Testimonials

Sami Wehbe

The summer school was an excellent experience and I am very grateful that Polytech gave me the opportunity to experience Russia firsthand and make my dream of learning Russian possible on a scholarship. I made so many close friends there and got to visit so many different cultural sites that I would not have visited otherwise. The most amazing thing that I witnessed there was the White nights. A great thank you to everyone who made the summer school possible and for providing me with a perspective of Russia that I would not have gotten otherwise.

Sami Wehbe, Georgetown School of Foreign Service, Qatar (Summer School 2015, module “Exploring the Russian Heritage”)
Zhiting Ang

Summer school in Russia was something unexpected I did for my summer. I am amazed at the degree of immenseness into the local culture the St Petersburg Polytechnic University offers to its international students, with tours to the more popular places in the cities and friendly tutors who are happy to help. St Petersburg is a cultural treasure trove that rivals any major city around the world, and I spent much of my extended stay exploring its museums and walking along the wide boulevards. I highly recommend the Summer programme at St Petersburg for individuals who want to experience something different for their Summer holidays.

Zhiting Ang, Nanyang Technological University, Singapore (Summer School 2016, module “Polymers for biomedicine and electronics”)
Ricardo Muñoz Nafría

SPbPU Summer School of Russian Studies happened to be exactly the one that I was looking for! I wanted to boost my Russian language skills and at the same time discover St. Petersburg. So I decided to join 2 modules: I combined a week of General Russian with 3 weeks of Russian Language for Business Communication. In fact I enjoyed both of them, and I think they were equally useful for me. “Speak as a Professional” provided me with specific knowledge, specific terminology and expressions from professional speech. On the other hand, the General Russian course was just as important because if a person wants to speak a language properly, he or she has to be fluent in different fields. For me as a translator this Summer School was an extremely valuable experience, I think the skills I obtained will be useful for my job. What is most important, all my efforts paid off: in the end of the module I successfully passed the TORFL II Exam, so I am happy and extremely grateful to SPbPU for such a high quality of programs!

Ricardo Muñoz Nafría, translator in “Trivago”, Spain (Summer School 2017, modules “Speak as a Professional” and “Exploring the Russian Heritage”)
Joseph McGovern

The summer school was highly enjoyable. I met some wonderful people and became acquainted with the incredible city of St. Petersburg. I very much valued the experience of being immersed in the Russian culture as well as talking with people from all over the world. I remain in awe of the city's history, design and philosophy and remember my time at the summer school fondly. 

Joseph McGovern, King's College London, UK (Summer School 2018 “Plasma Physics and Controlled Fusion”)
Jordi Aerts

My time at Polytechnic University of Saint Petersburg was an all-out amazing experience. From start to finish I was surrounded by wonderful people. Upon arrival at the airport I had all the help I could ask for by one of the students of the university. This led to an immediate feeling of ease. From the first day of the course up until the last our class was taken good care off. The start in the impressive main building was organized in great fashion, and after the introduction we had a little general information which all proved to be very useful. To end the day there was a little pub quiz which led to a lot of people being able to come together and form friendships. The teacher was an expert in her course and made the lessons very easy to pick up on. The cultural program was interesting as well, the ability to visit the Hermitage with its seemingly endless works of art and the astonishing Winter Palace. The lovely people who organized everything for us even ended up joining my group of friends for a birthday dinner/drink. After that we even went out for dinner multiple times during our stay and this sort of feeling that you’re more a group of friends than students/organizers made my stay and that of my fellow students unforgettable. All in all I can not recommend people enough to take the chance to attend a summer or winter school event and have the opportunity to meet the most amazing people from the school itself and your fellow students who attend the courses.

Jordi Aerts, Thomas More University of Applied Sciences, Belgium (Winter School 2019 “Modern SAP Technologies”)