Lomonosov Moscow State University of Fine Chemical Technologies

The Lomonosov State Academy of Fine Chemical Technology is one of the oldest institution of higher education in Russia.Its history goes back to July 1, 1900, when the Physicochemical Institute of the Moscow Higher Education Courses for Women was founded. Within a short period the Courses became one of the best country's leading higher educational establishments. In 1905-1918 the Courses was headed by Academician S.A.Chaplygin, a noted scientist in the field of aerodynamics, hydrodynamics, and theoretical mechanics. In 1918 the Courses was reorganised into the Second Moscow State University, and in 1930 the Department of Chemistry of the Second Moscow State University became the Moscow Institute of Fine Chemical Technology (MIFCT), the predecessor of the Lomonosov State Academy of Fine Chemical Technology (LSAFCT)

The wide range of specialities offered by LSAFCT reflects world trends in science and technology. It promotes research in various fields of science, including interdisciplinary research. The faculty of LSAFCT includes 400 full-time instructors and 50 specialists who also work at scientific organisations and industrial enterprises. Among them there are more than 100 Professors and holders of the Doctor of Sciences degree and more than 200 holders of the Candidate of Sciences degree.

LSAFCT has more than 3000 undergraduate students attending courses (including about 100 students from abroad), about 500 undergraduate students in the evening school, and about 150 graduate students. Each year about 400 students graduate from LSAFCT.

Research conducted at LSAFCT is focused on the development of technologies that are science-intensive, environmentally friendly and waste-free and on the elaboration of the physical and chemical principles of technological processes. Many of the research trends pursued at LSAFCT are unique.

Extensive research is carried out at LSAFCT in the field of higher education, and systematically so since the mid-1970s. The aims of this research are: long-term forecasting of the development of engineering education in Russia and strategic planning in engineering education; monitoring the educational situation at LSAFCT and taking timely response to it; theoretical and experimental investigations in the field of education: teaching and new pedagogical methods and their testing and implementation.

A special laboratory has been set up at LSAFCT for carrying out research in the field of higher education. The basic research methods are as follows: theoretical investigations and mathematical modelling; sociological investigations: feedback from students and instructors, analysis of textbooks.

The major directions of this research are: global problems of higher engineering education; multilevel training of specialists; introduction of courses in the humanities in engineering curricula; study of the time schedules of students and instructors and scheduling; study of the instructional aspects of education, training, organisational forms of the training process, and methods of regulating this process; all-round assessment of the quality of the training process.