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The event took place in the Student House of the Immanuel Kant Baltic Federal University, which opened after reconstruction in 2022 and is a single multifunctional complex for students’ free time. The Student House includes co-working spaces, areas for creativity and relaxation, music and recording studios, dance and e-sports rooms.

Ahead of the meeting, the head of state inspected a model of the IKBFU campus, Kantiana, which is under construction. It is being built as part of the Science and Universities national project, with consideration for the development priorities of the region. In creating a new campus, the focus was on medicine, IT, engineering, chemistry, and pedagogy.

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President of Russia Vladimir Putin: Friends, good afternoon.

The goal of our meeting in this format is to congratulate you on Russian Student Day. Congratulations to you and all students of Russia, as well as graduate students, teachers, and alumni. We all remember that we once studied at university, or institute, and, of course, these were unforgettable years.

Now, as our country is actively developing, and the world is undergoing such fundamental changes, I don’t mean only politics, world order, or multipolarity, but also technological changes, a technological revolution, everything that is happening in the world – everything is developing quickly, intensively and amazingly. But in order to feel wholly involved in this process, one needs to do well in studies, spare no time, no effort, and ride the crest of current events.

On January 25, 1755, Russian Empress Elizabeth signed the Order to establish Moscow University, then, much later, this date was recognised as Russian Student Day. What does this mean? This means that over the centuries, our country has constantly paid great attention and attached great importance to the development of education, because the future of a state depends on the level of education and technology used, on the ambitions of each person, each region or entire country.

That is why, especially today, when knowledge has acquired not some ephemeral or theoretical nature, but, on the contrary, has become part of economic growth, part of improving the country’s defence capacity, and preserving our statehood, our traditions and all the ethnic groups inhabiting the Russian Federation – today everything is exactly like this – the success and the future of our state depend on education.

You are now involved in your education process. Once again, let me cordially congratulate you on Student Day and wish you success.

I am sure you have some proposals and ideas related to the education process itself, to what is happening at your university. You probably exchange information with your peers who study at other universities. If you have any proposals, ideas or analysis of what is currently happening in the education system, you are welcome to speak up, I will listen to you with pleasure and respond, if possible. This is first. And second: of course, we will try to take all your ideas into account in our hands-on work to improve the education system in Russia.

Please take the floor. You are welcome.

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