Bashkir State University

Formed in 1909 as the Ufa Teacher Training Institute, this private former monotechnic had, by the time it acquired its first long-term identity as Timizyaev Bashkir State Pedagogical Institute in 1929, diversified to the point of having 15 academic departments. It took its current name in 1957 and attained state university status in 1991. The oldest higher education institution in the Republic of Bashkortostan, with the motto of "first among equals", its trajectory has inevitably echoed the Republic’s relationship with Russia since becoming the first ethnic minority region recognised in 1917 and its first Autonomous Republic in 1919. The diverse modern population of just over four million spread across territory between the River Volga and the Ural Mountains includes more than a million ethnic Russians, the largest group, Bashkirs and Tatars. As well as its main site in Ufa, Russia’s 11th largest city, there are also branches in Sterlitamak, Sibai and Neftekamsk. It has 15 faculties and 145 departments. A significant centre for the study of the Baskhir language and culture through its department of Baskhkir Philology of Journalism, it also offers overseas students a one-year Russian Language and Culture course. Since 2009 its Minor Academy of State Administration has offered two-year vocational courses to public employees, while an agreement was signed in March 2019 with MGIMO, Moscow for joint training across a range of disciplines including law, energy security and diplomacy. It has 56 international association agreements and in 2015 hosted the BRICS Youth Summit, with delegates from Brazil, Russian, China, India and South Africa.