St Petersburg University is ready to cooperate with the Higher Institute for Applied Sciences and Technology in Syria

During the visit, Deputy Rector for International Affairs Sergey Andryushin told the Syrian colleagues about educational and research opportunities offered by the University. ‘St Petersburg University is one of the leading classical universities in Russia with a broadest spectrum of science, scholarship and art programmes, from biomedicine and computer science to philology and art history. I am confident that we will find common ground in many areas and use this potential for collaboration and joint development of cutting-edge research projects,’ he said.

Sergey Andryushin added that St Petersburg University will be interested in organising academic mobility programmes and language internship programmes for students and academic staff of the two universities.

The Syrian delegation was headed by the Chairman of the Board of Trustees Dr Wael Hansa and the Director of the Higher Institute for Applied Sciences and Technology (HIAST) Dr Maher Suleiman. They expressed the intent to establish international relations with St Petersburg University in a wide range of areas. The most relevant for Syrian science and technology sectors today are the areas of: artificial intelligence technologies; big data and wireless network technologies; signal processing; environmental protection; sensor development; and nanotechnologies. It is in these areas that it has been proposed to start joint scientific research. According to the HIAST leadership, the first step towards establishing cooperation could be an internship programme for Syrian students at St Petersburg University.

SPbU helps to promote teaching of the Russian language in Syria

Of particular interest for Syrian colleagues is distance learning opportunities offered by St Petersburg University. The HIAST leadership expressed their willingness to organise online Russian language courses at the Higher Institute for Applied Sciences and Technology.

During the visit, the University’s mathematicians, physicists and chemists talked with their colleagues from Syria. Following the negotiations, the Syrian guests were given a tour around the St Petersburg University Research Park, where they visited four resource centres: the Interdisciplinary Resource Centre for Nanotechnology; the Centre for Diagnostics of Functional Materials for Medicine, Pharmacology and Nanoelectronics; the Centre for Physical Methods of Surface Investigation; and the Chemical Analysis and Materials Research Centre.

At the meeting, the parties discussed and agreed on a draft cooperation agreement, which is planned to be concluded in the near future.