The Orel State Technical University is one of the largest universities in the country and is a leader in the region of Central Russia ("European" Russia with the exception of Moscow and St. Petersburg) for teaching the younger generation of engineers and economists (with a reorientation in the field of tax law). In the University's long history, this was only the ninth time that the honorary doctorate has been conferred, of which this was the second time to a foreigner.

Michael Preißer has been working in Orel since 2003; from 2003 - 2006 as a German representative of an EU programme (Tempus Tacis Programme; together with professors from France and Italy) with the objective of "building up and providing support with training the younger generation of Russian fiscalists (taxmen and future tax advisers). He has had a visiting professorship at the Orel State Technical University since 2007.

Michael Preißer has been a professor of tax and private commercial law, especially corporate taxation, at the Leuphana University, Lüneberg since 1995. Prior to that he worked at the Bavarian fiscal authority and was a professor in Hamburg. He has been Of Counsel at Graf von Westphalen acting as a tax adviser since 1996.