St Petersburg University establishes cooperation with universities in Sri Lanka

The guest of honour at the meeting was Janita Liyanage, Ambassador Extraordinary and Plenipotentiary of the Democratic Socialist Republic of Sri Lanka to the Russian Federation. She said that she was pleased to see the willingness of the two countries’ universities to establish cooperation, which could be implemented in many areas including: academic exchanges; organising conferences and seminars; and conducting joint research.

The Ambassador said that the history of diplomatic relations between Russia and Sri Lanka dates back more than 65 years and hoped that the meeting between St Petersburg University and the University of Kelaniya will strengthen cooperation at both inter-university and inter-state levels.

Sergey Andryushin, Vice-Rector for International Affairs of St Petersburg University, thanked Ms Janita Liyanage for her personal involvement, which will serve as additional support in implementing joint initiatives and provide more opportunities for developing cooperation. He said that St Petersburg University is the oldest higher education institution in Russia, which was founded almost 300 years ago and today it is an interdisciplinary institution of higher education with more than 25 faculties and institutes covering almost all fields, from humanities to nuclear physics.

We have a large platform for cooperation, and I am sure we could work in many ways: develop exchanges; organise public lectures; and invite professors from the University of Kelaniya to St Petersburg to give lectures under the Visiting Professors programme, if not for the whole duration of the course, then at least for a short period.

Sergey Andryushin, Vice-Rector for International Affairs of St Petersburg University

‘We would also like to increase the number of joint publications. Unfortunately, we do not yet have any partners in Sri Lanka. We would be therefore happy to discuss how to organise our cooperation,’ proposed Sergey Andryushin. At present, the University has no existing agreements with higher education institutions and research organisations in Sri Lanka, and there is no mobility of academic staff and students. Sergey Andryushin, Vice-Rector for International Affairs, noted that St Petersburg University is interested in developing cooperation in medicine, chemistry and biology, as translational biomedicine is one of the University’s research priorities. A special interest for researchers is the study of tropical diseases. Also, areas of common interest can be found in mathematics and computer science.

Alexey Rodionov, Senior Deputy Dean of the Faculty of Asian and African Studies and Associate Professor at St Petersburg University, said that the University teaches about 60 languages of Asia and Africa, including Bengali, Hindi and Urdu, Nepali, Telugu and Marathi, among others. ‘The study of Sinhala began at St Petersburg University a long time ago, but it is not taught now. We hope that cooperation with the University of Kelaniya will make it possible to restore it,’ he said. ‘We would like to invite a teacher of Sinhala and the culture of Sri Lanka from your university for a few years to help our academic staff to master these disciplines and organise an academic programme. In turn, the presence of a department of Russian at the University of Kelaniya will contribute to strengthening cooperation between our universities. Also, Orientalists at St Petersburg University are interested in scientific cooperation in the study of the history and religions of South Asia. Alexey Rodionov added that in April 2023 the University will host the annual 32th International Academic Congress on Historiography and Source Studies of Asia and Africa, and invited colleagues to participate in it.

Professor Neelakshi Premawardhena, Director of the Centre for International Affairs at the University of Kelaniya, presented the university’s scientific and educational opportunities. He stressed that there will be many areas of common interest in various academic fields for further cooperation. Professor Mervin Kumara Weerasinghe, Head of the Department of Library and Information Science, also gave a presentation.

Marina Karpova, Director of the M. Gorky Scientific Library of St Petersburg University, said that the library regularly participates in many University’s projects, including international ones.

The history of our book collection goes back almost three centuries. Today, the Library of St Petersburg University is a hybrid information centre based on a rich collection of paper and electronic sources. We would be happy to start cooperation with the University of Kelaniya in: different areas of librarianship; holding events; and developing information services tailored to modern university requirements.

Marina Karpova, Director the M. Gorky Scientific Library of St Petersburg University

During the meeting, the partners were presented with information about the possibilities of the University to organise academic exchanges of staff and students.

As a result of the conversation, the parties agreed to sign a memorandum of understanding to further organise academic mobility and short-term internships for librarians at the M. Gorky Scientific Library. There was also a proposal to establish a testing centre for Russian as a foreign language at the University of Kelaniya.