Slavic universities contribute to the social and technological development of the EAEU and CIS countries

In the modern scientific and educational world there are four unique universities, in which the co-founders are the governments of two countries: Russia-Armenia, Russia-Belarus, Russia-Kyrgyzstan and Russia-Tajikistan. On the margins of the Third Congress of Young Scientists in Sochi, a discussion was held on the contribution of Slavic universities to the social and technological development of the post-Soviet countries. One of the key participants of the dialog was Peter the Great Polytechnic.

These universities have contributed and continue to contribute to the training of personnel for the economies, first of all, of the countries where they are located. They apply Russian educational standards and award Russian diplomas, which are recognized both in Russia and abroad. It is quite obvious to us that these are joint universities in the full sense of the word. According to the Russian Ministry of Education and Science, a special approach should be used to organize their work, said Konstantin Mogilevsky, Deputy Minister of Science and Higher Education of the Russian Federation, who moderated the discussion.

In 2014, SPbPU signed strategic partnership agreements with RAU (Armenia) and BRU (Belarus), under which SPbPU began to build a long-term work plan. Dmitry Arseniev, Vice-Rector for International affairs of SPbPU, noted that the start of the new stage of cooperation can be considered as 2021, when the Ministry of Education and Science of Russia formed a target support for two Russian universities — SPbPU and SFU — within the framework of the state task for «Scientific, methodological and resource support of the education system». Targeted activities have been defined to provide methodological and expert support for the implementation by the four Slavic universities of their development programs. Additional funding and connections of the universities allowed to quickly and effectively launch a number of joint projects in different directions. The formats of work were chosen not randomly, but on the basis of experience and formed groundwork. With RAU, which is a classical university, the priority areas are: physics, electronics, nanotechnologies, telecommunications, biomedical technologies, economic sciences. With BRU, as a technical university, such areas as transportation systems, intelligent control systems, technosphere safety, materials science have been developed. The humanitarian direction — regional studies — was also developed.

We have already accumulated colossal experience. As we know, the more difficult the task, the more interesting it is to work on it. Of course, we are developing educational cooperation, a huge number of educational programs, joint educational programs, scientific cooperation, conferences, youth cooperation. However, it should be understood that such an unusual project as an interstate educational institution also has certain difficulties in implementation, which we should take into account, emphasized Dmitry Arseniev. Therefore, of course, for these four absolutely unique structures it is necessary to introduce some changes in the legislation, otherwise we will stall.

An important area of scientific cooperation with RAU and BRU is work with postgraduate students. Leading professors of SPbPU, RAU and BRU involve them in their research and supervise or provide expert support for their thesis work. Dmitry Arseniev, noted that Slavic Universities were created primarily for students, for the development of integration processes, partnership and joint business.

We understand the value of such youth interaction and therefore, together with our colleagues from RAU and BRU, we have launched a number of relevant initiatives starting from 2021. For example, the accelerator of student communities, within the framework of which students, postgraduates and young scientists discuss various initiatives and their possible practical implementation, said Dmitry Arseniev.

Rectors of Slavic Universities Edward Sandoyan (RAU), Denis Fomin-Nilov (KRSU) attended the meeting. Both noted the special status of the universities and highlighted a number of tasks arising from this, including funding issues that need to be addressed.

Polytechnic continues to develop cooperation with Slavic universities. This year, as part of Edward Sandoyan’s visit to SPbPU, a roadmap of joint activities was signed with RAU, while at the celebration of KRSU’s 30th anniversary, an agreement on scientific and educational cooperation was concluded.

Today’s meeting is an element of a systematic approach to building a new policy for the development of our joint universities. Scientific and educational cooperation meets the interests of our countries, the interests of people who study and work in Slavic universities, the interests, ultimately, of our peoples, summarized Konstantin Mogilevskiy.