On September, 1 MEPhI has held a festive matriculation of freshmen. On this day they were prepared a rich program.
According to tradition, yesterday's schoolchildren marked the beginning of their student life in the Park "Kolomenskoye" – a good neighbor and partner of the University in a number of humanitarian projects. The slender ranks of the freshmen with slogans and posters about MEPhI lined up at the front porch known to many Muscovites of the Palace of Tsar Alexei Mikhailovich.
In the welcoming speech the vice-rector of MEPhI Elena Vesna congratulated the new students on the Knowledge Day. "Entering the walls of our University you will be much respected members of the professional community, so we hope that you will not fail us. We are confident that you will succeed because your average score per state examination this year reached a record high – 90.5. We lay great hopes on you".
Director of educational programs at Rosatom State Corporation V.V. Karezin congratulated children with this wonderful holiday and enrolling in one of the best universities in the country, which is a key partner of Rosatom in training personnel for the nuclear industry. “Protection – nuclear shield of our country – is forged at the state corporation in close collaboration with the National Research Nuclear University MEPhI and its branches. Rosatom has different areas of work – energy, engineering, scientific, fuel, nuclear medicine and a number of directions that will allow you to realize your strength. We need staff to work within the country and abroad,” he said.
The Dean Archpriest of the Danilovsky district of Moscow Oleg Vorobyev wished the children a many-sided harmonious development, including in spiritual terms: "MEPhI has gathered the best experts in physics, mathematics, who has overcame the high threshold for admission to the University. Currently, the moral responsibility of the scientist is greatly increased, because it is a time of new technologies, new thinking”.
Parting words were spoken by the Director of the Moscow state United Museum-reserve "Kolomenskoye-Izmailovo-Lefortovo-Lyublino", an acting head of the MEPhI History Department S.I. Khudyakov: "You got into one of the best universities of our country, and it is your personal achievement. I want to wish you a fruitful study, and that the knowledge gained at the University will become the basis of future life and helped to implement creative plans".
Several hundred freshmen attended the pageant "How the king Alexei Mikhailovich met with innovation." The statement ended with the flight of the proud falcon as a symbol of high-flying to the heights of future science graduates.
Great celebration continued with a performance of the famous Academic male choir of MEPhI, which was presented by its artistic Director, honored artist of Russia N.V. Malyavina.
Upon return to the University the square in front of the main building of MEPhI hosted the annual comic rite of passage for new students: freshmen took the oath, stumbled over the threshold of the knowledge, rubbed the lamp of the world's first computing machines, invented 800 years ago, and in addition it's been sprayed with "heavy water". Only after that, according to legend, recruits become full members of big and friendly collective of MEPhI.
A song by the rock laboratory, the vocal Studio Quanto di Stella and the chamber choir of our University dance ensemble of the ball dance ESTA, performances of sports and cultural associations MEPhI made the holiday unforgettable.
Impressions of freshmen about the first hour of being a student:
Ivan Antonov, INPhE: "I'm from Ozersk where professionals in the field of nuclear energy are the most sought after. In MEPhI, I will get the necessary knowledge and skills, and after graduation plan to return back to my city. I expect a difficult but interesting learning."
Daria Poteshkina, PhysBio: "MEPhI has established itself as a good university, and it takes a decent place in the rankings. I'm not from Moscow, and I am happy that the University provides a dormitory for non-residents. This is a big plus."
Oleg Saichenko, NESPI: "I studied at the Lyceum at MEPhI and purposefully entered this University. This place immediately became a family for me. I participated in the event "MEPhI: Instructions for use" that allowed me to learn more about the University and meet other students."
On the same day there was held an organizational meeting for master degree and postgraduate students who chose MEPhI to continue studying on higher levels of education. Vice-rector V.V. Uzhva congratulated the freshmen with the receipt and noted the significant moment of the admission campaign of this year – a high level of applicants, including a large number of prize-winners and winners of all-Russian student Olympiads. Moreover, this year admission to the master's programmes is 1.6 times higher than the admission to bachelor and specialist's degree, which confirms the status of MEPhI as one of the strongest engineering universities in the country.
V.V. Uzhva also noted that MEPhI, among the 19 universities and four research organizations, hs the right to independently award academic degrees. This means that postgraduate students who begin research activities in the University will be able to defend the final thesis in the University.
Further, the heads of Institutes and other units of the University, again spoke about the opportunities in the field of scientific research, outlined the prospects of further work and congratulated them on their admission to the Institute.
Congratulations to the freshmen and let’s wish them good study, bright, multi-faceted student life and, of course, successful pass of the first exams!
