South Ural State University (SUSU) (Russian: Южно-Уральский государственный университет (ЮУрГУ)) was established on December 15, 1943 as Chelyabinsk Mechanical Engineering Institute in Chelyabinsk. It was founded as a response to the defense enterprises need of engineers during World War II. Today it is one of the largest educational institutions in Russia. It is among the top-ten of the Russian universities according to the state rating of the Ministry of Education and Science of the Russian Federation, and the largest in Russia in terms of the number of undergraduates. SUSU is a basic educational institution in the sphere of the development and introduction of new teaching technologies, innovation activity. It is a leading center of culture and sport development. There are over 50 thousand students and more than 5 thousand faculty members and staff at the University, including 270 professors and 1020 associate professors. Among them are 4 academicians and 5 Corresponding Members of the Russian Academy of Sciences, over 90 academicians of various public academies, 4 members of foreign academies. SUSU has developed for many years as a large regional University.