Emperor Alexander I St. Petersburg State Transport University (PGUPS) (, abbreviated ПГУПС) is a higher education institution specializing in

railway transport Rail transport (also known as train transport) is a means of transport using wheeled vehicles running in tracks, which usually consist of two parallel steel rails. Rail transport is one of the two primary means of land transport, next to road ...

. Before 1990 it was known as "Leningrad Institute of Railway Engineers". The main building is located on

Moskovsky Prospekt Moskovsky Prospekt (street), Prospekt (, ''Moskovsky Avenue'') is a 10 km-long prospekt in Saint Petersburg, Russia. It runs from Sennaya Square and Sadovaya Street, to Victory Square, Saint Petersburg, Victory Square, where it splits i ...

, number 9. The University provides training in specialties and areas of bachelor and master training.

History

Emperor Alexander I St. Petersburg State Transport University was one of the first technical universities in Russia. Its earliest precursors date back to 1798-1809 as a part of the training provided in the Department of Water Communications by

Nikolay Rumyantsev Count Nikolai Petrovich Rumyantsev (; 3 April 1754 – 3 January 1826), born in Saint Petersburg, was Russia's Foreign Minister and Chancellor of the Russian Empire in the run-up to Napoleon's invasion of Russia (1808–12). He was the son of ...

. The University was established on 2 December ( O.S. 20 November), 1809, by a manifesto issued by

Emperor Alexander I Alexander I (, ; – ), nicknamed "the Blessed", was Emperor of Russia from 1801, the first king of Congress Poland from 1815, and the grand duke of Finland from 1809 to his death in 1825. He ruled Russia during the chaotic period of the Napoleo ...

. The grand opening took place on 13 November (O.S. 1 November) 1810. The aim of University establishment was specialized training for construction of land and waterway lines of communication.

University at the time of de Betancourt

The first head of the Institute was

Agustín de Betancourt y Molina Agustín is a Spanish given name and sometimes a surname. It is related to Augustín. People with the name include: Given name * Agustín Adorni (born 1990), Argentine footballer * Agustín Allione (born 1994), Argentine footballer * Ag ...

(1758—1824) as a general inspector. The institution was opened as a cadet corps and was connected closely to the leading institutions of higher education, located in the capital. The ones were the Academy of Sciences, Main Engineering School of

Russian Empire The Russian Empire was an empire that spanned most of northern Eurasia from its establishment in November 1721 until the proclamation of the Russian Republic in September 1917. At its height in the late 19th century, it covered about , roughl ...

and

Saint Petersburg State University Saint Petersburg State University (SPBGU; ) is a public research university in Saint Petersburg, Russia, and one of the oldest and most prestigious universities in Russia. Founded in 1724 by a decree of Peter the Great, the university from the be ...

. The institute was a paramilitary boarding school. Duration of the education course including the gymnasium was 8 years. Graduates obtained the degree of engineer of communication lines and the rank of

poruchik The rank of lieutenant in Eastern Europe, also called ''poruchnick'' in Slavic languages, is one used in Slavophone armed forces. Depending on the country, it is either the lowest or second lowest officer rank. Etymology The rank designatio ...

podporuchik ''Podporuchik'' ( sh-Cyrl-Latn, потпоручник, potporučnik, , , , , ) is the most junior officer in some Slavic armed forces, and is placed below the rank of lieutenant, typically corresponding to rank of second lieutenant in English ...

. A museum was founded in 1813 at the Institute (now the Russian Federation Central Museum of Railway Transport).

Current status

In 1993 University was renamed as Petersburg State Transport University (Emperor Alexander I St. Petersburg State Transport University, PGUPS). The University had 11,142 students (as of 2018).

Traditions

Every year since 2016, the State Museum monument St. Isaac's Cathedral hosts a ceremony of awarding diplomas with honors to graduates of the St. Petersburg state University of Railways of Emperor Alexander I.

Research

The research division coordinates the activities and provides administrative guidance to all departments conducting research, organizes fundamental, search and applied research and development work, as well as other types of work related to the implementation of scientific activities of the University.

Rankings

In 2018,

Forbes ''Forbes'' () is an American business magazine founded by B. C. Forbes in 1917. It has been owned by the Hong Kong–based investment group Integrated Whale Media Investments since 2014. Its chairman and editor-in-chief is Steve Forbes. The co ...

ranked the university fourteenth on its list of the top 100 best universities in Russia.Университеты для будущей элиты. 100 лучших вузов России по версии Forbes
/ref> The British consulting company QS (Quacquarelli Symonds) presented the ranking of the best universities "QS University Rankings: Eastern

Europe Europe is a continent located entirely in the Northern Hemisphere and mostly in the Eastern Hemisphere. It is bordered by the Arctic Ocean to the north, the Atlantic Ocean to the west, the Mediterranean Sea to the south, and Asia to the east ...

and Central Asia". For the first time, it included the Russian railway University – University. Every year it represents Both an international global rating and a rating by region (Arab region, Asia, Latin America,

BRICS BRICS is an intergovernmental organization comprising ten countriesBrazil, Russia, India, China, South Africa, Egypt, Ethiopia, Indonesia, Iran and the United Arab Emirates. The idea of a BRICS-like group can be traced back to Russian foreign ...

, Eastern Europe and Central Asia), and a subject rating by 46 directions. For the first time in 2018, our PGUPS was included in this rating. The assessment was conducted on 10 indicators: academic reputation, reputation among employers, the ratio of scientific and pedagogical staff and students, the number of publications per employee, international scientific relations, the impact of the University on the Internet, the proportion of employees with a

PhD degree A Doctor of Philosophy (PhD, DPhil; or ) is a terminal degree that usually denotes the highest level of academic achievement in a given discipline and is awarded following a course of graduate study and original research. The name of the deg ...

, the number of citations publications per article, the proportion of foreign employees and the proportion of foreign students.ПГУПС вошёл в число лучших вузов Восточной Европы и Центральной Азии
/ref>Александр Панычев: «ПГУПС – единственный транспортный университет страны, вошедший в рейтинг лучших вузов Восточной Европы и Центральной Азии»
/ref> The University's ranking on the RIA "Novosti", improved from 9th to 7th in 2018. This is the best result among the universities of St. Petersburg and the transport industry. According to the rating of Russian universities "National recognition 2019", PGUPS is in the top "Best universities 2019" in Transport, Construction (Architecture), and Environmental Protection (Human ecology).

Sport

The PGUPS Physical culture club is the center of sports and mass work with students and staff of the University.

Graduates

Throughout the 19th century, the Institute of railway engineers was the only transport University in the Russian Empire.

Alumni

Nikolai Belelubsky Nikolai Apollonovich Belelubsky (; ; March 1845, Kharkiv – August 4, 1922, Petrograd) was a distinguished Russian academic specialising in railway and civil engineering. Throughout his life, he became a member of many learned societies and the ...

– bridge designer,

civil engineer A civil engineer is a person who practices civil engineering – the application of planning, designing, constructing, maintaining, and operating infrastructure while protecting the public and environmental health, as well as improving existing i ...

, and scientist *

Nikolai Garin-Mikhailovsky Nikolai Georgievich Mikhailovsky (Russian: Никола́й Гео́ргиевич Михайло́вский, ) was a writer and essayist from the Russian Empire. He was also a locating engineer and railroad constructor. As a writer, he publis ...

– builder and prospector of the

Trans-Siberian Railway The Trans-Siberian Railway, historically known as the Great Siberian Route and often shortened to Transsib, is a large railway system that connects European Russia to the Russian Far East. Spanning a length of over , it is the longest railway ...

* Grigory Petrovich Peredery * – transport scientist and author * – USSR Minister of Railways from 1948-1977 * Alexander Drouz – veteran contestant of the Russian TV gameshow '' What? Where? When?''. He is a certified

systems engineer Systems engineering is an interdisciplinary field of engineering and engineering management that focuses on how to design, integrate, and manage complex systems over their life cycles. At its core, systems engineering utilizes systems thinkin ...

. * Viktor Saltykov – Soviet and Russian singer * Nikolai Buinov – billionaire and businessman.

estimated his fortune in 2018 at $2.1 billion. *

Kirovs Lipmans Kirovs Lipmans (born 5 November 1940) is a Jewish Latvian business person and former ice hockey executive. He served as president of the Latvian Ice Hockey Federation from 1994 to 1995, and from 1998 to 2016; was a member of the Latvian Olympic ...

– Latvian business person and ice hockey executive *

Alexander Bortnikov Alexander Vasilyevich Bortnikov (; born 15 November 1951) is a Russian intelligence officer who has served as the Director of the Federal Security Service, director of the Federal Security Service (FSB) since 2008. He is one of the most powerfu ...

– Director of the Russian Federal Security Service (FSB) *

Władysław Tryliński Władysław Tryliński (20 June 1878 – 6 February 1956) was a Polish transportation engineer and inventor. He is best known for the creation of ''trylinka'', the hexagonal concrete block widely used for pavements and embankments in interwar P ...

– Polish engineer, invented

trylinka (; , also known as (), is a concrete block, typically shaped as a regular hexagon or occasionally a tetragon, with stone fragments embedded in its upper layer. The types of stone used for these embedments, such as basalt and Porphyry (geology ...

Hull Union

The purpose of the Hull alumni: * Creation of conditions for increasing the efficiency of professional and intellectual potential of University graduates, establishment of cultural, scientific and business relations between graduates of different years; * Assistance in the development of the University as a center of education, science, culture, providing training of highly qualified specialists corresponding to the level of leading domestic and foreign educational institutions.Hull alumni of PGUPS
/ref> File:Cathédrale Saint-Isaac.png, St. Isaac's Cathedral, St. Petersburg File:St Isaac Interior.jpg, Inside St. Isaac's Cathedral File:Здание института инженеров путей сообщения+.jpg, Building of the Institute of railway engineers File:848. St. Petersburg. embankment of the Fontanka, 111-113.jpg, Main building at the corner of Moskovsky prospect and Fontanka river embankment

References

External links

"Railway University" article in the "Encyclopaedia of Saint Petersburg"

АНАЛИЗ ПУБЛИКАЦИОННОЙ АКТИВНОСТИ ОРГАНИЗАЦИИ
{{authority control 1809 establishments in the Russian Empire Educational institutions established in 1809 Public universities and colleges in Russia Recipients of the Order of Lenin Technical universities and colleges in Russia Universities in Saint Petersburg Cultural heritage monuments of regional significance in Saint Petersburg