University of Tyumen to open a new high-tech educational & laboratory building in 2024

The building is envisioned as the crossroads of different disciplines and a public space that will change the city environment.

It is designed with climate goals in mind: “green” and energy-saving technologies will be utilized to the maximum.

The building will also become a center of attraction for specialists forging the economy of the future – developing knowledge-intensive and creative solutions.

In 2024, UTMN will open a new educational and laboratory building. This building, with an area greater than 33,000 sq. meters, will become the largest educational platform in Tyumen Region. This project is being conducted with the support of the Ministry of Science and Higher Education of Russia and the Government of the Tyumen Region.

Today, UTMN is a developer of an advanced national educational model, a participant of the federal academic leadership program ‘Priority 2030’. UTMN attracts creative and active youth from across the country with its educational and research capabilities. Many alumni of the University stay to work in Tyumen Region. Hence, the University impacts the future of the entire region.

However, current educational and laboratory buildings physically can’t host everyone and don’t correspond to the requirements of a modern educational space. Paradoxically, the best classic higher education institution of the region, until recently, occupied exclusively non-specialized buildings – for example those built for a city clinic, a school and even commercial spaces. UTMN’s new building is the first large-scale building constructed specifically to meet the aims of higher education.

The building promises to become one of the most technologically advanced in Russia, on par with its foreign counterparts. The global goal is to minimize carbon emissions, so solar energy will be utilized to the maximum. The focus will be on environmental friendliness, space landscaping and economical power consumption.

The building will have 19 lecture halls, 36 classrooms, 14 computer classrooms, an assembly hall for up to 586 people, a spacious canteen and an underground parking lot. There will also be cozy coworking spaces, breakout rooms, cafes, as well as a courtyard for comfortable individual and group work.

“The new building will be the largest for the University area-wise and, along with the planned inter-university campus, will solve the problem of space deficit for the students and scientists of our region. This will give impetus to the development of the University and the region, as a whole,” Sergey Kozlov, the head of the laboratory of historical geography and regional science of UTMN, says.

Interdisciplinary space

The new building will host first- and second-year students enrolled in all educational programs within the ‘2+2+2’ educational model, which is being implemented at UTMN since 2022.

To recap, the ‘2+2+2’ system allows students to declare their major once every two years – after two years of their undergraduate program and, later, when applying for a master’s degree.

The new building will also tackle the problem of logistics: It will allow for the gathering of all first- and second-year students in one space to make their education even more productive. This will help them in their work on future professional projects that require a large number of specialists from various fields.

“The building is designed for [up to] 1,500 people, but the educational process consists of two shifts. Hence, the building can host up to 3,000 students a day,” Ivan Romanchuk, the rector at UTMN, says.

The building will strive to become a true interdisciplinary space. Together, students will study core curriculum and electives (optional courses students select based on their additional interests). That means that those who study computer science, for instance, will be able to study with students who are learning sociology, physicists can study with chemists, philologists – with biologists. This will teach students to see the world through the prism of several sciences and it will allow them to better develop their worldview and critical thinking. Unique inventions are often born at the crossroads of different disciplines, as the University notes.

The landmark of the University quarter

The project will not just be beneficial for students, but also for the city environment, as a whole. Not just a building is under construction today, but an architectural landmark of the entire University quarter. The project will help rethink the space of the entire center of Tyumen.

At the basis of this concept is the union of education and technology, as well as a comfortable environment for students, professors and city residents. The construction of the building is conducted with direct participation and consultations from the city residents – an approach called ‘participatory design’.

A modern architectural space will make the University the center of attraction for professionals who create the economy of the future, built upon creative and knowledge-intensive solutions. Students and scientists from all around the country and from abroad will study, research and create innovations in the new building.

“We often say that the time has come to develop modern educational spaces. Now, it has become obvious that it has to be done with the participation of all interested parties – students and enrollees, professors and research fellows, the representatives of the regional government and business. Only this approach will allow us to take into account all requests and will answer key questions. We are guided by this principle in the construction of UTMN’s new main building,” Ivan Romanchuk, the rector of UTMN, notes.