Campus life

The Student Club was established more than 80 years ago to encourage amateur talents, fulfill the potential abilities of the students, and organize their leisure activities. It integrates four teams: the show ballet «Diamond», dance studio «Addora», folklore ensemble «Gzhelochka», and orchestra of the Russian folk musical instruments «Silver Strings». These teams were awarded the title «A Model Performance Ensemble».

The SSTU students find exciting the performances by the Student Theatre, the dancing groups «Pride» and «Heavy Gale», the ensemble of modern dance «Be with us», and the vocal studio.

It has become a tradition to participate in the regional festival «Saratov Students’ Spring» where the amateur groups compete for top honours with the teams from the other universities.

SSTU provides extensive programs for students to strengthen their health, fitness and athletic performance.

The Sports Club has excellent facilities including an athletics stadium, a football field covered with synthetic turf, two fitness rooms and two gym halls, a comprehensive rehabilitation and physical therapy hall, outdoor playing fields for handball, basketball, streetball, volleyball and tennis, a skiing centre, and Summer camp «Polytechnic».

More than 400 students are members of various sports teams. They are offered opportunities for a wide range of sports and can choose from such sports like basketball, volleyball, darts, badminton, table tennis, football, weight lifting, Russian hockey, cross-country skiing, arm wrestling, chess, sambo and judo, handball, powerlifting, athletics, and rhythmic gymnastics.

Highly professional faculty is dedicated to train students to show their potential and commitment to the chosen sport and compete in various competitions.

In addition, there are annual international powerlifting and arm wrestling tournaments, and open championships on historical fencing.

SSTU Research and Technical Library contains more than 1 300 000 printed books and journals in various fields of engineering, sociology and economics, and humanities. The collection includes electronic journals and books in all fields of study. The library provides access to numerous Russian and foreign online resources, databases, and electronic library systems.

The Library’s spacious and modern reading rooms provide students with a comfortable learning environment and are equipped with high-tech facilities and computers. The Library gives access to the research materials and resources relevant to their studies through mobile devices. In one of its numerous recreation areas the students have a possibility not only to relax and chat, but are also provided free Wi-Fi.

SSTU library has become the first university library in Saratov region which offers its services using the RFID-based technology (Radio Frequency Identification). This is an automatic borrowand return system that simplifies the book searching routine and was installed to assure security of the collection. For the self-service procedure of borrow and return of books, the students can use the RFID self-service station. This station can read book tags within seconds, and a stack of 5-7 books can be read simultaneously. In this way for the readers having electronic library cards the technology helps to register the borrow and return of books.

The bright and comfortable halls of the Library are often used to conduct various events that may satisfy the interests of any audience. Many teachers use the Library’s comfortable rooms and high-tech facilities to make the research aspects enjoyable to the students and to conduct classes in a non-formal setting.

The Museum of the University History is the oldest in the network of the university museums. It was founded on October 25, 1980 and in May 2017 it presented a new exposition housed on the premises of the Research and Information Centre of the University. The Museum presents to visitors the history of SSTU since its founding as a single-profile institution of higher education to the present days when it has grown into a modern technical university, in fact, the Flagship University of the region. The documents, numerous photographs and artifacts give an idea of SSTU as a major centre which at all stages of its history played an important role in training high quality engineers.

The exhibition is built on thematic and chronological principles based on the genuine artifacts of material and intellectual culture. The exhibition hall is designed with account to modern museum technologies. The architecture of the Museum hall, the views from the window, location of the exhibition equipment, and layout of the exhibits reflect the scientific concept and the idea behind the exhibition – all of these are combined into a single style created for the Museum space. More than 2000 exhibits demonstrate the achievements of SSTU, of its rectors and renowned scholars.

Among the exhibits are orders and medals, diplomas and certificates, personal belongings, scientific works of the SSTU staff, students and graduates. Special focus of the Museum are the unique documents, photographs, and materials about the teachers and students who took part in the Great Patriotic War and contributed to the great victory over fascism.

Of great interest to visitors is reconstruction of the wartime dugout and the workplace of the first SSTU rector. The History Museum is integrated into academic, social and cultural life of the university. It is also involved into SSTU research projects. Educational activity of the Museum staff attracts big audiences of students, schoolchildren, and visitors to the numerous seminars and conferences organized by SSTU.

Natural History Museum

The Natural History Museum was founded in 2011, and its central hall housed in the building of the Research and Information Centre of the University opened its doors in September 2017.

The branches of the museum were established in the schools of Saratov City, and some of its exhibits are presented in the Earth Sciences Museum of Moscow State University named after M.V. Lomonosov.

The Museum conducts research and development, educational and cultural activities. It launched the guided tours, lectures, presentations and workshops for the university students, secondary school students and visitors.

The aim of the key exhibition of the Museum is to present the history of the Earth as an evolutionary process where the natural phenomena and man’s activity are closely interrelated and interconnected.

The Museum hall is divided into three sections: geological history of the Earth, history of human civilization, and the history of scientific knowledge about the Earth in the twentieth and beginning of the XXI centuries.

The first section presents fossils of the ancient creatures that lived on the Earth long before the appearance of man: brachiopod, ammonites, ichthyosaurs and others, as well as fragments of petrified trees about 50 million years old.

The second section of the exhibition is devoted to the main product of human civilization which is urban system. Here the visitors can see the objects of architecture and everyday life characteristic of the settlements on the territory of Saratov region and nearby regions starting from the Iron to the Modern Age.

The vast majority of paleontological and archaeological materials of the Museum were collected by the staff of the Museum and the university students during their annual scientific expeditions.

The third section of the Museum acquaints visitors with the works of the prominent scientists who developed natural science in Russia and in Saratov in particular. Here the visitors can find the rare printed and manuscript materials, as well as ancient and new technical means to accomplish research work.

In the centre of the exhibition there is a stylized model of the globe that is closely tied with the history in the development of the outer space, and Yuri Gagarin as the symbol of space exploration. The Museum demonstrates that modern science in SSTU continues the traditions of the outstanding naturalists of the past.