Forum of University Cities at TSU: Day 1

On November 23, Tomsk greeted the participants of the 1st International Forum of University Cities (November 23-26, 2016). It was organized by the TSU centre for research Trans-Siberian Scientific Way (TSSW), along with the Administration of Tomsk Region, the Embassy of France, and the German Consulate General in Novosibirsk.
    
The strategy of development of Tomsk as a university city was predestined historically because the first university in Siberia was opened here. That is why some time ago, TSSW came up with the idea of gathering Russian and international experts on urbanism, city planning, and branding to discuss modern experience in campus development, state-of-the-art models, and prospects of new urbanistic strategies in Siberian cities that are geographically far from each other.

150 years ago, the idea of building and opening a university in the provincial Siberian Tomsk seemed extremely utopian. The first professors who came here from the European part of Russia were met as Decembrists. Porphyry Krylov, a botanist who brought the very first plants for the |University Grove, was among them. One could not imagine a more utopian project than that one of creating a “Siberian oasis”. However, this experience, like all other first initiatives of Tomsk University, proves that Siberian people can do very much if they are truly inspired.

Today no one is surprised when they hear foreign languages and see people from other countries at the |University. The consequences of climate change might make Tomsk a real oasis for many people from less lucky regions. In this context, the interest of urbanists in Siberian university cities is very far-sighted.




 The Forum’s opening ceremony took place at the TSU Research Library.

Professor Ivan Ivonin, Vice-Rector for Academic Affairs, greeted the participants on behalf of Tomsk State |University. He admitted how much the University is interested in becoming internationally competitive, as well as in making Tomsk an attractive place for young people to study and live.



Nikolay Minaev, Head of the Department of Science and Higher Education of Tomsk Region, thanked the participants for joining the discussion on issues of turning the region into an education centre.



Olga Kolesova, Head of the TSU Laboratory for Comparative Research on Historical Urbanism and the Vice-President of Cercle Kondratieff, greeted the participants. She acknowledged the interest from the international colleagues in the topic and mentioned people and institutional partners from France, Germany, Great Britain, Norway, and Spain who responded to the invitation and came to Siberia despite the severe weather conditions.





Vladislav Belov, Deputy Director of the Institute of Europe of the Russian Academy of Sciences and an expert of the German Society for International Cooperation GIZ, thanked the organizers of the Forum and wished Tomsk to realize its ambitions and become an innovative education centre.




Several key speakers presented their reports. Yuri Pereligin, Chief Operating Officer at the Lengiprogor Institute, moderated the plenary session. He proposed to discuss the city development in a transdisciplinary dialogue. He said that this was the main condition for generating innovative ideas for breakthroughs in science and technology. Urban studies are based on transdisciplinarity and this was reflected in the variety of topics and approaches to the issues of development of university cities.





Anton Finogenov, CEO of Urbanika Institute for City Planning (Saint-Petersburg, Russia). Theme of the report: The Role of Universities in City Development.




Sergey Mitrofanov, Senior Consultant and Founder of Mitrofánov&Partners company (Moscow, Russia).
Theme of the report: Education and Science as a Part of Modern City planning.




Maria Jose Pinheira, Professor at Santiago de Compostela University and coordinator of the Urban Dynamics EU-project (Spain).
Theme of the report: Comparative Analysis of Dynamics of Development of European Universities: Common Trends, National and Regional Aspects, and Prospects of Preservation.





Nicolas Buchoud, Founding Principal of Renaissance Urbaine strategic advisory and President of the think-tank Grand Paris Alliance for metropolitan development (France).
Theme of the report: Global City Development: Competitiveness in Knowledge and Hunger for Innovations. Can a University Create a Smart City of the Future?




Aleksey Kozmin, Director of the TSU Urban and Regional Development REC (Tomsk, Russia)
Theme of the report: Tomsk as a University City

Despite the variety of themes, it is important to mention the general orientation of the experts towards strategic development of Tomsk as a university city. They recognized that creating models of such development is an interesting professional challenge for them. Such characteristics as our Siberian climate, distant location from international air-hubs, and obsolete public transportation system may make people doubt the very possibility of succeeding. However, Yuri Pereligin said, the future changes in climate and demographic situation do not leave Tomsk and other Siberian cities any choice but to become attractive places to live and work.

The first day of the Forum ended with an excursion to the Department of Rare Books of the TSU Research Library and Russian Seasons at the TSU Cultural Centre. There will be three more days for the participants to enjoy roundtables, workshops, and meetings.