Visit of Consul General of the Republic of Turkey to St Petersburg University

During the meeting, the parties considered a draft agreement to introduce a scholarship in the name of the Consul General of the Republic of Turkey in St Petersburg Mehmet Ferhan Yorulmaz. The scholarship was initiated by the University in the memory of the Consul General whose untimely death occurred during the COVID-19 pandemic. St Petersburg University highly values close academic and cultural ties with the Turkish partners. Teaching Turkish at the University started in 1822. According to Mr Özgün Talu, the University’s initiative to establish measures to support students of Turkish has been approved by the Minister of National Education of the Republic of Turkey. The Consul General of the Republic of Turkey has agreed to the University’s proposal to join the committee for the selection of applicants from the University students for the personal scholarship.

200

years ago, the University started to teach the Turkish language.

Another issue to be discussed was participation of the University students in the Turkish Proficiency Examination for International Students (Türkçe Yeterlik Sınavı, TYS) held with the support of Yunus Emre Institute in Moscow. The examination is held three times a year, and the examination certificate is internationally recognised and makes it possible to enter universities in the Republic of Turkey without the mandatory year-long language course. Mr Özgün Talu said that during his recent visit to Moscow he had asked the representatives of the Institute about a possibility to hold the examination in St Petersburg, which would allow students of Oriental languages at the University to test their knowledge.

Professor Apollinariia Avrutina, Director of the Centre for Contemporary Turkish Studies and Russia-Turkey Relations at St Petersburg University, thanked for the information provided and said that the Turkish language testing at St Petersburg University has been held on the basis of the Language Testing Centre in cooperation with Istanbul University since 2018. Nevertheless, a lot of students may be interested in taking the TYS. It was decided to establish contacts between the St Petersburg University Language Testing Centre and Yunus Emre Institute to discuss organisation of the language examination at the University and inform students of the next testing session to be held on 15 May in Moscow.

Sergey Andryushin, Deputy Rector for International Affairs, noted that St Petersburg University is ready to enhance cooperation with the Republic of Turkey and the Turkish partner institutes. ‘The pandemic has had a great influence on academic mobility programmes and cooperation in general. We certainly tried to maintain it with the help of the Internet technologies, but we are eager to return to the previous level and, if possible, to exceed it’, he said. In this respect Sergey Andryushin asked the Consul General of the Republic of Turkey in St Petersburg to assist in establishing contacts with the leading universities in the Republic of Turkey and inform them of the University’s intention to establish scientific and cultural cooperation and carry out academic exchange programmes.

One of the leading partners of the University in the Republic of Turkey at present is the University of the Union of Chambers and Commodity Exchanges of Turkey (TOBB University of Economics and Technology, TOBB ETÜ) in Ankara. Two years ago the universities entered into an agreement of establishing the University’s representative office. The representative office is mainly in charge of holding events mostly to present academic and research projects to the foreign audience. Yet St Petersburg University is considering the establishment of its branch in the Republic of Turkey for comprehensive teaching. The first step on this way may be a joint academic programme in the sphere of tourist destinations, developed in cooperation with universities and major tourist companies in Russia and Turkey. According to Sergey Andryushin, such programme will be popular with students because of the Russian education being in high demand and taking into consideration close ties between the two countries in the sphere of tourism.

Sergey Andryushin, Deputy Rector for International Affairs, also told the Consul General of the Republic of Turkey about the development of "The Neva Delta" Innovative Science and Technology Centre. He also added that the University is eager to cooperate with Turkish companies in this respect. Mr Özgün Talu said that a similar project, "Technocity", is implemented by Middle East Technical University in Ankara, which will be ready to share its experience with the Russian colleagues. The parties have agreed to exchange contacts and hold a video conference on the subject of specific features of a technological valley design.

The parties have also discussed a possibility of inviting teachers to give on-campus lectures at St Petersburg University and establishing the Turkish "Speaking Club" for the students of the Turkish language to practice. Additionally, Consul General of the Republic of Turkey in St Petersburg Mr Özgün Talu was offered to become member of the Council of the academic programme ‘Turkish Philology’, in which Consul General of the Republic of Turkey Mr Yunus Belet participated, and a new master’s programme ‘Asian and African Translation Studies’ to be launched in 2023. Consul General of the Republic of Turkey in St Petersburg Mr Özgün Talu accepted this proposal.