'Mom, I'm going to university... in Siberia!'

The historic city of Tomsk founded 410 years ago is well-known as an internationally-connected high-tech university hub, and now it is trumpeting this message to the world in search of foreign students, especially from Asia. 

A new advertising campaign for the city and its oil-rich region launched this week on BBC World TV.

'Tomsk became the first region of Russia east of the Urals to be promoted on BBC,' said regional PR chief Alexei Sevostiyanov. 'We started this project nine months ago, and today it will be seen by the audience of BBC World News in the Asia-Pacific region.' It neatly encapsulates the region's strengths - T for Technologies, O for Oil, M for Medicine, S for Sport and K for Knowledge. 

A growing trend in Siberian universities are programmes of study in English, the language in which the promotion is made. 'Today in our universities, the defining face of Tomsk, are  students from 70 regions of Russia and from 45 countries,' added Sevostiyanov. 'And one of the main goals of the campaign is to attract to Tomsk a greater number of Asian students. 'In addition, we are announcing a summit of Asian cities, which will be held in Tomsk this week.'

The Asian push is consistent with Russia's current emphasis on seeing the Pacific region, rather than Europe, as its key market in the coming years. 

The city is one of Siberia's oldest - and boasts the region's oldest university - yet today it has the youngest population anywhere in Russia. 

In Soviet times, Tomsk was a 'closed city' - but now has a more open and fun feeling than almost anywhere. A useful snapshot guide in English is provided here by Tomsk Polytechnical University - one of the region's great educational institutions with a worldwide reputation.

For would-be students we have identified the following as a far-from-exhaustive list of study programs available in Tomsk:

Tomsk State University

Master’s programs in English:

Applied Mechanics : Mechanics of BioComposites, Design and Modeling its Structure

Regional Studies Russia : Siberian Region, Russia and the World

Management : Environmental Management - double degree program with the University of Vilnius (Lithuania)

Philology : Text creation and translation techniques

Philosophy : Humanitarian informatics

For more details look here.

Tomsk Polytechnic University

Bachelor-degree programs in English:

09.03.01. Computer Science and Technology

15.03.01. Mechanical Engineering

13.03.02. Electric Power Engineering and Electrical Engineering

38.03.02. Management

http://iie.tpu.ru/en/3_programs_english_bachelor.php

Master's programs in English:

22.04.01. Computer Simulation of Material Production, Processing and Treatment

22.04.01. Non-Destructive Testing Devices and Techniques

13.04.02. High-Voltage Physics and Engineering

11.04.04. Electronic Devices and Facilities

09.04.01. Networks and Communications

For more details plese look here and here.