OREANDA-NEWS. Alcoa Russia and Alcoa Foundation announced a competition for Alcoa Foundation scholarships and development stipends for students and young faculty as part of the Technical Education Program for technical universities and technical colleges in Alcoa Russia locations. In this program, Alcoa Russia and Alcoa Foundation partnered with three leading universities – Samara State Aerospace University (SGAU), Donskoy State Technical University (DGTU) in Rostov-on-Don and Moscow Steel and Alloy Institute (MISiS), the Metallurgical College in Samara and the Polytechnic School in Belaya Kalitva, Rostov region. Alcoa Foundation scholarships and development stipends are intended to help provide basic living expenses, allowing students and young faculty to concentrate full time on their studies and work. This year, 50 scholarships for students and 13 development stipends for young faculty members will be awarded at the engineering departments of the partner universities, 20 scholarships will be awarded to students at the participating colleges.

As another important component of this program, SGAU and DGTU will be donated equipment to modernize their lecture rooms and laboratories.

Alcoa Foundation Technical Education Support Program was launched in 2006, soon after Alcoa completed the acquisition of two plants in Samara and Belaya Kalitva. The program is in line with Alcoa Foundation global themes which are Education and Environment. With this program Alcoa Russia seeks to contribute to higher prestige of the technical education, to create additional incentives for students, to help the partner universities retain their best young faculty.

A selection committee was established in each of the partner universities to include top professors, representatives of Alcoa Russia, local authorities and public figures. The committees are responsible for the selection process and advise Alcoa Russia on ways to improve this Program in the future. During the selection process, students are evaluated based on their exam scores, research activities and answers to a questionnaire related to their profession. Young faculty members are evaluated based on their individual development plans to be fulfilled within approximately one year. The award ceremonies for the winners in the competition are held in April.

Maxim Smirnov, President Alcoa Russia: "The role of high-level technical experts in raising the competitive level of the industry is becoming the most important factor. This emphasizes the importance of the technical education program which has been implemented by Alcoa Russia and Alcoa Foundation for years. It is important to have more and more specialists working in the industry, and schools to maintain a high teaching level. These are the primary goals our company sets for this program".