Changes in Board membership were also finalized.
Chairman of the Supervisory Board, President of Tatarstan Rustam Minnikhanov started the meeting in the afternoon of 8th February by saying, “I must inform you that two member have stepped down – Nikolay Nikiforov and Natalya Tretyak. There are new participants as well. It's Deputy Minister of Science and Higher Education of Russia Marina Borovskaya, whom you all know very well, and Director of the Department of Complex Programs and Projects of the Ministry of Science and Higher Education Yevgeniya Stepanova.”
Rector Ilshat Gafurov took the floor, “All our planned KPIs set by the roadmap were met. Keeping in line with existing challenges and in pursuance of the President of Russia's decrees, we have revised our development strategy and included new objectives, one of which is to establish a new world-level research center.”
Last year saw a number of positive developments for KFU. Notably, a number of international admissions rose by 21% year-over-year, and the average Unified State Exam score for Russian enrollees also rose.
The University attracted about 2 billion rubles for its R&D projects. The Rector specifically thanked two member of the Supervisory Board – Director General of Tatneft Nail Maganov and General Director of TAIF Albert Shigabutdinov.
Eight new structural units were established in 2018:
Center for Precision and Regenerative Medicine;
a new test production line in pharmaceutics;
KFU-Elsevier Center for Expertise in Bioinformatics and Biomedical Data Analysis;
Center for Petroleum Extraction, Refining and Petrochemistry;
Center for Intelligent Transport Systems (a KFU-KAMAZ joint venture);
Higher School of Innovative, Technological and Social Development;
and Center for Regional Social Development.
By 2020, the number of joint R&D centers and platforms should increase to 35 from the current 25.
Dr. Gafurov continued, “I'd like to talk in detail about our dynamics in various global rankings. I want to draw your attention to the fact that our descent in Times Higher Education rankings was caused by changes in methodology. We have made adjustments and are on the path to regain lost ground.”
However, the total number of subject rankings for KFU in QS and THE reports rose from 13 to 17.
As the Rector said, 885 million rubles were allocated in 2018 to new construction and major renovations. In particular, renovated buildings include the outpatient facility of the University Clinic, former emergency ward (now a part of the University Clinic as well), the kindergarten, and the eastern half-circle annex of the Main Building. Three multi-year repair projects were also completed in 2018.
341 million rubles were directed to equipment and furniture last year.
As was mentioned, the faculty's average remuneration is now twice that of the working population in the Republic of Tatarstan as a whole.
Dr. Gafurov emphasized that KFU is a significant contributor to the local economy. According to the Center of Economic and Social Research of the Government of Tatarstan, 19,180 nonresident students contribute 8.584 billion rubles to the city's economy annually. PricewaterhouseCoopers has reported that KFU's economic effect is 15.407 billion rubles in total.
Later, Vice-Rector Marat Safiullin presented an amended development strategy of the University. After minor comments and changes, the Supervisory Board unanimously voted to adopt it.
Furthermore, the University was authorized to join the Russian Association for Entrepreneurship Education and the Innokam Cluster.
In conclusion, Rector Gafurov invited everyone to attend the University's 215th anniversary celebrations in late 2019.