On October 27th Irkutsk State University celebrated its 103 anniversary.

ISU is the largest scientific and educational institution in the region, combining traditions with modern technologies. The competitive advantages of ISU and unique features of the region – first of all, the presence of Lake Baikal - UNESCO World Heritage Site – allow the university to be an intellectual and innovative center, both in Russian and abroad.

The university offers educational programs in natural sciences, mathematics, humanities, social sciences and economics, pedagogics, linguistics which contribute to the sustainable development of the region. The educational complex of the university includes 8 educational institutions, 8 faculties, 1 university branch, one of the largest university libraries in Russia, postgraduate and doctoral programs.

Now the university has several large scientific departments: research department, 4 research institutes (Applied physics; Biology; Oil and coal chemical synthesis; Protection of Lake Baikal), research center "Baikal region", Astronomical observatory, and Botanical garden. There are centers of Chinese, Polish, French, German, Korean languages, the representative center of Kanazawa University at ISU.

The university regularly enters prestigious Russian and international rankings. In particular, ISU is the only university in the Baikal Region listed in two of the most prestigious world rankings of the best universities: the Times Higher Education global ranking and the QS World University Rankings. Also, the university is listed in the regional QS rankings. Besides, the university enters the world ranking of universities by the Round University Ranking agency.

Irkutsk State University is a member of international associations of universities, in particular, the Eurasian Association, the Northeast Asia University Presidents' Forum, a partner of the World Bank Institute. ISU is also a member of the Russian Association of Business Education, the UNINET network, and the Russian Association of University Korean Studies. The university develops relations with both European and Asian partners. It has more than 110 agreements on cooperation. Joint educational programs, double degree programs, academic mobility programs, and international summer schools are implemented under the agreements. The number of international students increases every year.

ISU is the leader among the regional universities and research organizations in grant support as well as the only university in the region that implements two mega-grants from the Russian government: in gamma-ray astronomy and archaeology.