Ural Federal University

Ural Federal University
Уральский федеральный университет
Former names
Ural State University, Ural State Technical University
MottoRussian: Думай, делай, достигай!
Latin: Cogitare, agere, consequi!
Motto in English
Think, act, achieve!
TypePublic
Established1920 (established), 2011 (integrated)
AffiliationsUniversity of the Arctic, Association of Sino-Russian Technical Universities, Russian Council on International Affairs, The Euroasian Universities Association, Association of technical universities of Russia and China, International Association of Architecture and Construction Higher Educational Institutions, Association of Russian leading Universities, Erasmus Plus, BRICS Network University, SCO Network University, CIS University
EndowmentRUB 241,189,117 (~USD 1,280,000) (August 2024)
PresidentVictor Koksharov (2025-2026)
RectorIlya Obabkov (since 2026)
Academic staff
4,400+ (August 2024)
Students45,000+ in total, of which 4,500+ are foreign students (August 2024)
Location, ,
Russia

56°50′38″N 60°39′14″E / 56.8440°N 60.6539°E / 56.8440; 60.6539
Campus
Colors       
Websitehttp://urfu.ru/en/
Building details
Main university building
University rankings
Regional – Overall
QS Emerging Europe and Central Asia32 (2022)

The Ural Federal University (Russian: Уральский федеральный университет имени первого Президента России Б.Н. Ельцина; often shortened to UrFU or УрФУ), named after the first president of Russia, B. N. Yeltsin, is an educational institution in the Ural region of Russia. The Ural Federal University was formed by a merger of the Ural State Technical University and Ural State University. It is one of 10 Russian Federal Universities. The university cooperates with the Russian Academy of Sciences and serves as a research and innovation center for the Ural region. UrFU offers educational programs in four areas of knowledge and 108 academic majors. UrFU also has the right to independently award academic degrees.

In 2024 UrFU was ranked 516 in the world by QS World University Rankings, 601-700 in the Academic Ranking of World Universities, 1001-1200 by World University Rankings by Times Higher Education. In 2023, it was ranked 959 in the Best Global Universities Rankings by U.S. News & World Report.

History

USTU (UPI)

20th century

The Ural University was established in the town of Ekaterinburg in 1920 by a decree of the head of Soviet revolutionary government Vladimir Lenin. However, the university underwent a number of changes due to the lack of resources in such circumstances as revolution and civil war.[citation needed]

Finally, the university split into two: Ural State University (USU), a smaller university responsible for education in natural sciences, social sciences and humanities, and Ural Polytechnic Institute (USTU-UPI), a larger one focused on training engineers in areas such as metallurgy, machine-building, civil engineering and power engineering. At the same time, UPI was developing several new (for the time) areas of knowledge like nuclear energetics, organic chemistry and synthesis, and telecommunications. Despite such partition, both universities were connected closely with each other.[citation needed] The first international students arrived at Ural University in the 1940s. During almost 100 years of the university's history, it has produced more than 2,500 specialists from Europe, Asia and Africa.[citation needed]

21st century

Since 2008, the university has been bearing the name of Boris Yeltsin, who graduated the Department of Civil Engineering in 1955 and became the first President of Russian Federation in 1991.[citation needed] The merger process of USTU-UPI and USU to create Ural Federal University (UrFU) began in 2009 and was completed by the spring of 2011.[citation needed] The number of full-time students studying at UrFU exceeded 45,000 in 2024. The foreign students come from more than 100 countries, and are taught by more than 4,400 faculty members. 358 educational programs were provided by 13 institutes. More than 400,000 people have graduated from Ural Federal University over the years.

As of 2024, more than 4,400 international students study at UrFU. During the last ten years, the university was visited by more than 20 international delegations. Among them are the ambassadors of the US, France, United Kingdom, Sweden, The Republic of South Africa, and Mongolia.[citation needed]

Rankings

Ural Federal University held the following positions in national and global rankings:

Globally:

Emerging market regional:

Russia:

Structure

Institutes and departments

USU

Ural Federal University includes the following institutes:

Establishments of Basic General Education

Branches and representative offices

International partnership

Dmitry Medvedev and Angela Merkel at the "Petersburg Dialogue" Russian-German forum in 2010

One important direction of activity is integration of Ural Federal University into the international research and educational environment. The university participates in network educational projects (Shanghai Cooperation Organisation, European Union, UNESCO, BRICS).

The university is a member of the University of the Arctic. UArctic is an international cooperative network based in the Circumpolar Arctic region, consisting of more than 200 universities, colleges, and other organizations with an interest in promoting education and research in the Arctic region. The collaboration has been paused after the beginning of the Russo-Ukrainian War in 2022.

Facts and figures

The Ural Federal University is the largest federal university in Russia. It has 15 educational buildings, 18 dormitories, 20 sports facilities and 438 multimedia classrooms.

UrFU is ranked among the top 10 universities in Russia and is a participant in the Priority 2030 program.

The university has more than 400 collaboration agreements with international partners. It also has student exchange programs with more than 150 universities from 40 countries.

Research

UrFU scientist Victor Grohovsky talks to press during presentation of Chebarkul meteorite samples analysis

Key areas of scientific research at UrFU:

Supervisory Board

In accordance with the Federal Law of 03.11.2006 No. 174-FZ "About autonomous institutions", a supervisory board was created in UrFU. As of March 2019, it consisted of:

Alumni

UrFU Alumni Association was established in 2012. In 2012–2013, the university established offices of the Alumni Association in Mongolia and Russian cities of Moscow, Nizhny Tagil, Kamensk-Uralsky and Noyabrsk. Currently, the Alumni Association is represented in Vietnam, Uzbekistan, Tajikistan, Kazakhstan, China, Armenia and Kyrgyzstan.

Among the famous graduates of the Ural Federal University there are politicians, scientists, sportsmen, writers and directors.

The famous alumni of the Ural Federal University:


Awards and achievements

The "Dedicatied to Young People" short film, which features Ural Federal University graduates giving advice to current UrFU students, won the ‘Most Creative Corporate Institution Video’ QS-Apple Creative Award and received the title of QS-Apple Creative Idol. The contest was held in 2011, at the 7th QS Asia Pacific Professional Leaders in Education Conference and Exhibition, in Manila (Philippines), and was organized by Quacquarelli Symonds.

See also

References

  1. ↑ https://www.unirank.org/ru/uni/ural-federal-university/ Ural Federal University, ranking and review
  2. ↑ http://www.uarctic.org/members.aspx?m=1053 Deprecated link archived 2012-12-28 at archive.today UrFU profile (eng)
  3. ↑ http://asrtu.ru/sostav.html Deprecated link archived 2012-07-10 at archive.today ASRTU: membership (rus)
  4. ↑ http://russiancouncil.ru/about-us/corporate_members_RSMD/ Archived 2012-03-29 at the Wayback Machine Russian Council on International Affairs: corporate members (rus)
  5. ↑ http://www.eau-msu.ru/heis/view/102 Archived 2016-03-07 at the Wayback Machine Euroasian Universities Association: UrFU (rus)
  6. ↑ ATURC was created
  7. ↑ http://www.eureca-usrf.org/en/news/news/detail.php?element_id=2958 Archived 2016-03-03 at the Wayback Machine The Association of Leading Russian Universities Visits the United States (eng)
  8. ↑ http://urfu.ru/en/news/news/6425/ UrFU + Erasmus Plus
  9. ↑ https://www.timeshighereducation.com/world-university-rankings/ural-federal-university Ural Federal University World University Rankings | THE
  10. ↑ "Эндаумент-фонд Уральского федерального университета".
  11. ↑ "QS World University Rankings-Emerging Europe & Central Asia". Retrieved 15 January 2023.
  12. ↑ UrFU list of academic majors (rus), Retrieved 20 April 2016
  13. 1 2 3 4 5 University Rankings and Student Reviews. Ural Federal University
  14. ↑ "Rankings". rtf.urfu.ru.
  15. ↑ "University | Ranking Web of Universities: Webometrics ranks 30000 institutions". www.webometrics.info.
  16. ↑ "Ural Federal University Tops the Interfax National Ranking". urfu.ru.
  17. ↑ "Институты". urfu.ru.
  18. ↑ "NTI (branch) UrFU". nti.urfu.ru.
  19. ↑ "Каменск-Уральский". k-uralsk.urfu.ru.
  20. ↑ "Academic Partners".
  21. ↑ "Members". UArctic. Retrieved 2025-03-06.
  22. ↑ "About Us". UArctic - University of the Arctic. Retrieved 2025-03-06.
  23. ↑ "Shared Voices 2022". UArctic - University of the Arctic. Retrieved 2025-03-13.
  24. ↑ "Facts and Figures".
  25. ↑ "UrFU Supervisory Board Members". Retrieved 20 December 2022.
  26. ↑ "UrFU Alumni Association".
  27. ↑ "Famous Alumni".
  28. ↑ http://www.qsapple.org/7thqsapple/winner.php Archived 2013-12-11 at the Wayback Machine Winners of QS-APPLE Creative Awards 2011