The university is the highest profile institute for training and qualifying seafarers to work in the Russian Far East.
Under the existing memorandum on partnership, Sovcomflot personnel sit on the university’s examination board, while every year seminars are organised on the premises for SCF Group’s senior officers.
Between 2010 and 2014, Sovcomflot sponsored the modernisation of the training ship ‘Professor Houston’, as part of the Russian Geographic Society’s ‘Floating University’ project, and also financed the repair and technical fitting out of one of the university’s auditoriums. The company also makes regular investments into the sail training ship - ‘Nadezhda’.
The recent agreement foresees the involvement of SCF specialists in teaching important disciplines and academic work, organising training for the university’s teachers on board company vessels, preparing groups of students for future employment in the fleet, the creation of grants for outstanding students, and also further modernisation of the university’s infrastructure and technology.
In addition to the signed agreement the University supervisory board, chaired by SCF head Sergey Frank, decided to create an endowment fund for the university, and to develop a new model for co-operation between the university and the business community with an interest in training qualified maritime professionals.
On the same day, Frank was elected as the university’s honorary president. He noted:“The 21st century is the century of the ocean, and the interests of the global economy are closely tied to the Russian Arctic and Far East. We already feel our government’s increasing focus on these regions.
“Our launch opportunities, on a technological as well as intellectual level, often allow us to leave our foreign competitors behind. Russian manufacturers are already creating technology more advanced than that made by foreign enterprises. The best example of this is the successful implementation of the Prirazlomnoye project, which involved the operation of the unique shuttle tankers ‘Mikhail Ulyanov’ and the ‘Kirill Lavrov’, which were constructed by shipbuilders in St Petersburg.
“Our priority today is developing highly-qualified staff specialising in Arctic disciplines; in this I see a great chance for a renaissance in the maritime industry and maritime education. The Maritime University, and its teaching staff, have knowledge about work in the Eastern Arctic that no-one else has. Of course we won’t see massive progress overnight, but I am certain that by working together we will solve the issues that have appeared in recent years, and achieve a higher level of maritime education in the Russian Far East,”he said.