The European University at St. Petersburg is a non-state independent university set up in 1994 for the purpose of advancing training and research in economics, anthropology, history, political science, sociology and art history. From 1998 it has been offering unique programs in Russian and Eurasian studies to international students.

Openness to the outside world and international cooperation are among the key values of our university. Participation in international research networks and high mobility of the faculty help us to maintain high professional standards. EUSP academic community and its location in one of Europe’s major cultural centers attract professors and students from outside of Russia. EUSP offers several options to those wishing to study and conduct research in St. Petersburg.

Over the years EUSP international programs have hosted many distinguished international faculty: Gerry Easter (Boston College), M. Steven Fish (University of California-Berkeley), Henry Hale (George Washington University), Ted Hopf (Ohio State University), Mary McAuley (Ford Foundation), Peter Rutland (Wesleyan University), Michael Urban (University of California–Santa Cruz), David Woodruff (LSE), William Zimmerman (University of Michigan), Brian Taylor, Renée de Nevers (University of Syracuse).

Our graduates work in such organizations as the US State Department, the European Bank for Reconstruction and Development, Alfa Bank, Bloomberg, Shell, Carbon Capital Markets Ltd. Others have entered Ph.D. programs at Oxford University, Princeton University, George Mason University, University of Washington, University of Chicago, Heidelberg University and more.

Five important points about EUSP

1. The EUSP has greater independence from the Russian governmental bureaucracy than most other Russian universities. This independence is important for both intellectual and political reasons. Universities in Russia were traditionally under the control of the government, to the extent of questions of the content of instruction and research, political ideology, and administration.

2. At the EUSP a higher proportion of faculty have degrees from prominent Western universities than at any other university in Russia. The university employs Russians with PhDs from such recognized schools as the University of California, Berkeley; the University of Michigan, Ann Arbor; Cambridge University (UK); Helsinki University (Finland), among others.

3. The EUSP has a commitment to the integration of Russian sholarship with scholarship in Europe and America. Against the background of Russian scholarship’s continuing isolation from the West, this is a fundamentally important position.

4. The EUSP encourages mobility but combats the brain drain. Rather than promoting the departure of graduate students to the West, EUSP invites Western students to come and study in Russia. The EUSP International programs are the only permanent programs at the graduate level in Russia that offer degrees in international relations, sociology, political science, art history and cultural studies to students from the United States, Canada and Europe (up to 35 students annually). Both international and Russian students enjoy the advantages of studying in a truly international setting.

5. The EUSP is a decisive agent of innovation and change, introducing and disseminating new standards and practices in the Russian educational system. The mission of the University is to satisfy societal needs in raising and expanding professional qualification of specialists and in developing of their creative and scholarly potential on the basis of achievements of Russian and international experience and cooperation.