Far Eastern Federal University

FEFU was established in 1899 as the Eastern Institute (Восточный институт) as a higher education institution specializing in oriental studies and training for administrative, commercial and industrial institutions in the Far East. The university was reformed into State Far Eastern University (Государственный дальневосточный университет) by Far Eastern Republic authorities in 1920 during the Russian Civil War, until it was closed in the 1930s under Joseph Stalin. It was reinstated in 1956 as Far Eastern State University by the Council of Ministers of the USSR, two years after Nikita Khrushchev visited Vladivostok. In 2000, its English name was changed to Far Eastern National University, however the name in Russian remained unchanged and references to the university under its old name were common. In 2008, the university was reformed again by presidential decree into its current form, officially changing the name to Far Eastern Federal University and a new purpose-built campus planned. The university was merged with the Far Eastern State Technical University (FESTU), Pacific State University of Economics (TSUE) and the Ussuriisk State Pedagogical Institute (USPI).[1]

In 2013, FEFU opened a new campus in the Russky Island area of Vladivostok after its buildings hosted the 2012 APEC summit.[2] The campus serves FEFU's 41,000 students, and hosts the annual Eastern Economic Forum. FEFU is a participant of the Project 5-100 state program of the Russian Ministry of Education and Science.

Far Eastern Federal University consists of:

• Oriental Institute - School of Regional and International Studies
• School of Data Economy
• School of Biomedicine
• School of Economics and Management
• School of Education
• School of Engineering
• School of Humanities
• School of Law
• School of Natural Sciences

Far Eastern Federal University is a federal institution of higher education, accredited and funded by the Russian Ministry of Education. FEFU is the oldest, largest, and highest-ranking university in eastern Russia, established in 1899 during the Russian Empire era, by a special order of Tsar Nicholas II. The main goal of the university was to train personnel for administrative, commercial and industrial institutions in the East Asian part of Russia and adjacent states. The main courses were the languages: Chinese, Japanese, Manchu, Korean and Mongolian, history and political organization of the Eastern states, jurisprudence etc. Now days, according to the ratings of the Russian Ministry of Education, FEFU is one of the top five Russian universities and has been listed as number two in a recent publication of the top national universities rankings. FEFU is the only university of eastern Russia accredited as a scientific university by the Russian Ministry of Industry, Science and Technology. FEFU earned this accreditation for its scientific achievements: according to the Science Citation Index, FEFU faculty members contribute 78% publications of all Russian Far East universities and colleges in worldwide peer-reviewed scientific journals.

FEFU has joint academic departments with every research institute in natural sciences accredited by the Russian Academy of Sciences in the Russian Far East. In 1999, FEFU won a competition among 90 best Russian Universities for a one-million US dollar grant from the American Civil Research and Development Fund. FEFU was able to establish the Research and Educational Center of Marine Biota. Due to its high level of fundamental and applied research, FEFU has become a leading scientific and research center of ecological expertise of Sakhalin oil and gas projects.

Additionally, FEFU is the largest and the oldest non-commercial Internet provider and IT developer in the Russian Far East. FEFU was the second in Russia, after Saint Petersburg State University, to use H323 Internet protocol and multi-Mbit/s Internet channels for regular educational videoconferences. Utilizing Internet videoconference technology, FEFU pioneered several educational programs: Russian and Japanese languages, Russian-American joint credit courses in law, and international dual degree programs in business.

FEFU alumni include 49 of 58 Primorsky Krai Supreme Court Justices, more than 900 of 1,050 members of the Primorsky Krai Bar Association, 70% of the regional scientists holding PhD degrees, 90% of the regional journalists, and almost 100% of the regional specialists in physics, chemistry, mathematics, and oriental studies.

FEFU is a national leader in developing relations with Pacific Rim countries, and a major bridge between Russian education and worldwide university society. The university has 40+ branches in Russia, United States, Japan, China, and South Korea. It develops more than 80 partnership projects, including 64 academic exchange programs, with universities at the United States, Japan, China, South Korea, New Zealand, Taiwan, the United Kingdom, France, Australia, Thailand, India, and Vietnam.

Not only universities are partners of FEFU as it has unique partnership projects with Ministries in many countries. Jointly with Ministries of International Affairs and Ministries of Education in China, South Korea, Japan, India, and Vietnam. FEFU has established:

• Center of the Chinese Language
• Center of Testing Chinese as a Foreign Language
• Educational Center of the Republic of Korea
• Japan Center
• Chair of Indian Studies at FEFU (jointly with Jawaharlal Nehru Cultural Center of the Embassy of India)
• Vietnamese Cultural Center at Vladivostok
• Cultural Center of Germany
• Cultural Center of Korea
• Cultural Center of India

FEFU offers several international programs combining Internet and face-to-face modes of learning:

A dual degree program with University of Maryland University College (UMUC), USA, started in 1991 as a classical face-to-face program. In 1999 it became one of the first online dual degree programs in Russia. By October 2003, 265 FEFU students graduated from UMUC with bachelor's degrees in Business and Management, along with their Russian university degrees. Since 1999, UMUC accepts 90 FEFU credits of 120 credits total, required for the undergraduate degree, and offers ten online courses for the remaining 30 credits. Another dual degree program with University of Southern Queensland (USQ), Australia, started in 2001. USQ participates in a number of such programs, but FENU was its first Russian university affiliate. . Sixteen of the 24 subjects required for the USQ bachelor's degree in Business can be transferred from FEFU, and FEFU faculty members teach the remaining eight USQ subjects jointly with USQ instructors. The program initiated the first educational videoconferencing in the history of Russian-Australian relations.

Internet videoconference partnership with Waseda University (WU), Tokyo, Japan, started in 2000, and was later extended to a large-scale 2002-2005 project. Each semester, ten Russian tutors teach Russian language to the WU students, and ten Japanese tutors teach Japanese language to the FEFU students for a total of 40 academic hours per week. The quality and scale of the videoconferences are unique in the history of the Russian-Japanese relations. This project is experimental and preceding an even larger educational program. The university offers several programs to foreigners wishing to visit and learn Russian language and literature, with branch programs in Japan and Taiwan.

• Leonid Korotkov
• Ilya Lagutenko
• Aned Y. Muñiz Gracia

• Far Eastern Federal University
• Study in Russia
• (in Russian) Far Eastern Federal University
• Far Eastern Federal University Russian Language Program (in English and several other languages)
• (in Russian) Far Eastern Federal University Research and Education Center for Marine Biota
• Emblem and Motto of Far Eastern Federal University