• Universities

Irkutsk National Research Technical University is the ninth incarnation of an institution dating back to 1930 – although its website outlines a history of technical education in the city once known as the Paris of Siberia dating back to 1745 – but where the five changes of name before 1938 reflected the instabilities of the Stalin era, the most recent change in 2010 had much happier origins.It was then that the Irkutsk State Technical University, so named since 1992, won a competition to attain National Research University status. The change of name and status brought with it the challenge to become a world class research and development institution, backed by an investment of 2.56bn roubles. Approximately 70 per cent of this investment came from the Russian state, over 10 years.The university has been cast as the accelerator of the modernisation of all spheres of life in East Siberia and the Far East, moving the vast region away from an over-dependence on the extraction of raw materials.Hitech for surface management, developing more sophisticated methods of extraction, remains a priority, but accompanied by the creation of nanotechnology, high-quality technicians, scientists and engineers and technical support for cutting-edge machine and equipment industries.The 30,000 students who come from elsewhere have the option of travelling to Irkutsk by the Trans-Siberian railway, and must be capable of dealing with a fearsome climate, with several snowbound months in winter.They study in 10 institutes, including Irkutsk’s Soviet-era specialty of Aircraft Machine Engineering and Transport, and with fine arts, humanities and social sciences alongside the more technical disciplines.