Published on: 2026-07-31
Source: Peter the Great St. Petersburg Polytechnic University –
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Peter the Great St. Petersburg Polytechnic University hosted a delegation from Xiangtan University (China). The university is located in Xiangtan city, Hunan province, and is among the leading state research universities in China. At SPbPU, the Chinese university is seen as a promising partner for developing joint educational programs and a project-based collaboration model in the engineering and technology field.
The Chinese delegation was headed by Liu Jing, Secretary of the Party Committee of Xiangtan University. The delegation also included representatives of the university administration, the Faculty of Automation and Electronic Information, the Faculty of Physics and Optoelectronics, and the Department of International Cooperation. On the side of SPbPU, the official meeting was attended by Vice-Rector for International Affairs Dmitry Arsenyev, representatives of the international service, and relevant institutes of the Polytechnic.
“It is a great honor for us to be within the walls of the world-renowned Polytechnic University, where the traditions of Russian higher education and the strict scientific spirit of Petersburg are especially felt. SPbPU is Russia’s leading technical university, possessing a worldwide reputation in fundamental sciences and a strong potential in applied areas, including energy, information technology, and new materials. Our universities have a high degree of complementarity, and the potential for cooperation is enormous. Today, interdisciplinary integration is precisely becoming the main source of technological innovations. Based on this, we attach special importance to developing cooperation with your university in the field of advanced and interdisciplinary scientific research.” — noted Liu Jing.
The visit program was structured around areas that could form the basis of a future educational project. The delegation from Xiangtan University became acquainted with the SPbPU campus, visited the Fiber Optics scientific laboratory of the Institute of Electronics and Telecommunications, the Scientific and Engineering Center for Advanced Electrical Insulation Systems, and the Hydromechanical Laboratory of the Institute of Energy. These visits allowed the Chinese colleagues to assess Polytech’s educational and laboratory facilities in fields related to energy, electronics, optoelectronics, and telecommunications.
The key event of the visit was the signing of a partnership agreement on scientific and educational cooperation between SPbPU and Xiangtan University. The document formalizes the parties’ intention to develop joint research activities, implement joint educational programs for bachelor’s, master’s, and additional education, organize academic exchanges of students, teachers, and scientists, as well as collaborate in graduate studies, publication activities, scientific events, and joint laboratories.
Special attention in the negotiations was given to the preparation of a joint undergraduate educational program in the field of energy. The parties also discussed the development of two more programs, planned to be launched in March 2027: a master’s program in “Electric Power Engineering” and an undergraduate program in “Telecommunications.”
Dmitry Arsenyev emphasized: “For the Polytechnic University, cooperation with Chinese partners is always built around specific content: educational programs, laboratory facilities, academic mobility, and scientific projects. In the case of Xiangtan University, we see good potential for the engineering agenda — primarily in energy, electronics, and telecommunications. It is important that the partnership begins not with general intentions, but with a clear educational trajectory and the prospect of its further development.”.
Xiangtan University has strong scientific schools in mathematics, materials science, chemistry, computer science, and engineering disciplines. For SPbPU, the most interesting areas of cooperation are applied mathematics, artificial intelligence, software engineering, data analysis, robotics and automation, electrical engineering, new materials, energy, physics, and nanotechnology.
A separate topic was the discussion of the possible launch of the educational project “Joint Institute” based at Xiangtan University and SPbPU. The parties consider this scenario as the next stage of cooperation in case of successful implementation of the pilot joint educational program. The potential joint institute may be focused on training specialists in the fields of energy, electronics, telecommunications, and related engineering disciplines.
“At the moment, SPbPU is implementing two large-scale projects — a joint institute with Xi’an Technological University and a joint institute with Jiangsu Normal University. Our experience shows that this is a much higher level of partnership than a separate educational program. It implies a sustainable academic model, coordinated curricula, involvement of faculty from both sides, organization of student mobility, and development of a joint scientific base. Therefore, today it is important for us to assess not only the interest in launching programs but also the readiness of infrastructure, teams, and educational tracks for long-term work.” — noted Olga Emelyanova, head of the Department of International Educational Programs and Academic Mobility.
“Relying on the long-term perspective and the advantages of both sides, Xiangtan University is ready, together with the Polytechnic University, to steadily advance joint personnel training and form a multi-level partnership structure. We would like to take this opportunity to eventually establish a joint institute and make the cooperation between our universities a model of pragmatic interaction in the field of higher education between China and Russia.” — Liu Jing emphasized.
The visit of the delegation from Xiangtan University was the first practical step towards forming a new educational trajectory for SPbPU in Hunan Province. The signed agreement establishes a legal foundation for joint programs, academic mobility, and scientific cooperation, while the negotiations on energy, electrical power engineering, and telecommunications set a substantive framework for the next phase. In the future, this work may lead to the creation of a joint institute—a comprehensive platform for training engineering personnel for the high-tech sectors of Russia and China.
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