Rector Ilshat Gafurov attended the unveiling ceremony on 24th September.
“We’ve been working with BP for years. It started with single meetings, and then research grants from the company followed. A year ago, thanks to the efforts of the Institute of Geology and Petroleum Technologies, we became a base university for Rosneft. This attests to the fact that our research is in demand with big companies. I am grateful to our partners and think that this is the beginning of a long journey,” said Dr. Gafurov in his introduction.
The program is the result of a competition for BP’s grant funding which involved the best petroleum universities of the country. KFU emerged as the winner, and Rosneft supported this decision.
All expenses for studies and accommodation in Kazan and London are covered by the scholarships, which, by the way, may well be the largest in Russia so far. After graduation, the students will receive two diplomas from Kazan University and ICL. After a stringent application process, 10 persons were chosen to enroll in this first batch.
Deputy Director of the Staff Department of Rosneft Larisa Solovykh commented at yesterday’s ceremony, “KFU is one of our strategic partners. It’s been a year since we started working together. It’s not a coincidence that Kazan University was chosen. Although we don’t conduct business in Tatarstan, we still preferred KFU because it excels in both education and research. This study program was long in the works. The result reflects the current requirements of Rosneft.”
Vice-President of BP Russia Vladimir Drebentsov weighed in, “We know where all the graduates will work – everyone has signed a contract with the company, so they’ll start at Rosneft. These people will definitely be in demand. You should see how department managers competed to enlist one of the future alumni of this course.”
Source text: Kamill Gareev
Photos: Nikita Tokhtasinov
Translation: Yury Nurmeev