ECL at SPbU
St Petersburg University and University of Pécs have signed an agreement on the language testing. The event was visited by the Consul General of Hungary in St Petersburg Gabor Ferenc Nagy.
Signing an agreement is new evidence of long-standing collaboration between St Petersburg University and Hungary, said SPbU Senior Vice-Rector for Academic Affairs, Extra-Curricular Affairs, and Methodological Support Ekaterina Babeluk.
SPbU Rector and Consul General in St Petersburg negotiated to open an educational programme in Culture and Arts of Hungary, which this year the University has already enrolled 5 students on. Since 2016, the University has had an educational council of the programme in Hungarian Language that proposes initiatives and recommendations as to how to develop this subject field at the University.
“To preserve global cultural heritage is among the overarching priorities of the University. SPbU teaches about 150 languages. Yet not every country is our partner as is Hungary, ― said Ekaterina Babeluk. ― We are pleased that our Hungarian colleagues highly appreciate our contribution into our collaboration. In 2015, SPbU Rector Nikolay Kropachev and Ambassador of Hungary in the Russian Federation János Balla signed an agreement to carry out an extensive research of and support the Hungarian language at the University”. Today, the University has signed agreement with many Hungary’s universities. If we open our representative office in Hungary, it would greatly benefit popularization of the Russian language and culture in Hungary.
The University of Pécs is a member of the European Consortium for the Certificate of Attainment in Modern Languages, says Gabor Ferenc Nagy, and SPbU, as it has signed an agreement with the University of Pécs, has a right to hold the ECL language tests. Test-takers can apply to the University to take a test in any from 13 languages: French, German, Bulgarian, Romanian, Croatian, Czech, Hungarian, and others and get a certificate that is officially recognized in the EU as evidence of competence in a language.
Learning foreign languages is vital, says the Consul General. He mentioned how Russia and Hungary were actively collaborating in constructing the energy units for the Paks Nuclear Power Plant. “How can you implement a project without finding a common language between those who take part in it: physicists and engineers? The common language can be Hungarian, Russian or any other language, ― said Gabor Ferenc Nagy. ― Now we are fully aware that we need to learn Russian. In Hungary, many specialists in various fields are eager to study Russian. It is on the second place after English”.