Saint Petersburg State University

Saint Petersburg State University, SPbSU, Russian: Санкт-Петербургский государственный университет, СПбГУ,  is a Russian federal state-owned higher education institution based in Saint Petersburg and one of the oldest, largest and most prestigious universities in Russia.

It is made up of 22 specialized faculties, 13 research institutes, Faculty of Military Studies, Academic Classical School, Department of Physical Culture and Sports. As of 2010, the university has a teaching staff of 6,855. The university has two main campuses: on Vasilievsky Island and in Peterhof. During the Soviet period, it was known as Leningrad State University (Russian: Ленинградский государственный университет), in 1948—1989 named after Zhdanov.

History

It is disputed by the university administration whether Saint Petersburg State University or Moscow State University is the oldest higher education institution in Russia. While the latter was established in 1755, the former, which has been in continuous operation since 1819, itself claims to be the successor of the university established on January 24, 1724 by a decree of Peter the Great, together with the Academic Gymnasium and Saint Petersburg Academy of Sciences. Immanuel Kant State University of Russia in Kaliningrad claims to be the successor of the Albertina founded in East Prussia in 1544, though there is hardly any degree of continuity at all.

In the period between 1803 and 1819, Saint Petersburg University officially did not exist; the institution founded by Peter the Great, the Saint Petersburg Academy, had already been disbanded, because the new 1803 charter of the Academy of Sciences stipulated that there should be no educational institutions affiliated with it. The Petersburg Pedagogical Institute, renamed the Main Pedagogical Institute in 1814, was established in 1804 and occupied a part of the Twelve Collegia building.

On February 8, 1819 (O.S.), Alexander I of Russia reorganized the Main Pedagogical Institute into Saint Petersburg University, which at that time consisted of three faculties: Faculty of Philosophy and Law, Faculty of History and Philology and Faculty of Physics and Mathematics, and enrolled several dozen students. Since there is some degree of continuity between the Academy, the Pedagogical Institute, and the University, Saint Petersburg State University may be considered the oldest university in Russia. In 1821 the university was renamed Saint Petersburg Imperial University. In 1823 most of the university moved from the Twelve Collegia to the southern part of the city beyond the Fontanka. In 1824 a version of the charter of Moscow University became the first charter of the Saint Petersburg Imperial University. In 1829 there were 19 full professors and 169 full-time and part-time students in the university. In 1830 Tsar Nicholas passed the entire building of the Twelve Collegia back to the university, and the courses returned there. In 1835 a new Charter of the Imperial Universities of Russia was approved. According to it during the following years the Faculty of Law was established and the Faculty of History and Philology and Faculty of Physics and Mathematics were merged into the Faculty of Philosophy as the 1st and 2nd Departments, respectively.

In 1849 after the Spring of Nations the Senate of the Russian Empire decreed that the Rector should be appointed by the Minister of National Enlightenment rather than elected by the Assembly of the university. However, Pyotr Pletnyov was reappointed Rector and ultimately became the longest-serving rector of Saint 

In 1850 the 1st and 2nd Departments of the Faculty of Philosophy were turned back into the Faculty of History and Philosophy and Faculty of Physics and Mathematics, respectively, the latter specializing not only in mathematics and physics, but also in other natural sciences, such as biology and chemistry. The Oriental studies were separated from the Faculty of History and Philology, and in 1855 the fourth faculty, Faculty of Oriental Languages, was opened.

In 1859–1861 female part-time students could attend lectures in the university. In 1861 there were 1,270 full-time and 167 part-time students in the university, of them 498 were in the Faculty of Law, the largest subdivision. During 1861–1862 there was student unrest in the university, and it was temporarily closed twice during the year. The students were denied freedom of assembly and placed under police surveillance, while public lectures were forbidden. Many students were expelled. After the unrest, in 1865, only 524 students remained.

The new Charter of the Imperial Russian Universities adopted in 1863 restored the right of the university assembly to elect the rector. In March 1869, student unrest shook the university again but on a smaller scale. By 1869, 2,588 students had graduated from the university.

In 1880 the Ministry of National Enlightenment forbade students to marry and married persons could not be admitted. In 1882 another student unrest took place in the university. In 1884 a new Charter of the Imperial Russian Universities was adopted, which granted the right to appoint the rector to the Minister of National Enlightenment again. On March 1, 1887 (O.S.) a group of the university students was arrested while planning an attempt on the life of Alexander III of Russia. As a result, new admission rules to gymnasiums and universities were approved by the Minister of National Enlightenment Ivan Delyanov in 1887, which barred persons of ignoble origin from admission to the university, unless they were extraordinarily talented.

By 1894, 9,212 students had graduated from the university. Among the renowned scholars of the second half of the 19th century affiliated with the university were mathematician Pafnuty Chebyshev, physicist Heinrich Lenz, chemists Dmitri Mendeleev and Aleksandr Butlerov, embryologist Alexander Kovalevsky, physiologist Ivan Sechenov, pedologist Vasily Dokuchaev. On March 24, 1896 (O.S.), on the campus of the university Alexander Popov publicly demonstrated transmission of radio waves for the first time in history.

As of January 1, 1900 (O.S.), there were 2,099 students enrolled in the Faculty of Law, 1,149 students in the Faculty of Physics and Mathematics, 212 students in the Faculty of Oriental Languages and 171 students in the Faculty of History and Philology. In 1902 the first student dining hall in Russia was opened in the university.

Since about 1897 regular strikes and unrests of students had shaken the university and spread to other higher education institutions across Russia. In 1905 during the Revolution the charter of the Russian universities was amended once more, the autonomy of the universities was partially restored and the right to elect the rector was returned to the academic board for the first time since 1884. In 1905–1906 the university was temporarily closed due to the student unrest. The autonomy was revoked again in 1911. In the same year the university was temporarily closed again.

In 1914 with the start of the First World War, the university was renamed Petrograd Imperial University after its namesake city. In 1915 a branch of the university was opened in Perm, which later became Perm State University. The Assembly of Petrograd Imperial University openly welcomed the February Revolution of 1917, which put an end to the Russian monarchy, and the university came to be known as just Petrograd University. However, after the October Revolution of 1917, the staff and administration of the university were initially vocally opposed to the Bolshevik takeover of power and reluctant to cooperate with the Narkompros. Later in 1917–1922 during the Russian Civil War some of the staff suspected of counter-revolutionary sympathies suffered imprisonment (e.g. Lev Shcherba in 1919), execution, or exile abroad on the so-called Philosophers' ships in 1922 (e.g. Nikolai Lossky). Furthermore, the entire staff suffered from hunger and extreme poverty during those years.

Reputation and international rankings

Saint Petersburg State University is considered the second best university in Russia after Moscow State University and is ranked 84th worldwide by the Russian Global University Ranking 2009, 168th on the 2009 THES - QS World University Rankings (From 2010 two separate rankings will be produced by the Times Higher Education World University Rankings and the QS World University Rankings), 303rd–401st on the 2009 Academic Ranking of World Universities and 421st (score 22.79%) on the Wuhan University's Rankings.

The university has a reputation for having educated a number of Russia's most prominent politicians; these include presidents Vladimir Putin and Dimitry Medvedev, both of whom studied Law at the university.

The university usually holds a relatively high place in the various world rankings (placed 2nd in Russia after Moscow State University in the THES - QS World University Rankings and has established itself as one of Russia's premier institutions of higher education.

The university is widely considered to be one of Russia's oldest universities. There is an ongoing debate as to whether it is, in fact, Russia's oldest university, as this title is also claimed by the Lomonosov State University of Moscow (Moscow State University). The reason for this uncertainty can be ascribed to the two sperate occasions on which the university was founded and then refounded; the first occasion, 1724, predates the foundation of Moscow State University in 1755. However, the second occasion, in 1819, does not. Thus the case is open to interpretation and there is yet no definitive answer.