Representatives of the University of Bergamo paid a visit to SPbU
A delegation from the University of Bergamo, Italy, visited St Petersburg University. During the official meeting Marina Lavrikova, SPbU Vice Rector for Academic Affairs and Methodological Support, discussed with her Italian counterparts the prospective areas of cooperation as well as the opportunity of creating a double degree programme.
The meeting was initiated by the Italian party. At the beginning of the talks, Marina Lavrikova emphasised that the double degree programme was the most interesting form of cooperation for the University. However, it is also the most difficult for implementation. Thus, the Russian-German Master's programme "Pomor (Polar and Marine Sciences)", founded in 2001 at the initiative of St Petersburg University and a number of large German universities and research centres, was the result of long-standing cooperation between the University and its German partners. "Judging from my own experience, I can say that the difficulties are primarily related to the differences in the education laws of the two countries. Creating such a programme is a long way, which may start with signing a framework agreement between our universities," SPbU Vice Rector for Academic Affairs and Methodological Support said.
In his turn, Professor Remo Morzenti Pellegrini, Rector of the University of Bergamo, agreed that the first meeting should be primarily devoted to discussing the most interesting areas for the prospective partnership. "Now it seems necessary to us to launch an academic exchange process for both students and teachers. Since our Department of Slavonic Studies is a most prominent one in Italy, we want to attract the best specialists in this field," Professor Pellegrini said.
In the opinion of Marina Lavrikova, SPbU programmes with English as the language of instruction can be a promising area for cooperation, too. The Italian colleagues are also interested in joint research in economics, law and management. An important component of academic exchange organisation is the availability of academic disciplines taught in English.
At the end of the meeting it was decided at this stage of the partnership to start preparing a framework cooperation agreement required for any types of future cooperation.
Reference
The University of Bergamo was founded in 1968 in Lombardy, which is a northern region of Italy. Currently there are over 16,000 students and 300 post-doctoral fellows. Seven faculties and a research centre occupy three campuses: the engineering one, the campus of economics and law, and the humanities campus.