Ural State University elected its new Rector, the 45-year-old Yekaterinburg Duma deputy and the Dean of the Department of History Dmitriy Bugrov on April 26, 2007. Five people ran for the post altogether: Dmitriy Bugrov, Dean of the Department of Philosophy Alexander Pertzev, Provost Evgeniy Pamyatnikh, Dean of the Department of Physics Alexei Babushkin, and Director of USU Institute for Management and Entrepreneurship Alexei Klyuev. The election procedure lasted for more than six hours, since all the candidates had to present their development projects first. Then the voters (heads of all of the university’s departments and divisions as well as some representatives of the student body) had to make their choices. To win, a candidate had to get 50% of votes plus another one, yet no one managed to get as many in the first tour of the elections. Mr. Babushkin got 27 votes, Mr. Klyuev got 18 votes, Mr. Pertzev got 28 votes, with the majority of votes given to Dmitriy Bugrov (120) and Evgeniy Pamyatnikh (98). In the course of the second tour, Mr. Bugrov won with 163 votes out of 287.

‘I mean to keep the good things the university is famous for as well as work on the new development projects. We intend to spend the next few months analyzing our strengths and weaknesses, correcting the possible mistakes and implementing our innovational project in the most dynamic, energetic, and efficient way. As you all know, USU has recently won in the innovational educational project contest, and we now have to prove our worth,’ the new Rector said.

Dmitriy Bugrov was born in Yekaterinburg in 1962; he graduated from USU (Department of History) with honors in 1984 and has been the Dean of the Department of History since 1994. Mr. Bugrov was awarded with an honorary title for his educational achievements in 2002.