Independent University of Moscow

The Independent University of Moscow (IUM) (Независимый Московский Университет (НМУ)) is an educational organisation with rather informal status located in Moscow, Russia. It was founded in 1991 by a group of Russian mathematicians that included Vladimir Arnold (chairman) and Sergei Novikov. The IUM consists of the departments of mathematics and theoretical physics and the post-graduate school. Anyone can attend lectures and seminars and become a student after passing three exams..

It is a non-governmental educational institution for the training of professional mathematicians, acting by a higher education institution type.

Location
The IUM is located in a building in central Moscow. The address is 11 Bol. Vlasievskii per., a small street near the Arbat and within walking distance of the Kremlin, the Bolshoi Theater, the Russian State Library, the Pushkin Museum, and the Cathedral of Christ the Savior. In addition to lecture halls and classes, the IUM building has a library, a computer lab, a cafeteria, a small publishing house, and a book shop for math books.

IUM is the home of the Math in Moscow study abroad program, a one-semester course in mathematics and computer science. Students from the United States and Canada are eligible for the program, and courses are taught in English by Russian mathematicians. The American Mathematical Society offers several scholarships each semester to help cover tuition.

History
The Independent University of Moscow was founded in 1991 by a group of academics, professors and mathematics teaching enthusiasts (V.I. Arnold, S.P. Novikov, Y.G.Sinai, L.D. Faddeev, V.M. Tikhomirov, R.L . Dobrušin, and others). P. Deligne and R. MacPherson also played roles in the creation of the university, along with N.N. Konstantinov, the teacher and organizer of mathematical olympiads. Since 2000, Yulij Ilyashenko has served as the president of the IUM.

Since 2001, the IUM operates a program for foreign students called Math in Moscow. The American and Canadian Mathematical Societies award scholarships for those wishing for a year or a semester to study mathematics at the IUM. The IUM also operates an exchange program with the Ecole Normale Supérieure in Paris and fifth-year graduate students have the opportunity to IUM for a month to study at Ecole Normale, and French students at IUM. In 2002, it opened a joint French-Russian Laboratory (Laboratoire J.-V. Poncelet).

Training
IUM is a structural subdivision of the Moscow Center for Continuous Mathematical Education. IUM offers a free 5-year course of study (student has the right to reduce or increase the actual period of study, based on your personal needs and interests), and (since 1993), post-graduate courses.

Education in the IUM is based on the following principles:
 * There are no entrance exams.
 * Any person can freely attend the classes.
 * A non-resident student who successfully passes three exams, becomes a resident student of the university. A resident student must pass at least 3k - 3 courses to complete k-th semester.
 * To graduate, the student must fulfill all the credits, both for the mandatory and elective courses, and defend a thesis.

Many mathematical organizations around the world recognize the university diploma, including, for example, Steklov Institute of Mathematics and Harvard University.