One-Year Anniversary of Konstantin Markelov’s Rectorship at ASU

According to the order of the Ministry of Science and Higher Education of Russia, he was appointed for the position for the period of 5 years — until August 14, 2014.

In fact, Konstantin Markelov started to hold the ASU rector’s office in February 2018. Therefore, the anniversary is a formal date in a sense: the rector started active work in all areas of the university’s activity way earlier, and it has already produced lots of fruitful results.

Astrakhan State University is stable in executing the plan of enrolling students to state-funded places within the admission target figures. The number of those who wish to study in Bachelor’s, Master’s and Ph.D. programmes, as well as ASU College programmes on a paid basis is also growing every year. Prospective students are attracted by a wide range of educational programmes, the opportunity to undertake a traineeship at leading enterprises of the region and beyond it, a large number of foreign languages to learn and partnership programmes with foreign HEIs. Another important factor is successful employment. In 2019, Astrakhan State University entered the Forbes top-100 best universities of Russia and Superjob top-20 economic HEIs of Russia — both rankings take into account the “eliteness” of alumni and the level of their wages, among other things.

Headed by Konstantin Markelov, ASU has strengthened its reputation of the leading HEI of the Caspian region. In 2019, the university held a large international forum “Caspian Region in Digital Economy Era”, which involved representatives of the Caspian states, and in January 2020, about 100 delegates from Azerbaijan, Iran, Kazakhstan discussed strategically important issues of concern for the region at forum “Caspian Sea Region in the 21st Century: Ways of Sustainable Development”.

A high status of Astrakhan State University at the global stage was proved with its approval as a coordinator of the Commission for Science, Research and Technology under the Association of State Universities of Caspian Region Countries.

Establishment of the Transport & Logistics Consortium of Caspian Higher Educational Institutions in December 2018 was an important project for ASU. For now, the consortium unites 16 HEIs that have consolidated their efforts in training new-level HR and scientific and in technological innovative support of the transport and logistics system. Rector of Astrakhan State University Konstantin Markelov was unanimously elected consortium president at the first meeting.

The educational process at ASU has already become unthinkable without active participation of foreign professors. Trainers from Europe, Asia and Africa give master classes, lectures and workshops for Astrakhan students, and this process was under way even during the COVID pandemic, having been organized online.

Astrakhan State University has created a comfortable learning environment for international students, and the university has well-deserved authority at the post-Soviet space as an educational institution that the parents are not afraid of sending their children to. Representatives of different countries make friends here, and in the near future they will be able to live in a multi-storeyed dormitory for 900 people.

Constant advancement of managers and employees of Astrakhan State University has already become their lifestyle, and the personal example and active position of the rector play a great role in this regard. Konstantin Markelov stimulates the staff for improving personal competences through participation in additional educational courses and experience exchange with colleagues from various spheres. For example, in July 2019 an ASU team, headed by Konstantin Markelov, took part in the second educational workshop “Island 10-22” in Skolkovo. Representatives of the university not only did a training course in various faculty tracks, attended visionary lectures and met colleagues from other HEIs but also shared their relevant projects themselves. Mutually enriching cooperation continued in six months — that time at the Winter Island workshop.

A specific trait of Konstantin Markelov as a university rector is his sincere interest in all the initiatives that come both from professors and partners of the university and from the students. For example, about 10 youth clubs have been functioning at the university for a year; their thematic scope has been chosen by the students themselves — from KVN humor contest and intellectual games to volunteering and first aid provision. The rector was particularly enthusiastic in his support of the idea to revive a bard song club at ASU, and he performs, playing the guitar, at each meeting of the club. In May 2019, Konstantin Markelov initiated a free concert of the legendary Boris Grebenshchikov in front of the ASU main building.

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At first glance, it’s very calm these days at our university — lots of professors are still on a holiday, the study process hasn’t started yet. However, Konstantin Markelov is at work every day — in particular, these days the university is preparing for a start of the engineering hackathon, is selecting projects for participation in the all-Russia forum “Strong Ideas for New Times” and is renovating its academic buildings. All these issues, as well as a plenty of others, need careful attention of the rector...

On this one-year anniversary of Konstantin Markelov’s rectorship, we wish him good health and unflagging energy for fulfillment of all his plans for the global development of Astrakhan State University!