Yaroslavl State University is one of the youngest and at the same time one of the oldest universities in Russia. Being founded twice - in 1918 and in 1970, it considers the beginning of its history to be the year of 1803, when Alexander I at the instance and on the money of the famous landlord and entrepreneur P.G. Demidov founded the School of Higher Sciences in a provincial city on the Volga river, later changed into Demidov Law Lyceum, and later– into Yaroslavl State University.

Today P.G. Demidov Yaroslavl State University is a leading higher educational institution of the Upper-Volga region with 7800 students. It is a classical multi-discipline educational institution training students in 70 majors (on bachelor’s and master’ programmes).

In its structure the university has two institutes: Institute of Foreign Languages, Institute of  State, Municipal and Corporate Management and ten faculties: the Law Faculty, the Mathematics Faculty, the Physics Faculty, the Economics Faculty, the History Faculty, the Faculty of Information and Computer Science, the Faculty of Social and Political Sciences, the Psychology Faculty, the Biology and Ecology Faculty, the Faculty of Philology and Communication. Also the University College offers a wide range of academic programmes in secondary professional education.

The teaching process is provided by a professional team of lecturers and instructors, most of them having the degree of candidates and doctors of science. Students can continue education at a post-graduate school for a candidate’s and doctor’s degree in more than 40 majors.

The development of fundamental science has always been a top-priority task for the university. Topical research works are funded from the federal budget, Russian state foundations, and international organizations. The university has recognized scientific schools in many fields of science. The university academics regularly participate in scientific conferences, symposiums and workshops of different levels. Students and post-graduates take active part in scientific research.

The university is actively involved in the internalization of higher education. It has a number of long-term partnerships with higher educational institutions of EU (University of Jyvaskyla, University of Poitiers, Sapienza University of Rome), NIS countries (Kazakh National Pedagogical University named after Abay, Minsk Institute of Modern Technologies and Marketing). Recent agreements for cooperation have enlarged the list of international partnerships up to over thirty. Forms of cooperation include student exchange, teacher probations, business and study visits. International projects under the EU Erasmus Plus programme promote academic mobility and develop joint academic programmes.