Polytechnic acted as an expert on Russian-African cooperation at SPIEF-2024

The 27th St. Petersburg International Economic Forum, in which Polytechnic University traditionally actively participated, has come to an end. Among other things, Polytechnic’s experience as a coordinator of the Russian-African Network University (RAFU) consortium helped to maximize the potential of the conference «Water is more precious than gold».

Polytechnic University was represented by Maxim Zalyvsky, Head of the Russian-African Network University Project Office, who made a presentation as an expert, Alla Mazina, Deputy Head of the International Education Office, and Issa Togo, Associate Professor of the Graduate School of Hydraulic and Power Engineering at SPbPU.

The experts highlighted the main areas that need attention and the areas in which joint work is already underway. One of the key issues is the shortage of highly qualified personnel. Africa, being the continent with the youngest population, faces an acute shortage of higher education institutions. The activities of RAFU member universities are aimed at solving this problem from both the Russian and African sides.

Representatives of specialized ministries from South Sudan, Central African Republic, Zimbabwe, as well as Ambassadors Extraordinary and Plenipotentiary of Mali and Burkina Faso to the Russian Federation spoke at the conference.

St. Petersburg Polytechnic University presented its cases of successful projects on interaction with African universities and enterprises: centers of Russian language and culture, Information Center of SPbPU and RAFU and many other projects of our university under the auspices of RAFU. The conference was a good opportunity for experience exchange between experts who together found innovative solutions for modern challenges in the field of scientific and technical cooperation and retraining of personnel.