Dean – Sergey Prokhorchik, PhD in Engineering sciences, Assoc. Prof.
Contact: tel./fax: +375 17 327 80 04
e-mail: [email protected]
Extramural education is a form of studying that combines classroom sessions at the University with an independent student's work at home. It first started in 1949 when three graduate programs (Forestry, Forest Engineering, Mechanical Technology of Wood) were offered to those who wanted to continue their education or further their career. In the late 1950s, the faculty became the center of extramural education for forestry graduate programs in the western USSR covering Lithuania, Latvia, Estonia, some regions of Ukraine and the Russian Federation.
The total number of specialists that the Faculty of Extramural Studies has trained for the years of its existence is over 20,000 professionals for forestry, timber, woodworking, pulp and paper, chemical, petrochemical, wood-chemical, microbiological, printing industries, mechanical engineering, standardization and certification systems, real estate market, building materials industry, etc.
At present, the Faculty is the largest at the University. More than 3,800 students are doing 23 first-cycle graduate programs, 150 MSc students are trained in 28 second-cycle higher education programs.
In recent years, the student community of the faculty was supplemented by citizens of foreign countries. Among the international students there are citizens of Turkmenistan, Azerbaijan, Lithuania, Latvia, Russia, Ukraine.
Academic and pedagogical activities of the faculty are carried out by 52 departments of the University and 580 lecturers, 75% of them having scientific degrees and ranks.
The Faculty of Extramural Studies has the same status as all the faculties of BSTU. The professional training is based on the curricula and educational standards applied to full-time education. The faculty provides a range of courses and learning opportunities for local and international university students as well as participants from commerce and industry, government departments and the general public.
First- and second-year students showing outstanding academic performance can have 30 days of compensated absence from their employers to sit their exams at the University. Successful senior students can claim for 40 days of compensated absence annually. Between the exam sessions students can address their supervising teachers for academic assistance in preparing for tests and exams as well as course and graduation projects. All University units and facilities are available to extramural students, i.e. research laboratories, library, computer classrooms, forestry experimental station in Negoreloe.
The Faculty aims at providing long-life effective learning together with better and easier possibilities to get higher education. Both distance educational resources and information communicative technologies are actively used at the faculty. The Faculty cooperates with 21 colleges related to the main University domains. Successful graduates of the partner colleges have an opportunity to continue their education and join their chosen graduate program with reduced amount of attendance.
Over 100 people are currently doing their second university degree at the Faculty of Extramural Studies.
Second-cycle degree programs are also available at the faculty and for most students they are a chance to lay the groundwork for pursuing a PhD. Students take three semesters to complete the Master’s Degree while they are also filling in undergraduate prerequisites they may be missing, preparing for PhD preliminary exam, and becoming involved in a research group. Some Master’s Degree Programs are practice-oriented and specifically designed as professional degree programs for students planning to immediately join the profession without pursuing a PhD.
A distance learning Master’s degree program jointly provided by Belarusian State Technological University and Vilnius Gediminas Technical University (Lithuania) is offered to those university graduates who want to adopt some international experience of the real estate industry. The Russian- and English-taught program grants a double degree in Real Estate Management.