Ten years ago, there were 13.5 thousand degree students of foreign origins in Saint Petersburg. This number has increased to 31 thousand by now. If other education forms - such as short-term programmes or summer schools - are included, the figure rises to 38 thousand people.

The global pace of digitalisation is enormous, but European post-graduates in mining do not lag behind the trend - as of now, the most demanded innovative solutions in the EU are the ones that simplify work processes through the use of information technologies. Most importantly, both the EU and the companies are ready to pay for revolutionary developments. One of the institutions, whose aim is to search for the new promising projects and facilitate the financing of those, is the European Institute of Technology and Innovation (EIT).

Today, when readers from all over the world - Russian ones included - become increasingly interested in the projects revealing numerous cases of plagiarism in scientific research, new questions arise: what can be done to prevent questioning the quality of awarded degrees and what should Russian universities and research institutes do to handle the issue and facilitate introduction of new scientific developments into production?

One of the main topics of this year’s Russian-German Raw Materials Dialogue was cooperation prospects for the two countries, as they have been seeking for the ways to contribute to environmentally sustainable development and fight against the global warming.

The universities of St. Petersburg attract high school graduates from many regions of Russia and different countries all over the world. However, those students who have been admitted are facing a problem of finding a suitable housing. That is hardly a surprise that most of the newcomers tend to living in a dorm room, as this option is is a lot cheaper compared to apartment rental.

At the end of October, a closing ceremony of the Russian-British Raw Materials Dialogue was held in St. Petersburg. During the course of the event, Ian Bowbrick, Director of Membership and Professional Standards at the Institute of Materials, Minerals and Mining, awarded 12 experts of the Russian National Association of Mining Engineers with certificates granting them power to accredit mining specialists on behalf of the Institute one of the most prestigious professional bodies in the world.   

Out of the many challenges that mining industry is facing nowadays, the Dialogue’s participants placed specific attention to whittling down deficit of skilled engineers through competency assessment and development. The particular importance of this problem is caused by ever increasing requirements to be met by professionals. In addition, mineral resources extraction is a process that has become more complex and sophisticated.

A delegation from the UK, who came to St. Petersburg to participate in the Russian-British Raw Materials Dialogue, aims to destroy the negative buzz surrounding Russia that builds up in the Western media.

One of the main advantages of meetings held in the forum format is in the opportunity to establish real contacts between the scientific and business communities of two countries, achieved by switching from exchange of opinions and theoretical discussions to more practical concerns

London Stock Exchange Group (LSEG) announced the Green Economy Mark to support companies’ transition to low-carbon sustainable business models.