Chita, 13 February 2025 — Nornickel announces that it has signed an agreement to support the creation of an international student campus in Russia’s Zabaykalsky Krai. The agreement was signed on 12 February by Alexander Osipov, Governor of the Zabaykalsky Krai, and Nikolay Utkin, Nornickel’s First Vice President and Head of Government Relations, in the presence of Andrey Omelchuk, Deputy Minister of Science and Higher Education of the Russian Federation.

Nornickel is one of five industrial partners to have signed the agreement on 12 February. Together, they will provide over RUB 3 billion for the creation of the campus by 2028. The main part of the construction financing is planned to be raised from budget funds.

“The campus’s collaboration with industrial partners will open up new opportunities for the development of the Zabaykalsky Krai. It is particularly noteworthy that even at the design stage, representatives of the private sector are ready to assume specific financial obligations. Such interaction will provide guaranteed additional financial support for the project and accelerate the process of building and equipping the campus with modern technologies and infrastructure,” commented Andrey Omelchuk.

Alexander Osipov, Governor of the Zabaykalsky Krai, highlighted two important areas of focus for the future campus: humanities and mining.

“Previously, despite the technologies and experience accumulated in this sphere during the Soviet era, we relied more on foreign engineering, research, and scientific support. Now we are changing this approach. Zabaykalsky Krai is a place with a large number of reserves and mining projects. At the same time, we are a key hub for Russia-China cooperation. All this affects our quality of life and our economy. That is why we are creating a university campus in the region that is aimed at addressing technological, research, and scientific challenges and supplying qualified personnel,” said Alexander Osipov.

“The core specializations of the future campus were developed in close cooperation between experts from ‘Bystra’ and the regional leadership. Students from our ‘Generation of Bystra’ program actively participated in the work. For Nornickel, educational programs in mining, mineral processing, digital geotechnologies for mines, and mining engineering are particularly significant. We expect the campus to help form a talent pipeline for ‘Bystra’. The construction of a world-class campus in Chita will create a modern centre of excellence, including in the mining industry. I am confident that our joint work in this area will fundamentally change the approach to education,” noted Nikolay Utkin.

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The new campus will host students, postgraduates, and medical residents from Zabaikalye State University, Chita State Medical Academy, Zabaikalye Agrarian Institute, Zabaikalye Institute of Railway Transport, and the Chita Institute of Baikal State University. The campus will train specialists using fundamentally new educational programs. In addition to higher education, it will be possible to receive supplementary professional education.

The campus’s key specializations will be mining, transport and logistics systems, medicine, and humanitarian technologies.

The planned number of students is 5,000. The campus will include an academic building with a techno park, an IT park, and co-working spaces, a congress and exhibition complex, dormitories and a hotel, a sports complex, and an administrative building.

On the instruction of the President of the Russian Federation, a network of modern campuses is being created in Russia. Currently, 17 such campuses are being designed and built. By 2030, the number of campuses will increase to 25, and by 2036 — to 40.

Since 2025, the federal project “Creation of a Network of Modern Campuses” has been implemented as part of the “Youth and Children” national project.

In November 2024, the creation of the campus in Chita was included in the “Human Resources” national project.

Nornickel systematically and consistently implements projects aimed at contributing to the achievement of the national development goals set by the President of Russia.

Nornickel to support the creation of an international student campus in Zabaykalsky Krai