SRI is the Sino-Russian Institute launched as a joint educational institution by NSU and Heilongjiang University, China, in 2011. This scaled project is aimed at training Bachelors, Masters and postgraduate students in chemistry, biology, physics, mathematics, economics and law. It is unique in the relations between Russian and Chinese universities.
The Dean of the Natural Sciences Department at NSU and the Russian Director of the SRI Prof. Vladimir Reznikov says that presently NSU hosts 45 junior students and 34 graduate students who study the Russian part of their program. Moreover, NSU has enrolled 4 postgraduate students who graduated from the SRI’s joint Master program and about 20 graduate students in their second year of the Master program. More graduate and undergraduate students, namely 15 for the Master program and 30 for the Bachelor program, have recently received support from the Chinese authorities and are to be enrolled this year.
According to the Agreement, SRI students are to study both in Harbin and in Novosibirsk. NSU instructors conduct classes for Chinese students in China, and after three years of training according to the SRI program, undergraduate students come to Novosibirsk to study at NSU for one more year. Successful graduates get a Bachelor’s degree of Heilongjiang University and can enter the joint Master program and postgraduate program at NSU in the frameworks of the SRI.
Vladimir Reznikov explains that graduate students are to study for three years according to Chinese standards, and those who get support to study at the SRI study for the first year at Heilongjiang University and for two more years at NSU. After the first year, which has passed, 60% of graduate students have come to NSU. Thus, in two years we are to award degrees to 34 Master students who will obtain two diplomas, one from Heilongjiang University and one from NSU, at the same time.
Core subjects at the SRI are conducted in the Russian language, and the Chinese students study Russian very intensively. They choose a major in the third term and are supposed to have mastered Russian quite well. The Russian language is one of the most difficult subjects for the students. When undergraduate students come to NSU, they have up to 10 hours per week of studying Russian. All the special subjects are delivered in Russian, too.
The joint Master program was launched by NSU and Heilongjiang University in 2015, and its first 50 students were the SRI graduates.
The Sino-Russian Institute enrolls 180 freshmen every year, and the present-day number of students count more than 800.
