St Petersburg University has partnered up with Atatürk University
St Petersburg University has been visited by a delegation of Atatürk University (Turkey), led by its rector Professor Ömer Çomakli. During the meeting, the parties entered into an agreement on cooperation. This includes the development of the Centre for Contemporary Turkish Studies at St Petersburg University.
The agreement with Atatürk University, which is located in Erzurum, is the first agreement with a top-rated university in eastern Turkey.
One of the oldest Turkish language schools has been established at St Petersburg University. We are focused on cooperation with Turkish universities. This is demonstrated by the fact that the other day the Centre for Contemporary Turkish Studies was created at St Petersburg University.
Sergey Andryushin, the Deputy Rector for International Affairs of St Petersburg University
Apollinariia Avrutina, director of the Centre for Contemporary Turkish Studies at St Petersburg University, said that one of the main missions of the new division is to develop Russian–Turkish humanitarian academic relations and organise events aimed at promoting Russian and Turkish cultures. It is also expected to develop joint academic interdisciplinary projects within the bilateral cooperation.
Atatürk University is one of the oldest higher educational institutions in Turkey. It has 450,000 students, who study full-time and online, and about 10,000 teachers. The following areas of study are well-established at Atatürk University: medicine (it has six medical faculties); agriculture; economics; design; engineering; and social sciences.
An example of the cooperation is that St Petersburg University is ready to provide Atatürk University with methodological assistance to create a testing centre. It will make it possible to receive a certificate confirming the level of Russian proficiency.
Additionally, the agreement between universities provides for: cooperation in the field of joint research; promotion of academic programmes, scientific advice and peer review; and organisation of practical training and internships for students and academic exchanges.
The members of the Turkish delegation thanked the administration of St Petersburg University and personally the University rector Nikolay Kropachev for the warm welcome and invited them to make a return a visit. ‘Atatürk University has signed many cooperation agreements with European higher education institutions, but now we are looking to partner up with more Russian partners. Russia and Turkey are fraternal countries, so I hope that we will have a lot of joint projects in the future,’ said Ömer Çomakli, rector of Atatürk University.