About

Irkutsk State University was founded on October 27, 1918. Its opening marked the beginning of higher education in Siberia and the Far East. The university immediately became the main educational, scientific and cultural center in the vast territory from the Yenisei to the Pacific Ocean. 

Today, Irkutsk State University is the largest scientific and educational institution in the region in the natural sciences and humanities. The university offers training in the entire spectrum of natural sciences, mathematics, humanities, social sciences, pedagogical, linguistic disciplines, and also partially engineering. The educational complex of the university includes 8 educational institutes, 8 faculties, a college and one of the largest university libraries in Russia, master's, postgraduate, doctoral programs and the Irkutsk Virtual University, which is the basic one in the region.

 

Currently, the university structure includes 11 major research departments: the Research Department (RD), 4 research institutes (applied physics, biology, oil and coal chemical synthesis, legal protection of Lake Baikal), the Center for New Information Technologies (CNIT), the Baikal Scientific and Educational Center, the Interregional Institute of Social Sciences (IIS), the Baikal Region Research Center, the Laboratory of Quantum Chemistry, the Laboratory of Historical and Political Demography, the Sociological Laboratory of Regional Problems and Innovations, the Astronomical Observatory, and the Botanical Garden.

 

The number of faculty members is 1044, including 146 doctors of science, 581 candidates of science, 1 academician of the Russian Academy of Sciences, 2 honored scientists of the Russian Federation, 4 honored workers of higher education of the Russian Federation, 2 honored teachers of the Russian Federation, 18 members of public academies.

 

Over 14,500 students, including almost 770 students from 23 foreign countries, study programs in 53 bachelor's degree programs (136 profiles), 30 master's degree programs (80 areas), 2 specialties, 14 postgraduate programs (43 areas). Each student has the opportunity to conduct research work under the supervision of internationally renowned scientists.

 

Irkutsk State University has graduated more than 115,000 people, including prominent scientists, teachers, writers, and public figures of international renown.