Irkutsk State Pedagogical University

Irkutsk State University was founded in October 1918 in Irkutsk.

Nowadays Irkutsk State University is a large scientific and educational institution training students in humanities, natural, technical and applied sciences. ISU facilities include 7 educational institutions, 10 faculties, 1 branch in Bratsk, the scientific library that is one of the largest University libraries in Russia. ISU offers bachelor, master, post-graduate programs for more than 18000 students that have opportunity to specialize under the supervision of world-known scientists.

Among other facilities Irkutsk State University has the Center for Advanced Training and Retraining, 3 research institutes, Interregional Institute of Social Sciences, Center for New Information Technologies, Baikal Research and Education Center, department for post-graduate and doctoral courses, scientific libraries, astronomical observatory and botanic garden.

The University faculties and institutions are located in 9 educational buildings in Irkutsk and in Bratsk. The majority of these buildings are of great historical and architectural value. They date back to the 18th-19th centuries. Senior students of all the faculties have specialized courses and internship in laboratories and scientific research institutions of ISU and Siberian Branch of the Russian Academy of Sciences.

For decades, Irkutsk University has trained more than 80 thousand highly qualified specialists, famous scientists, teachers, writers, and statesmen, including State Prize winners and famous talented writers V. Rasputin, A. Vampilov, and M. Sergeev.

Faculties of Irkutsk State Pedagogical University:

Institutes:

• Pedagogical Institute
• Baikal International Business School
• Institute of Mathematics, Economics and Informatics
• Institute of Social Sciences
• International Institute of Economics and Linguistics
• Institute of Philology, Foreign Languages and Media Communication
• Law Institute

Faculties:

• Faculty of Biology and Soil Studies
• Faculty of Geography
• Faculty of Geology
• Faculty of History
• Faculty of Psychology
• Faculty of Religious Studies and Theology
• Faculty of Service and Advertising
• Faculty of Philology and Journalism
• Faculty of Foreign Languages
• Faculty of Physics
• Faculty of Chemistry

Student Accommodation

Students are offered to live in well heated and fully furnished comfortable rooms. Accommodation facilities for students are organized on the sharing basis. There are twin – and triple – rooms. Male and female students live separately on the different floors. All the hostels for students are protected by the police. There are special rooms for students where they can socialize, have fun and make new friends. All the rooms are provided with a bed, mattress, pillow, blanket, desk, chair, heater, and lighting, suitable for both: study and relaxation, as well as the Internet access and telephone for students to get in touch with their close friends and relatives.

Irkutsk City

Irkutsk is a city located in Eastern Siberia in Russia, the administrative center of Irkutsk Oblast, one of the largest cities in Siberia. Founded in 1661, Irkutsk is included in the list of historical settlements of Russia.

Irkutsk – Features

Irkutsk is a unique, old city, the capital of Eastern Siberia. located on the banks of the Angara River in the immediate vicinity of the reservoir formed by the dam of the Irkutsk Hydroelectric Power Station, about 76 from Lake Baikal. The nearest large city is Ulan-Ude located 457 km east of Irkutsk, on the other side of Lake Baikal. The distance to Moscow is about 5,200 km.

The Angara River divides Irkutsk into the right-bank and left-bank parts. The length of the river within the city is 29 km, the width under the Old Angara Bridge in the city center is about 300 meters; there are more than 30 islands on the river.

The climate of Irkutsk is sharply continental with significant daily and annual fluctuations in air temperature. Winter is cold, long and lasts more than 5 months (from late October to early April). The coldest month of the year is January, the average temperature is minus 17.8 degrees Celsius. Summer in the first half is hot and dry, in the second half there are heavy rains. The warmest month is July, the average temperature is plus 18.3 degrees Celsius.

Irkutsk is a large industrial center of Eastern Siberia. “Irkutskenergo” is one of the largests energy companies in Russia with 3 hydroelectric power stations of the Angara River cascade with a capacity of 9 GW, thermal power plants with a capacity of 3.9 GW, as well as coal mines and regional heating systems. Irkutsk Hydroelectric Power Station produces 4.1 billion kWh per year.

The leading industrial enterprise of the city is the Irkutsk Aviation Plant, which gave the name to the current Russian aircraft manufacturing corporation “Irkut”. The plant produces military and civil aircraft and employs about 12 thousand people. Irkutsk Heavy Engineering Plant manufactures gold mining, mining and processing, and metallurgical equipment.

Irkutsk is one of the largest scientific and educational centers of Siberia. The city has a branch of the Siberian Department of the Russian Academy of Sciences with a network of scientific institutes and a number of universities, in which about 100 thousand students study.

Tourism in Irkutsk is mainly transit on the way to Lake Baikal. Foreign tourists stay in the city on average 1.5-2 days, most of them are travelers from China, Germany, and Japan. About 70% of tourists come in the summer season.

Across the left bank of the Angara, the federal highway “Baikal” Novosibirsk-Chita passes through the city. Irkutsk is the railway junction of the Trans-Siberian Railway. Irkutsk International Airport provides flights to Moscow, St. Petersburg, Vladivostok, Khabarovsk, Novosibirsk, Yakutsk. Public transport includes buses, trolleybuses, trams.

On the coat of arms of Irkutsk you can see a “babr” holding a sable in its mouth. From the 17th century, the word “babr” was used to name the Amur tiger inhabiting the Baikal region. There is an interesting story with this word.

In 1859, a large-scale reform of Russian heraldry was launched in order to correct errors accumulated over time. However, it led to new errors. The word “babr” was mostly known to local residents and the people involved in the reform decided that it was just a mistake in the Russian word “bobr” (meaning “beaver”) and approved the new description of the coat of arms of Irkutsk – a beaver holding a sable in its mouth.

However, not a single image was painted of the Irkutsk coat of arms with a beaver holding a sable in its mouth. Instead, the tiger received a large beaver tail and webbed hind legs and turned into a new, mythical animal.