Siberian Federal University

Within the framework of the Summer University held from 4 July to 18 July 2021, 12 Russian universities accepted about 700 students of various specialities from Belarusian universities. Siberian Federal University offered Global Entrepreneurship in Real and Virtual Space: Digital Business Models education program. The number of lecturers included representatives of the administration of the city and regional level, specialists of the real sector of the economy and leading lecturers of Siberian Federal University.

For example, Yevgeny Zaramenskikh, guest lecturer, head of information systems at the Higher School of Business Administration, Higher School of Economics, PhD in World Economics at York University, delivered a course of lectures on Business Models of Enterprises within the framework of this educational program.

In addition, Belarusian students visited the School of Gastronomy at Siberian Federal University. As part of the Management program, the guys took part in three masterclasses learning about the aspects of organizing service in the field of HoReCa, conflict management and approaches to personnel training from Bellini Group, a large restaurant group of companies.

Then they attended a practical master-class by Maxim Cherevichenko, chef of the History student restaurant-laboratory, on using a local product in the preparation of popular dishes. Guided by the chef, Belorussian students cooked risotto with different types of mushrooms and muksun sugudai.

The key task of the Summer University was to develop social projects. The topics of the projects reflected the problems that are really relevant for the youth of the Republic of Belarus: improving the quality of students' leisure, supporting children in small settlements of the Republic, developing a multiplex platform for determining career guidance. According to the all-Russian ranking, two projects of Belarusian students: Location and #WeCanDoEverything, entered the top 15 best projects of the Summer University.

“It took the coaches of each group only six sessions to find an approach to all students, they managed to unite the guys and literary infect them with the idea so much that the participants continued to discuss unique projects even in their free time! The idea of social projects really captivated the participants of the Summer University. The classrooms hummed with work, active brainstorming sessions and generation of ideas. The students did their best,” said Evgenia Ershova, organizer of the Summer University, deputy director for International Affairs, Siberian Federal University.

“We had a task that was not easy: to find a social problem and figure out how it can be solved. It turned out that working on a project itself can be beneficial, develop empathy: we thought not about how to help ourselves, but about benefiting to others. And the writing process itself was fun and brought our team together very much. I am sure that with the team we have, we will even defend the galaxy,” said Arina Safonova, student of the Belarusian-Russian University, a member of the #WeCanDoEverything, team.

“We quickly and painlessly decided on the topic of the project, and then we simply carried out with the highest quality what our group mentor Maria Bystrova advised us. A great achievement of our team is that we have not quarrelled even once over our entire work! Probably, the fact that we are all representatives of the same university helped. We worked together on the project and defended it at the university stage, and together presented our idea at the all-Russian level. I am incredibly grateful to my team and I am incredibly proud that I am a part of our friendly family,” said Daria Glushanina, student at Polotsk State University, author of the Location project.

The leisure program of the Summer University was organized with the support of the School of Physical Education, Sports and Tourism, SibFU: daily fitness sessions and hikes to Stolby National Park and to the Gremyachaya Griva Eco-Park.

Based on the results of the Summer University, Siberian Federal University signed agreements on joint cooperation with the Belarusian-Russian University and Vitebsk State University with the aim of implementing academic mobility programs and creating network educational programs in digital marketing.