Read and translate the text “Our University”

There are different types of higher educational institutions in Russia. In Perm several establishments train specialists in various fields, and among them the Perm State University, the Technical University, the Medical Academy, the Pharmaceutical Academy, the Agricultural Academy, the Higher School of Economy and others. My friends and I study at the Perm State Pedagogical University. Our University provides higher education for future teachers.

The Perm Pedagogical University is the oldest higher educational establishment of this type in the Urals. It was founded in 1921 and the number of students was small. During the next two decades (the 20s and the 30s) our University grew greatly. In 1940 there were 1085 students and more than 100 professors and instructors.

During the wartime a military hospital was housed in the main building, the department of chemistry produced medicines. In the years of the Great Patriotic War a large group of students, graduates and teachers went to the front. We shall never forget those who fell in the war, and among them Tatyana Baramsina, Hero of the Soviet Union, who had studied at our University.

Nowadays the Perm Pedagogical University is an important centre of training teachers in the Urals. Every year a great number of students enter its 13 faculties: the Faculty of Mathematics, the Faculty of Philology, the Faculty of Physical Culture, the Faculty of Biology and Chemistry, of Pedagogy and Methods of Primary Education, of Pre-school Psychology and Pedagogy, the Faculty of Foreign Languages, the Faculty of Physics, of History, of Music, of Psychology, the Faculty of Computer Operating and Economics and the Faculty of Social Pedagogy.

The head of the University is the Rector. Every faculty has a Dean. He or she occupies the Dean’s Office. The Dean is responsible for the faculty. Every student group has a monitor. The monitor is the leader of the group and is in charge of it.

Our University has more than 45 departments. The staff of professors, lecturers and instructors is big and includes many outstanding scientists who are making contribution to various fields of knowledge. Several scientific schools have been formed at our University: the psychological school of integral individuality, the scientific school of hydrodynamics, of history of the Perm region, of ornithology and others.

At the University there are many laboratories equipped with apparatus of advanced design, computer classrooms with Internet facilities, study-rooms and workshops. They are all situated in its five buildings. The administration is housed in the main building.

Education is free for most students: they pay nothing for lectures, for using laboratory equipment and libraries, or for taking examinations and credit-tests. Moreover, many students receive state grants. Our University has 4 student hostels. Many students are provided with hostel accommodations. The Perm Pedagogical University has its own library containing an enormous number of books: textbooks and fiction, scientific literature and reference books.

The University provides good conditions for scientific research. All students carry out research work in the fields of methods and principles of teaching and special subjects. Our graduates work as schoolteachers in the Perm region.

The Perm Pedagogical University plays an important part in developing public education in the Urals.

Answer the following questions:

1. Are there different types of higher educational institutions in Russia?

2. Which establishments train specialists in various fields in our city?

3. What does our University provide?

4. What is the oldest Pedagogical University in the Urals?

5. What are the main points in the history of our University?

6. What kind of centre is the Perm Pedagogical University?

7. Which faculties are there at our University?

8. Can you prove that education is free for most of students?

9. How many hostels has our University got?

10. What is the teaching staff like?

11. What scientific schools have been formed at the University?

12. Where is the administration housed?

13. In which fields do the students carry out their research work?

14. What part does the University play in developing public education in the Urals?

Ask your neighbour:

1) where he studies;

2) which faculty he studies at;

3) what faculties there are at the University;

4) if he pays money for his education;

5) if he receives a state grant;

6) if he lives in a hostel;

7) if he attends all the lectures;

8) if he misses the seminars;

9) if he works regularly in the library;

10) what subjects he studies at the University;

11) what his favourite subject is;

12) when the Perm Pedagogical University was founded;

13) where one can see a monument to Tatyana Baramsina;

14) what scientific schools have been formed at the University;

15) how many departments the University has got;

16) if all the students carry out scientific research;

17) where the graduates of our University work.

Exercises