SPbU strengthens Russian-Chinese cooperation in education

SPbU Rector, Corresponding Member of the Russian Academy of Sciences Nikolay Kropachev noted that St Petersburg University is interested in developing relations with Chinese partners.

Ten years ago, when the Russian president spoke of turning to the East, I, as rector, began to encourage the creation of educational programmes with a Chinese component. Today there are more than 80 of them, and we will continue to develop new ones.

Rector of SPbU, Corresponding Member of the Russian Academy of Sciences Nikolay Kropachev

‘To date, apart from our university, there are few such programmes available in Russia. We would be happy to find a partner in China who would adopt our methodology,’ said the SPbU Rector. 

Nikolay Kropachev offered Nanjing University to become the first higher education institution in China to launch joint educational programmes with a Russian component, with graduates receiving double diplomas. He also said that there are plans to organise Chinese language teaching at the SPbU Faddeev Academic Gymnasium, and invited teachers from the partner university to give lessons to Russian schoolchildren. The university rector reported that the matter had been discussed with the head of the China International Property Investment Corporation Foundation (CITIC Foundation) in October. He invited scholars from Nanjing University to join the board of one of the university’s many educational programmes with a Chinese component, which will enable networking between researchers from the two countries and subsequently create new ones under the dual-degree model. 

The meeting also explored the possibility of jointly creating online courses and graduate programmes in various scientific fields, including geology, chemistry, mathematics and artificial intelligence research.

Mr Tan supported Nikolay Kropachev’s proposals and noted that his views on the development of inter-university cooperation were largely in agreement. The head of the delegation thanked the Rector of SPbU for supporting the long-standing partnership between the universities, which was established in 2005. He said that Nanjing University is one of the oldest universities in China and celebrated its 120th anniversary in 2022. The university has made great contributions to the development of higher education in the People’s Republic of China and is now ranked 73rd in the world by Times Higher Education. Mr Tang pointed out that international cooperation is one of the priority areas of Nanjing University and made several suggestions to strengthen it. 

In particular, he proposed to expand academic and student mobility and to organise internships for students and teachers with the support of a scholarship programme to be launched in the near future. Building connections between researchers, according to Mr Tan, will be helped by participation in conferences and joint research projects. One of the most promising areas at present is mathematics, and it was proposed to open a joint research centre at Nanjing University with the participation of SPbU. He also said that Nanjing University has its own gymnasium and primary school, and their teachers will be able to come to St Petersburg to teach Chinese to the university’s gymnasium students. In turn, teachers from the SPbU Faddeev Academic Gymnasium were invited to teach Russian language classes to Chinese students.

China and Russia have established and are developing a comprehensive strategic partnership. It is particularly noteworthy that the leaders of our countries have shared a common view on scientific and technological development in various fields, thus charting a development path for our future cooperation. I hope that under their leadership we can strengthen and continue the active cooperation between our universities on the basis of mutually beneficial cooperation.

Head of Nanjing University Delegation, Secretary Tan Tieniu

As a result of the meeting it was decided to send written proposals. 

It should be noted that the day before, St Petersburg University had signed a cooperation agreement with Nanjing University of Technology.