International Forum “International Polytechnic Week - 2014”

“Effective network cooperation between universities - a response to global challenges”

Dates: May 21-24, 2014

During the period May 21-24, 2014, SPbPU organized the International Polytechnic Week "Effective network cooperation between universities - a response to global challenges" for the representatives of the leading SPbPU partner universities.

An important tool for implementing the University's strategic goals in the field of education and science is to strengthen and develop an effective academic partnership with leading foreign organizations, associations, universities, research and educational centers and industrial companies. Therefore, the International Polytechnic Week -2014 was dedicated to the issues of collaboration within the framework of international academic networks.

The Week was attended by representatives of four strategic partner universities - University of Stuttgart and Technical University of Berlin (Germany), Polytechnic Universities of Milan (Italy) and Valencia (Spain).

In addition to the above-mentioned universities the International Polytechnic Week -2014 also took part potential partners, for example, the Institute of Information Technologies (Islamabad, Pakistan), as well as universities with which SPbPU already has strong relations. These are Reutlingen University, Hamburg University of Technology and Ulm University of Applied Sciences from Germany, Saimaa University of Applied Sciences and Lappeenranta University of Technology from Finland.

For the first day of IPW-2014 main theme of discussions was network partnership as a platform for developing collaboration and information exchange between universities, creation of a modern international community for contribution to the economics, and cultural and social development of countries.

The next day was dedicated to the internationalization as a key to the university development strategy. Discussions were focused on such issues as academic mobility, scholarships, joint educational programs and summer schools.

On the third day was organized an Education fair. The universities presented promotional materials on educational opportunities in partner universities and international educational programs for SPbPU students.

At the closing session, the round table summarized the results of the IPW-2014 and identified further trends of international partnership development. Participants of the IPW-2014mentioned that network partnership in the modern educational space is an effective tool for cooperation development and information exchange between universities.