SPbGASU Takes Part In The All-Russian Festival Of Student Families

From 16 to 18 June, the SPbGASU Vice-Rector for Youth Policy Marina Malyutina and a student family, Ekaterina and Mikhail Zvarich, took part in the II All-Russian Festival of Student Families.

The festival was organized by the Federation Council, the Presidential Council for the Implementation of State Demographic and Family Policy, the Ministry of Education and Science of Russia, Lomonosov Moscow State University, the State University of Management, and G. R. Derzhavin Tambov State University. The program for student families included useful master classes, training sessions, open communication between student families from different regions, and an introduction to student life at Moscow State University and the State University of Management. The festival became a national dialogue platform for universities, where they discussed experiences and best practices in supporting student families and developed a unified strategy for working with young families in educational policy.

At the plenary session, the Speaker of the Federation Council Valentina Matvienko emphasized that the festival set the fashion for the student family and turned into a powerful all-Russian movement. According to her, over the past year the number of student families has doubled - to 60 thousand, of which more than 30 thousand are already with children. Matvienko thanked the president for supporting the initiatives and recalled the decisions taken: the concept of “student family” was introduced into the legal field, maternity payments increased almost 10 times, students with children are provided with separate rooms in dormitories. In 41 regions, there are fertility support programs with federal co-financing, including the payment of 200 thousand rubles at the birth of a child for student families.

The Speaker of the Federation Council noted that healthy competition has emerged among universities to create better conditions for families, and a support measures navigator has been launched on the government services portal. She encouraged students to more actively submit their ideas and noted that paying attention to student families has been becoming a good practice for universities.

Russian Minister of Science and Higher Education Valery Falkov announced that competition among regions for the right to host the next festival had already begun. He noted that 343 mother-and-child rooms had been established at universities, and at least 1,000 such spaces were planned to be opened by 2030. A gold standard for supporting student families has been approved and is being implemented by more than 520 universities.

SPbGASU has a comprehensive support system for student families. The university operates a multi-tiered assistance program covering financial, infrastructural, and social aspects:

• Upon the birth of a child, full-time students can receive a one-time payment of 20,000 rubles. In addition, women combining study and work are provided with a monthly allowance of 15,000 rubles until the child reaches one and a half years of age;

• For parents with children under three years of age, special mother-and-child rooms are equipped (in the main building and the dormitory), where you can feed and change your child and organize his or her fun time;

• Young parents have access to individual consultations with a psychologist and legal assistance. Important educational benefits are also available: the opportunity to transfer from fee-paying to state-funded education (subject to availability) and a transition to an individualized curriculum for students raising children under three years of age. The Center for Student Entrepreneurship and Career at SPbGASU oversees employment issues for women who give birth during their studies.

• The Youth Policy Division and student associations traditionally organize holidays for the children of students and employees: the SPbGASU New Year's Festival and the March 8th celebration for children, "A Gift for Mom."

The implementation of support measures is being carried out by the Economics Division, the Youth Policy Division, the dean's offices, and the Center for Psychological Support of SPbGASU.