got into the philosophy subject ranking among the top 200 universities in the world this year. The Immanuel Kant Baltic Federal University should definitely be there. And we won a place there by right, it is indeed our achievement.
It was an invaluable experience. But the essence of the Cabinet's decisions is to change the vector towards implementation, towards subject-specific developments and solutions which create practical results for the industry and provide a tight link between science and education.
We have always suffered from this problem - look at the results of the patenting activities of Russian universities and the Russian Academy of Sciences in recent decades. More often than not, we either did not bring our own developments to implementation or surprisingly gave them to our partners outside the country.
Managing intellectual capital and developments is now an important task for us, and one that has been articulated by the government.
— The environmental agenda seems to be cleansing itself of superfluous political elements. Do you think this is a good time to address the real issues of human-nature interactions? In this context, what scientific results can be expected from research at the Rosyanka carbon test site?
— You correctly noted that the environmental issue of climate change and the truly catastrophic evolution of the global biocenosis has moved from the focus of attention to the periphery for a period of time - I don't think for a very long period of time. The problems remain.
Russia has established a network of carbon capture sites. For example, we have launched a two-tiered polygon called 'Rosyanka' that has both a marine location and a land location, which makes it possible to assess greenhouse gas emissions universally.
Our main task over the next three years is to study how irreversible climate change actually is. It is a fact that we are already seeing unprecedentedly high rates of increase in CO2 in our region, for example. We are fairly optimistic about being able to manage this process.
— The partners of BFU include very different clean energy companies, such as Rosatom and Hevel. How does cooperation with them (and other industrial partners, of course) work? The problems remain.
Russia has established a network of carbon capture sites. For example, we have launched a two-tiered polygon called 'Rosyanka' that has both a marine location and a land location, which makes it possible to assess greenhouse gas emissions universally.
Our main task over the next three years is to study how irreversible climate change actually is. It is a fact that we are already seeing unprecedentedly high rates of increase in CO2 in our region, for example. We are fairly optimistic about being able to manage this process.
— The partners of BFU include very different clean energy companies, such as Rosatom and Hevel. How does cooperation with them (and other industrial partners, of course) work? Can you name the most interesting joint projects?
— You named Hevel and, of course, Rosatom as two important partners for us. We have seven partners who are making similar requests for us to form long-term educational, scientific and implementation tracks. I might also include the Fakel and Avtotor plants.
As for Hevel. We have formulated a research program that sets ambitious targets for finding and testing new materials for the active surface of solar cells. Hevel intends to set up a plant in the Kaliningrad region, and we have received staffing orders. We have set up a master's program in solar power engineering, which is already up and running and is very popular.
Here, a lot depends on the sustainability of decisions made by the industrial partner. We welcome any initiative from industry and business, but we always make sure that we are not a motorboat that can change its trajectory in 10 seconds. Each Master's degree is two years, the BA is four. A conscious approach to staffing needs and to filling the competencies of the curriculum is a mutual responsibility. We are full of moderate optimism and believe that this project will be a model for cooperation in forming a targeted program for the enterprise.
As for Rosatom - this story is just beginning. The head of the corporation, Alexei Likhachev, recently visited. At the end of May, we are holding a big project session to establish a common research and education agenda for the ten-year development period.
The company's intention to build a lithium battery plant in Kaliningrad has presented us with several challenges. One of them is human resources, the training of the specialists who will both build the plant and work in it. As of the new academic year, we will start fulfilling this order.
The second task is more complicated: to form a joint R&D hub on our premises. In the next month, we need to approve its subject matter, define its design developments, and launch it during this calendar year. I would not say it is easy, but here we are inspired by Rosatom's very steadfast intention to start activities in the Kaliningrad region, despite the sanctions and logistical difficulties.
The staffing requirements for both Hevel and Rosatom to start up the facilities are very substantial, with up to 3,000 people in different professions. This is a minimum benchmark that takes into account both engineering and mid-level personnel. This is certainly a new stage of development for BFU.
— Your university is already perceived as modern and dynamic. There are plans for a new campus. What will it give people, apart from, obviously, the amenities?
— We are going through the first stage of creating a neo-campus. The design has been completed, we expect that the foundation stone will be laid this year.
What is our campus? It is a new environment solution for the industry of the future.
For us, the point of the campus is to bring different people together in one place, aimed not just at self-development, finding their place in life, but most importantly - at cooperation. That is, to create our own cooperative, synthetic development solutions, to form target communities. That is why the architectural and design model of the campus itself is a rather complex solution. On the one hand, it inherits the traditions of old Koenigsberg and Soviet Kaliningrad; on the other hand, it offers solutions relating to the bioarchitecture of the future.
This campus will bring together four areas of study. These are biomedicine, humanities, high-tech in relation to physics, IT and engineering, and area management and development. We have set ourselves the task to achieve the cooperative effect, using the competences of neurosciences, neurocognitivism, building intelligent, long developmental routes for student communities, micro-collectives, forming a new type of project approach, which allows us to combine both the physical basis of the campus and its digital copy.
We are already creating a digital model of the campus; the alpha version is ready. I think that by the end of this calendar year the first online classes, the first conferences, and maybe even the first sales will take place there by our partners.
It is important that the campus is open to citizens, it fits into the idea of Kaliningrad's development and will serve as a powerful driver of new architectural solutions and the development of new territories. For instance, there is a historical space called Litovsky Val near us, and looking at us, the city's architects have already proposed a new design solution for its reconstruction. In other words, our 29 hectares, where the campus and the park that is an integral part of it will be located, will stretch to at least another 30 hectares of urban space. It will be a truly unique place.
— Is the International Philosophy Olympiad for high school students also about the production of the future?
— This project was suggested by Prime Minister Mikhail Mishustin when he visited us a few months ago, when the final decision was made to build the campus. We are happy to implement this idea, because we see huge potential in it.
The Olympics should become a major intellectual enterprise. Now, despite the changed international situation, we have set ourselves the task of launching an international Olympiad philosophy track already this year, which is aimed at developing thinking, forming teams of like-minded people, and creating the ability to consciously and purposefully produce the future.
At the moment, while preparations are underway, we can say that the Olympiad will bring together participants from at least 15 countries. There will be a serious international team of experts. We are implementing the project in partnership with the Philosophy Faculty of Moscow State University.
We see huge potential in attracting attention to problems of development of the world, to problems of risks the world is facing, to Russian philosophy and Russian culture. And to promote the ideas that the world is diverse and every voice needs to be heard, and that community building is only possible when there are differences between people. When everyone thinks in the same direction, everyone agrees with each other, there can be no development.
We will try to regard this Olympiad precisely as a tool for the global development of humanity, stressing that the ability to think philosophically is an essential trait of a human researcher. For us, such an ambitious and very challenging task is at the same time extremely interesting.
Interviewed by Elena Ivanova