Moscow State University

Moscow State University is the largest university in Russia. It is known as Lomonosov University or MSU. It was founded in 1755 and it is the oldest university in Russia. It has the tallest educational building in the world. The university has 4.000 teaching staff, 36.000 students and 7.000 postgraduates. Its current rector is Viktor Sadovnichiy. Since 1940 MSU has had the name in honour of its founder Mikhail Lomonosov.

The university has well-established contacts with the most distinguished universities in the world, exchange students and lecturers from the leading universities overseas. There are about 2.000 foreign students studying at MSU.

In the 18th century MSU had 3 faculties: Philosophy, Medicine, and Law. Today, the Old Building house is the department of Oriental studies and the Journalism Faculty. Now the university has 39 faculties and 15 research centers. A number of small faculties have been opened recently, such as the Faculty of Physics and Chemistry and Higher School of Television. Evening classes are conducted by the Faculties of Economics, History, Journalism, Philology, Psychology and Sociology.

The university includes a number of faculty buildings located in the centre of Moscow and a number of campuses abroad.

MSU is regarded as one of Russia's most prestigious universities and has high entry requirements for its prospective students.

Moscow State University was placed 17th in the world's top universities according to the Academic Ranking of World Universities in 2009, and had a position No. 155 according to the 2010 Times Higher Education report.

MSU has educated a number of Nobel laureates, writers, philosophers and politicians. The university is alma mater of Anton Chekhov, Ivan Turgenev, Boris Demidovich, Vladimir Arnold and Andrey Kolmogorov.

Ответьте на вопросы:

1. When was MSU founded?

2. Mikhail Lomonosov was the founder of MSU, wasn’t he?

3. Are there any exchange students from different countries in MSU?

4. How many faculties were there at the very beginning at MSU?

5. What famous graduates of MSU do you know?

6. Moscow State University has high entry requirements for its prospective students, hasn’t it?

7. What interesting information about MSU have you learnt from the text?

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