Published on: 2026-07-22
Source: Peter the Great St. Petersburg Polytechnic University –
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A delegation from SPbPU visited the Kyrgyz-Russian Slavic University named after B. N. Yeltsin in Bishkek. The visit combined two areas of cooperation: the development of student sports, including the creation of a chess club at KRSU under the patronage of Polytech, and the discussion of a joint roadmap amid the university’s large-scale transformation. For the universities, this partnership increasingly extends beyond education and science: sports, project activities, and the new institutional model become part of the overall work to shape a modern university environment.
The delegation of SPbPU included the Director of the Institute of Physical Culture, Sports, and Tourism Valery Suschenko, Deputy Head of the International Cooperation Department, Head of the project office “Slavic Universities” Nikita Golovin, and the coach of the SPbPU chess team Ruslan Barsegyan.
One of the main topics of discussion was the development of the chess direction. Representatives of SPbPU held working meetings with the Vice-Rector of KRSU for Youth and Information Policy Sergey Kulikov, heads of the sports department, and coaches. The parties agreed to create a chess club, which will be developed with the methodological and organizational support of Polytech. The club will become not only a platform for training the KRSU team, which has already become the gold medalist of the Kyrgyzstan Universiade, but also a space for mass student sports, intellectual leisure, and career guidance for schoolchildren.
Ruslan Barsegyan presented Polytech’s experience in developing the chess movement. Under his leadership, the chess club “Black Bears” regularly becomes the winner and prize-winner of student competitions, including the Student League of Saint Petersburg, city sports games, and all-Russian university games. This experience will be used in building the system of training, tournaments, media support, and engaging KRSU students in the chess movement.
The universities have agreed on a preliminary calendar of joint events for the academic year. In the autumn, the II International Chess Tournament in memory of Mikhail Vasilyevich Frunze is planned, a friendly online match between the SPbPU and KRSU teams, as well as master classes for students and schoolchildren. In the future, the chess club may receive its own branded space, combining the history of chess, the traditions of the Russian and Kyrgyz chess movements, as well as the partnership between KRSU and Polytech.
The sports agenda of the visit was not limited to chess. KRSU is interested in broader cooperation with Polytechnic University in the field of physical culture, sports, and the training of coaching and teaching staff. A remote professional development program for physical education teachers and coaches of KRSU is tentatively scheduled for the autumn. The launch of a professional retraining program for coaches and the possibility of a visit by representatives of KRSU’s sports division to SPbPU to get acquainted with the organization of Polytechnic’s sports infrastructure are also being discussed.
“Sports cooperation between universities is not just about competitions and tournaments. It involves exchanging methodologies, training coaches, developing infrastructure, and creating an environment where students have more opportunities for self-realization. KRSU has a strong interest in developing chess and student sports, and Polytechnic is ready to share its experience and help turn these ideas into sustainable university practices.” — emphasized Valeriy Sushchenko.
The second part of the visit was related to the development program of KRSU and the implementation of the joint roadmap within the framework of the “Slavic Universities” project. Nikita Golovin held working meetings with the management and specialized divisions of KRSU, including the rector Sergey Volkov, the vice-rector for scientific and innovative activities Evgeny Shekunov, the vice-rector for educational activities Elena Averkova, and teams from the Natural and Technical Faculty (NTF) and the Faculty of Architecture, Design, and Construction (FADC). The focus of the discussion was the status of joint projects between SPbPU and KRSU, the results of the current year, plans until the end of 2026, and prospects for 2027.
Among the key directions of the roadmap are the launch from September 1, 2026, of networked master’s programs in the fields of “Software Engineering” and “Construction,” organizing the training of 40 KRSU students at Polytech in the fall semester, internships and advanced training programs for KRSU teachers and researchers, the creation of joint laboratories, and the development of applied research projects.
The negotiations took place against the backdrop of KRSU’s restructuring: from September 1, 2026, the university will transition from a faculty-based model to consolidated institutes. ETF and FADiS will merge into the Polytechnic Institute; the medical faculty will be transformed into the Institute of Clinical Medicine and Biomedical Technologies; the humanities, law, economics faculties, and the faculty of international relations will form the Socio-Humanitarian Institute; the Institute of the Russian Language and specialized departments of the humanities faculty will join the L. S. Vygotsky Academy of Education.
For SPbPU, the creation of the Polytechnic Institute KRSU is of special importance, where engineering, architectural and construction, digital, and technological areas will be concentrated. Such a structure will allow for more precise development of network programs, project-based learning, academic mobility, professional development, and joint laboratory work.
“Today, cooperation between SPbPU and KRSU is developing not only within the framework of educational programs and scientific projects. Partnership must operate more broadly — through project activities, student sports, faculty training, laboratory development, and the creation of a modern university environment. KRSU’s transition to an institute model, especially the establishment of the Polytechnic Institute, allows concentrating the university’s engineering resources and more precisely constructing our joint roadmap. It is important that this roadmap does not become just a set of isolated events, but functions as working educational, scientific, project-based, and humanitarian mechanisms.”— Nikita Golovin summed up the results of the negotiations.
The universities confirmed the relevance of joint projects and their importance for the development of engineering education at KRSU and the partnership with Polytechnic. They specifically noted that the new institutional model of KRSU creates additional opportunities for implementing the road map of SPbPU and KRSU within the framework of the “Slavic Universities” project.
The working visit showed that the partnership between the universities is developing in several directions simultaneously. Alongside engineering education, network programs, laboratories, and academic mobility, student sports is becoming increasingly important — it is part of the university environment, humanitarian interaction, and educational work. The KRSU chess club under the patronage of Polytech, coaching training programs, and new opportunities at the KRSU Polytechnic Institute form the foundation for the next stage of the joint roadmap.
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