St Petersburg University alumni from Middle Eastern countries meet at forum in Egypt

The event was organised in Cairo by the Federal Agency for the Commonwealth of Independent States, Compatriots Living Abroad, and International Humanitarian Cooperation (Rossotrudnichestvo). The participants discussed the development of educational cooperation between Russia, the Middle East and Africa. They also shared their experiences of training national staff in their respective countries and the results of international projects.

At the Forum, St Petersburg University was represented by Mariia Edinova, Deputy Head of the Alumni Office of the University. Within the panel discussion "Development of Cooperation between Russian and Foreign Organisations and National Staff Training", she delivered a presentation "Three C’s for International Alumni of St Petersburg University: Community, Cooperation, Career Opportunities)".

She said that the Office activities are currently focused on two major blocks. The first one involves the use of social media for operational communication, informing and creating unique content for alumni: interviews, career advice from alumni, and thematic broadcasts. The second one is related to the implementation of educational, scientific, career and socially relevant projects. These include: the St Petersburg University Alumni Discussion Club; the mentoring programme; the Grads on Air alumni community podcast; and St Petersburg University Alumni Day to name just a few.

Top priority for St Petersburg University is to create a platform for free communication between students, staff and alumni.

Mariia Edinova, Deputy Head of the Alumni Office of the University

In total, more than 2,000 alumni participated in the University’s events in 2022. The total number of views of the online broadcasts of the Discussion Club meetings was more than 2,500. ‘Holding open discussions with alumni experts enables us to discuss topical issues and disseminate information about academic achievements to members of the alumni community,’ said Mariia Edinova. ‘Online broadcasts and the publication of podcast series help to attract the University alumni living abroad to the activities of St Petersburg University. Alumni also have an opportunity to participate in the University’s educational activities: they can become members of councils of academic programmes; and become members of state examination boards and teaching methodology committees. These and other opportunities make it possible to improve the efficiency of education at St Petersburg University together.’

The guests of the forum included the University’s alumni: Professor Saleh Hashem, Minister of Higher Education and Scientific Research of Egypt; and Professor Mohamed Elgebeli, Head of the Department of Russian at the Faculty of Philology, Ain Shams University (Egypt) and former Advisor on Educational and Cultural Affairs of the Embassy of Egypt in Moscow (2019-2021). The event also included meetings with delegations from Palestine, Iraq, Ethiopia and Syria to discuss the possibility of establishing St Petersburg University alumni clubs in these countries and outlining the trajectories of cooperation.

At the end, representatives of alumni associations in the Middle East and Africa discussed the role of such organisations in developing partnerships with the Russian Federation in the fields of education, economy and culture.

‘We highly value the alumni of Russian and Soviet universities, whom we rightfully consider Russia’s ambassadors,’ said Pavel Shevtsov, Deputy Head of Rossotrudnichestvo. He also stressed that Russia intends to develop relations with the associations.