The cluster will incorporate six of the university’s departments, namely the Faculty of Geography, the Institute of Physics, the Faculty of Biology, the Institute of the Peoples of the North, the Institute of Childhood, and the Institute of Economics and Management, the press service of Herzen University has announced.

The new subjects added to the education program are related to the Arctic and include, in particular, Arctic Studies, Foreign Arctic, Arctic Marine Biodiversity Monitoring, Polar Studies, and Arctic Nature Resource Potential.

A special focus of the cluster will be on primary and additional education in the languages, folklore and literature of the small indigenous peoples of the North, Siberia and the Far East.

“The Arctic and Extreme North are a strategic region for Russia, a unique territory with a rich historical and cultural heritage. Preserving and studying this heritage is a priority in our country. Herzen University trains professionals for working in the North to study and preserve the cultural heritage of the region and to ensure its sustainable development,” said university rector Sergei Tarasov.

Herzen University has recently published the first volume of the teaching aid Arctic Studies for university lecturers and students, geography teachers and the general public interested in the history, culture and nature of the Arctic and Extreme North.