For the first time, the program of the St. Petersburg Congress «Professional Education, Science and Innovations in the XXI Century» provides the holding of two plenary sessions, the first of which is dedicated to engineering education in the XXI century.

The plenary session was held on November 15, 2018 in the Physics Auditorium of Emperor Alexander I St. Petersburg State Transport University. In the session took part more than 350 participants, including more than 100 international participants from China, France, Indonesia, India and South Africa.

Welcome speeches to the participants of the Congress were held by the Deputy Minister of Transport of the Russian Federation A.K. Semenov, Chairman of the Committee on Science and Higher Education of St. Petersburg A.S. Maximov, Deputy Chairman of the Presidium of the St. Petersburg Scientific Center of the Russian Academy of Sciences O.V. Bely, Rector of PGUPS A.Y. Panychev.

The congress received greetings from the rectors of universities located in St. Petersburg, in Russia and abroad, from the heads of government bodies, large industrial and transport enterprises, including the greeting from the Chief Executive Officer — Chairman of the Executive Board of JSCo «Russian Railways» O.V. Belozerov.

The meeting was held in the form of a panel discussion, at which spoke the Senior Advisor to the CEO — Chairman of the Board of the JSCo «Russian Railways» V.A. Gapanovich, Research Advisor of Peter the Great St. Petersburg Polytechnic University, Academician of the RAS Y.S. Vasilyev, Rector of Dalian Transport University Ma Yundun (China), Director of the European and International Cooperation Department of the National Conservatory of Arts and Crafts Sebastien Leoncel, and Vice-rector of Pavlov First St. Petersburg State Medical University K.S. Klyukovkin.

The discussion was moderated by the journalist and presenter of the Russia-1 TV channel, N.A. Zusik.

As a result, a detailed discussion took place. During the discussion were mentioned problems and tasks of professional education in Russia, China and France, the need to exchange experience and in prompt response to the demands of society, in particular industry engineering, healthcare and transport. The speech of the Academician Yuri Sergeyevich Vasiliev is worth mentioning. In his speech Y.S. Vasiliev encouraged the participants of the plenary session to take care of the traditions of Russian higher education, preserve the culture and quality of engineering education, which is one of the foundations for the formation of social consciousness and a creative attitude to life and work.