St Petersburg University expands a network of collaborations with Belarus
Ambassador Extraordinary and Plenipotentiary of the Republic of Belarus to the Russian Federation Dmitry Krutoi has visited St Petersburg University. During the meeting, the parties discussed an issue of developing joint academic programmes with Belarusian partners and outlined priority areas of cooperation.
Nikolay Kropachev, Rector of St Petersburg University, Corresponding Member of the Russian Academy of Sciences, welcomed the guests. The University has a special status, which provides the educational organisation with more academic freedom and the opportunity to implement unique academic programmes and open branches and representative offices in partner countries, directly interacting with foreign government authorities, he said.
St Petersburg University remains actively involved in international activities, expanding educational and scientific collaborations and partnerships, and pays great attention to developing partnerships with leading educational and scientific organisations in friendly countries, the Rector added. Today, the oldest Russia’s university has opened nine foreign representative offices and more than 120 Russian language centres in 50 countries. The University has also opened a joint campus with Harbin Institute of Technology in China and branches in Uzbekistan and Egypt to prepare high-calibre specialists in a range of areas, including medicine, economics, and international relations.
Today, more than 300 citizens of Belarus are studying at St Petersburg University.
During the meeting, various forms of partnerships were discussed, including providing Belarusian researchers with access to state-of-the-art high-tech equipment and infrastructure of the Research Park at St Petersburg University, which is open to research teams from throughout the world. This proposal was supported by and arouse interest of the Belorussian party. They highlighted the importance of cooperation for the development of the scientific potential of the Republic of Belarus.
To increase the demand in the labour market for graduates who are citizens of the friendly country and improve the quality of education, the Rector of St Petersburg University proposed an initiative to develop joint online courses for Belarusian students. "We are ready to help increase interest in the study of your country, its regions and activity, to demonstrate your achievements in industry, agriculture, medicine and other areas," said the Rector of St Petersburg University.
The University ranks first in the number of courses on the national platform Open Education. There are more than 3.5 million students who have taken these courses. Online courses of St Petersburg University are available on foreign platforms: ICE Institute in Indonesia and XuetangX in China.
The Ambassador of the Republic of Belarus Dmitry Krutoi supported this proposal. Today, there is an urgent need to control the quality of education and preparation of professional personnel capable of meeting the demands of the labour market, he added. In his opinion, online courses, that are primarily concerned with non-degree education, can guarantee a high level of training of specialists, facilitating their integration into the context of both countries.
The University offered to the Ambassador the decentralised international system of interbank financial messages developed at the Distributed Ledger Technologies Centre at St Petersburg University, which excludes the possibility of external control intervention, including deleting participants or changing data. "It seems to me that the system we have developed will be a good opportunity for friendly countries to work on a single friendly platform. Bringing together partner countries is not about finding the main operator of the platform, but about expanding the horizons of cooperation," said Nikolay Kropachev.
An important topic discussed during the meeting was the lack of a single explanatory dictionary, which leads to the destruction of language norms and has a negative impact on linguistic culture and communication. Without reaching an agreement on the meaning of words, uncertainties may arise in education, law, and other areas where precision and clarity of language are critical. In this regard, the Rector of St Petersburg University proposed to carry out joint work on the creation of standard dictionaries, standardisation of the language and its usage.
Following the meeting, the Rector of St Petersburg University and the Ambassador Extraordinary and Plenipotentiary of the Republic of Belarus to the Russian Federation agreed on the need to continue the dialogue on the issues discussed. During the visit, it was decided to involve the Ministry of Education of the Republic of Belarus to provide comprehensive support and to ensure full interaction in the development of joint projects.
Both sides confirmed their readiness to actively work on the proposed initiatives and agreed to continue expanding bilateral relations in the educational and scientific fields. "Our countries are friends and open to each other. We hope that at least 80% of students, or perhaps even 100%, after completing their studies in Russia, will return to Belarus and make a significant contribution to our country as they have in-depth knowledge and experience gained in Russia," Dmitry Krutoi said at the end of the meeting.