For wholly understandable reasons which have little to do with the academic challenges involved, they often regard the prospect of this study in Russia with a certain apprehension. It is pleasing to report, therefore, that such fears have thus far proved to be completely unfounded. Indeed, most students have returned from their courses with considerable reluctance, and many have hastened to return to Russia at the first opportunity. MIPT is the foremost establishment of its kind in Russia, with constituent institutions throughout Moscow and beyond.
Admission is highly competitive, depending on performance in nation-wide competitions.
Originally the Department of Physics and Technology of Moscow University, it was granted independent status in 1951, numbering P. L. Kapitsa, famous for his work at the Cavendish Laboratory in Cambridge, among its founding professors. Its status in Russia is comparable to that of the Massachusetts Institute of Technology in the United States, and like MIT, it is highly attentive to the linguistic needs of its students and invests heavily in the provision of language teaching of the highest quality. The students of Russian at Swansea are currently the only British students of the subject privileged to have access to its courses. The courses taken by Swansea students at MIPT have been specifically designed for them with the participation of the staff of the Department of Russian, which only the long-standing association between the two institutions has made possible. Accommodation is provided in a hostel belonging to MIPT in the Ziuzino district of south-west Moscow.