Get to Know the Student Services Office

One of the main functions of the Student Services Office is to provide students with consultations about their studies. This academic year, much has changed in the educational program curriculum and the opportunity to choose electives and create individual learning tracks has become available for students. Much of the information about choosing electives is available on the Student Services Office website for all students. The website is currently being translated into English. 

Students can come to the Student Services Office to discuss any question or problem they are facing. For example, if they’re unsure about their schedule, or they don’t know who their teacher is, or how to make up for incomplete courses or academic backlog, maybe they are having problems at their dorms, – each situation is approached individually. Some students even come to discuss any challenges they’re having during the class, for example, if they don’t understand the teacher, or the task they’re given. The Student Services Office managers make every effort to find out what the issue is and if they can transfer students to a different class. 

Tara Tarbati, a Bachelor’s student, from Iran, studying at the Faculty of Control Systems and Robotics, came to the Student Services Office to find out if she could take extra Maths classes. “They’re really nice and it was really helpful,” she said. Although Tara is studying in Russian, it’s easier for her to discuss such questions in English. The staff immediately called the Maths department to look into the possibility of taking extra classes, and they arranged a meeting for Tara with the head of the Maths department to explore opportunities for extra classes. 

Shubham Kunal, a Bachelor’s student from India studying at the Faculty of Infocommunication Technologies, was having troubles with his dorm so he came to the Student Services Office to find out if they could help. He was impressed with their level of English and their attentiveness. “They listened to me patiently as I explained the issues I was having and got me in contact with the right people!” 

The purpose of the Student Services Office is to make it easier for students to direct their questions to one central location. All the staff of the office are bilingual so you can comfortably approach them with questions in English or Russian. Among other languages spoken in the office are German, French, Chinese, Korean, Ukranian, Bengali, Swedish, Polish, and Hindi. 

For international students, some issues and questions are still dealt with in the international office. Regardless, they are welcome to, and should feel free to, approach the Student Services Office first as it is available for all students irrespective of nationality or language. 

A common function of the Office is also to provide important documents or certificates related to the academic process. These can be ordered online via a special Student Services Office portal in ISU (this function is currently only available in Russian but will soon be available in English too), or they can write to so@itmo.ru asking for the documents they need, or simply show up and ask at the office. 

Ethan Avila, an Art & Science Master’s student from Mexico, said, “I needed some official documents from the university and I just emailed so@itmo.ru in English and they got back to me the next day saying the documents were ready. So I went in, took my number from a machine like those in a bank, went to the right person, and they gave me the documents. It’s so fast!”

But the questions the staff receives aren't always about studies, they are many and varied. For example, one of the questions they got was “Can you find a fitness club in St. Petersburg where I can play volleyball but not at ITMO?” Of course, the staff of the office did their best to google some options for the student!

Another benefit of the Student Services Office is the new co-working space available. “Many students had told us that there is no good space for them at the university to study and meet with other students,” explained Elena Borisova, Director of the Student Services Office. “We observed that at many European universities, such a space is combined with student services. Here they mostly come to do their studies, working on group projects, or sometimes they just sit and listen to music, or even sleep!”

In the coming months, a second co-working space will be renovated on the floor below where students can meet.

“It’s really cosy and comfortable here, it’s better than the cafeteria, there’s more light, and we come here to do our labs. At the university, and particularly in this building there aren’t any kind of spaces like this,” shared Vladislava Peshkova, a first-year Bachelor’s student at the Faculty of Secure Information Technologies

“I know a lot of students who study at the dorms, and they don’t have a good space where they can study, so now they come here to do their coursework,” shared Anastasia Gladysheva, a group mate of Vladislava. 

The staff of the Office are also very interesting people. Before working at ITMO, Inga Lutskaya worked for two years at the construction site of a nuclear power plant in Bangladesh. Aleksandra Fedorova speaks Chinese, and is often found helping students from China with their questions. A few of them are actually graduates of ITMO University. Valeria Mosiychuk completed her Bachelor’s degree at ITMO last year at the Information Technologies and Programming Faculty, Yana Zhivitskaia completed her Master’s degree at ITMO in 2017 at the Faculty of Technological Management and Innovations and worked for three years at the Foreign Language Training Center, and Svetlana Derkunskaya also completed her Master’s degree at ITMO and is currently doing her PhD at the Faculty of Infocommunication Technologies. 

Meet more of the Student Services Office staff below:

The Student Services Office is open from 9 am to 7 pm, Monday to Friday, in office 1400 on Lomonosova 9. You can also make an appointment in advance through ISU, by emailing so@itmo.ru, or by calling +7 (812) 706-04-74. If you can’t come into the office, feel free to ask for an online consultation.