From Chemistry to Literature: St Petersburg University expands collaboration with Heilongjiang University

Mr Fu said that the day before he had met with the director and professors of the Institute of Chemistry at St Petersburg University. He was impressed by the fact that teachers and researchers of the Institute are all world-renowned scientists. He emphasised that Heilongjiang University and St Petersburg University should enhance cooperation in the most sought-after fields of chemistry, for example, in the sphere of materials generation and catalysis. According to Mr Fu, the Russian and Chinese chemists are both interested in these spheres.

Another important area of collaboration is the Russian language assessment. The Russian Language State Certification Testing Centre was opened in Heilongjiang University with the support of St Petersburg University. It is highly regarded in China: the certificate of ‘proficiency in Russian language’ is recognised not only in China, but also in Russia. Since the start the Centre has held six examinations and more than 200 people have successfully passed them. Teachers from St Petersburg University participated there as moderators. The future development of the Centre will involve joint efforts of the Russian and the Chinese universities on working out teaching and test materials.

Mr Fu suggested discussing cooperation in the sphere of translation of Russian literature into the Chinese language. ‘Our university has special relationships with Russia. It originates from a university created by the Chinese Communist Party in the 1930s, which moved to Harbin and became a school of the Russian language. Heilongjiang University was made on the basis of that school in 1958,’ Rector of Heilongjiang University Fu Honggang said.

Although these days our students study a whole range of different subjects, the main focus is still on teaching and learning Russian. Recently we have set up an excellent school of translation, that specialises in training professionals who not only know the Russian language, but also have an expertise in translating sophisticated texts.  

Fu Honggang, Rector of Heilongjiang University

Today, Heilongjiang University is working on publishing the second issue of the ‘Almanac of Contemporary Russian prose’. Both translators of Heilongjiang University and guest experts from other regions of China work on this project. The first issue of the ‘Almanac’ was presented in February 2018. Talking about expanding collaboration between the universities, Mr Fu suggested signing a strategic cooperation agreement, which will allow to diversify collaborative research projects.

According to Nikolay Kropachev, Rector of St Petersburg University, it is necessary to develop collaboration between the universities not only in the areas of language and chemistry. Weighted average of Heilongjiang University is high in physics, engineering and materials science, which means that these spheres can become new growing points for research and educational projects. In order to build bridges between Russian and Chinese scientists, it was offered to arrange meetings and video conferences for discussing areas of the future research. The Rectors also talked about the possibility of cooperative creation of academic programmes and online courses.

Mr Kropachev said that the UN General Assembly proclaimed 2019 the International Year of the Periodic Table of Chemical Elements and pointed out that the Table is named after its ‘creator’ Dmitri Mendeleev, a graduate and professor of St Petersburg University. Mr Kropachev suggested installing a monument to the outstanding chemist in Heilongjiang University, and Mr Fu agreed to the proposal.

As a result of the talks, the parties exchanged contacts for communication between the researchers of St Petersburg University and Heilongjiang University on the questions of creating new academic programmes and launching international scientific projects. Also, it was decided to ask students and teachers of the universities to share their ideas on the project of the bust of Mendeleev.