Irkutsk State University of Transport and Railway Transport

Irkutsk State Transport University – a higher educational institution, one of the leading educational and scientific-engineering centers in Siberia and the Far East of Russia in the field of railway transport.

Its full name is the Federal State Budgetary Institution of Higher Education “Irkutsk State Transport University” (IrGUPS). The founder of the University is the Russian Federation. The functions and powers of the founder are exercised by the Federal Railway Transport Agency.

Organizationally the University is a regional and branch complex with its branches in four constituent entities of the Russian Federation and Mongolia. The university complex includes the head university in the city of Irkutsk, four branches, three colleges and two technical schools.

The University trains specialists of higher and secondary vocational education for the railway industry and other branches of the national economy in 32 areas of higher professional education, 12 specialties of secondary vocational education.

Nowadays, Irkutsk State Transport University is a modern scientific and educational complex with a developed training, laboratory and production facilities, which has all the conditions for training highly qualified specialists in the transport area. The building of the head university in Irkutsk consists of six educational buildings, where there are more than 100 dedicated classrooms and laboratories. At students’ disposal — a library, a computer center and Internet access.

The University infrastructure includes 7 dormitories in the city of Irkutsk, a sports and fitness complex “Izumrud” with a swimming pool and gyms, as well as the outdoor sports arrears in the University-owned grove “Zvezdochka”.

IrGUPS is a member of the International Association of Transport Universities of the APR countries, as well as the Association of Rectors of Transport Universities of Russia and China, where the university annually participates with reports in the work of forums and symposiums. Since 2008, the International Symposium on “Innovation and Sustainability of Modern Railway” takes a special place in the development of international relations. Russian and Chinese transport universities actively cooperate on one of the topical subjects of the railway industry — innovations, which makes it possible not only to organize effective joint work of state profile universities, but also to bring positions closer in the information space of modern knowledge-intensive breakthrough technology. Students and teachers of the university are permanent prizewinners of branch research competitions.

Faculties of Irkutsk State University of Transport and Railway Transport:

Bachelor’s degree

• Construction
• Information systems and technologies
• Software Engineering
• Information security
• Instrument-making
• Mechatronics and Robotics
• Technical physics
• Technical Safety
• Transport process technology
• Operation of transport technology machines and complexes
• Quality management
• Economics
• Management
• Personnel management

Master’s degree

• Construction
• Information systems and technologies
• Software Engineering
• Instrument-making
• Engineering engineering design and technology
• Mechatronics and Robotics
• Technical Safety
• Quality management
• Economics
• Management
• Personnel management
• Finance and credit

Specificity

• Railway rolling stock
• Operation of railways
• Train Management Systems
• Construction of railway bridges and transport tunnels
• Customs

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.