IUNC Eurasia 2023 international conference was held at St. Petersburg Polytechnic University

On October 4-7, the international conference IUNC Eurasia 2023 was held in SPbPU. This is an annual international conference on higher education export that brings together representatives of leading Russian and foreign universities. Delegates meet at working sessions with reports, presentations and discussions, share their achievements, exchange experience. This is an opportunity for participants to learn successful practices of their colleagues, share their experience in internationalization, recruitment and university promotion. Popularization of Russian education abroad has a great potential for the development of cooperation and knowledge exchange between domestic and foreign universities.
On the first day of the conference, there was a ceremony of awarding the «Internationalization of Higher Education» prize of the Eastern European Universities Association (EEUA), where SPbPU received two awards at once: «Personal Contribution» and «International Reputation of the University».

The IUNC Eurasia 2023 conference is a significant event in the international life of the university community in Russia and many foreign countries. The Association of Eastern European Universities, which has been organizing this conference annually for over a dozen years, is a key player in this space and performs a crucial integration function. Welcoming the participants, Dmitry Arseniev, Vice-Rector for International Relations of SPbPU, noted: The exchange of opinions is critically important in today’s situation, when Russian education must respond to extraordinary challenges, enter new regions, build long-term partnerships and friendships with various countries. It is not without reason that two key sessions of our conference are devoted to RAFU and BRICS — these are the two most important mechanisms of international interaction.

The first working session of the conference was dedicated to the promotion of Russian education and the Russian language in African countries. The Russian-African Network University (RAFU) project, which since this year, is coordinated by the Polytechnic University, was presented at the meeting. Alla Mazina, the moderator of the meeting — Deputy Head of the International Education Department of SPbPU and RAFU Consortium Coordinator, opened the session and described the plan to expand the number of participants, open joint structures in partnership between Russian and African universities, and implement the RAFU Summer University project. Maxim Zalyvsky, Head of the RAFU Consortium Project Office, highlighted one of the main problems for the participants of this association — to improve the quality of existing higher education and increase the number of universities on the African continent, training of highly qualified personnel. The session included presentations of the consortium participants on their experience by the example of already implemented and planned projects within the framework of the vector of development and promotion of Russian education in RAFU.

Viktor Krasnoshchekov, Director of the Higher School of International Educational Programs of SPbPU, told about the project of founding preparatory faculties in African countries and promotion of the Russian language. In Mali, the opening of Polytechnic’s Russian language center is scheduled for November.

Lyudmila Podgornaya, Head of the International Academic Mobility Department of LETI SPbSTU, presented information about educational projects of LETI SPbSTU in African countries.

The second day of the conference was opened by the plenary session on promotion of Russian education in BRICS+ countries. The development of this community provides many opportunities for all participants.

Presentations were made by Julia Davydova, Vice-Rector for International Activities of Moscow Polytechnic University, Andrea Rizzotti, Director of the International Education Program of the Faculty of Latin American Studies, FLACSO-Argentina, and Professor Daniel Antenucci, President of the Lined Foundation of the National University of Mar del Plata in Argentina. Also participating were speakers from India: Director of Birla Vishwakarma Mahavidyalaya College of Engineering Indrajit Patel and President of the Association of Indian Universities, Vice Chancellor of Meghalaya University of Science and Technology G. D. Sharma.

Bogdan Voronovsky, Director General of the Association of Eastern European Universities, spoke about the possibility of uniting universities from BRICS+ countries: this will give a new impetus to development. It is obvious that we have a lot of things both in common and different. And something that we can share with other countries. Our aggregate potential is very large, and the synergy of our interaction will help each participant to achieve the desired results in international educational activities.

During the days of the conference there were business meetings between representatives of universities and recruiting agencies, as well as working programs where participants discussed modern promotion tools, marketing programs and non-standard approaches in working with foreign applicants.

Despite the busy schedule of the conference, the participants were able to familiarize themselves with the SPbPU campus and enjoy a walk around St. Petersburg.