At present, the IACE of VSTU includes 29 departments, four territorially non-separated faculties, 27 specialized scientific-and-industrial laboratories, and workshops. A sizeable informational library complex is at the disposal of students and the teaching staff. The main areas of IACE of VSTU activities cover the training of highly-qualified engineering professionals: architects, engineers, ecologists, economists. At present, more than 8000 students are taught various forms of study. The educational process is conducted in 31 specialties, in 14 fields of Bachelor's Programme and four fields of study of the Master's Programme.
The Institute prepares postgraduate students in 30 specialties (7 branches of science), doctoral candidates in 7 specialties 3 Dissertation Councils for Doctor of Science and Candidate of Science Degrees in 9 specialties function at the University. The IACE of VSTU promotes international activity aimed at preparing highly qualified specialists with internationally acknowledged diplomas, improving the University's status, and enhancing its prestige in the Russian and international market of educational services. The stated goals are achieved by extending international relations with foreign institutions of higher education.
Extensive cooperation of IACE of VSTU with various universities allows increasing the mobility of students and professors. Thus, in 2012 and 2013, more than 70 students and postgraduate students and more than 50 lecturers had an opportunity to participate in conferences, master-classes, and workshops abroad. At the IACE of VSTU, students could attend lectures and master-classes of foreign lecturers. In 2012 and 2013, five and ten professors held lectures and master-classes at the Institute. Students, postgraduate students, and faculty of the IACE of VSTU actively participate in international scholarship contests for study and research placements. In 2013 two scholarships for study and research placement in Germany were won within the DAAD scholarships program framework alone. The Institute staff members regularly participate in various international conferences: in 2012 and 2013, more than 180 lecturers took part in international conferences.
The Institute students and faculty have a unique opportunity to take the DSH examination at the IACE of VSTU for free. Every year (at the end of August — the beginning of September) docent from the University of Applied Sciences of Cologne (Germany) holds an intensive preparation course and conducts this examination for the certificate of German as a foreign language. IACE of VSTU is the only University in Volgograd which holds such an examination. For over 20 years, the IACE of VSTU has been cooperating with Michigan State University (USA). The Volgograd branch of the Michigan Section of the Institute of Transportation Engineers (ITE) was established at the SAUCE. The students regularly participate in the Russian Student Paper Competition held by the Institute of Transportation Engineers, Michigan Section, and win prizes. Our students got prize-winning places in 2012 as well as in 2013.
In 1990 Volgograd State University of Architecture and Civil Engineering started training international students. Since that time, students from many countries such as Afghanistan, Pakistan, Morocco, India, Yemen, Jordan, Egypt, Israel, Congo, Bangladesh, Palestine, Nepal, Iraq, Syria, Indonesia, Vietnam, Mozambique, Lebanon, as well as from Abkhazia, Georgia, Moldova, Ukraine, Uzbekistan, Armenia, Kazakhstan, Estonia, Kyrgyzstan, Azerbaijan, Tajikistan, Turkmenistan, South Ossetia, and others got Diplomas of higher education here. Suppose in the 2013-2014 academic year, young people from Nigeria were admitted to the Faculty of Pre-University Education in the 2014-2015 academic year. In that case, foreign citizens from Ghana, Guinea-Bissau, Afghanistan, and the Republic of Yemen are studying at the Faculty of Pre-University Education. At present, about 140 international students from 29 countries study at the IACE of VSTU in various forms of study.
In 2005, to enhance academic mobility and strengthen alumni's competitive abilities in the labor market of highly qualified specialists, the VSUACE was one of the first universities in Russia and the first one in Volgograd, which allowed its students to get European Diploma Supplement. Due to the increase of academic and labor mobility, this service's demand is growing from year to year.
An important area of international cooperation is the implementation of target projects of the European Union. In 2012 the University took part in preparing and submitting the project application for participating in Tempus IV: «Development of Master Courses in Rescue Engineering,» and in 2013, the University prepared three project applications for Tempus IV: «Multidisciplinary University Education for Protection, Conservation and Exploitation of Cultural Heritage in Partner Countries - CHeriED,» «Development and Implementation of Master Courses in Rescue Engineering in RF (MARENGO),» Master Programme in «Construction Management in Russian Universities» (MaBaRu) with the coordinator-universities from Germany and Serbia, as well as the project application for participation in «LLP Erasmus OIKOnet – a global multidisciplinary network on housing» within the framework of a consortium with the coordinator-university from Spain. The University has got the financing for the LLP Erasmus OIKOnet project from the European Union.
