Lobachevsky University and Rossotrudnichestvo sign cooperation agreement
On May 17, a delegation of the Federal Agency for the Commonwealth of Independent States, Compatriots Living Abroad, and International Humanitarian Cooperation (Rossotrudnichestvo) headed by Evgeny Primakov visited Lobachevsky University during their working visit to Nizhny Novgorod.
During a meeting with university management, representatives of various UNN departments involved in international projects, and international student activists, topical issues of cooperation between the university and the Federal Agency as well as the promotion of Russian science and education in the current global situation were discussed.
The parties signed a new Agreement on cooperation between Lobachevsky University and Rossotrudnichestvo in the international humanitarian sphere. The Agreement is aimed at promoting Russian education abroad and developing exports of educational services; developing information and scientific cooperation; forming institutional partnerships between the educational and research communities of the Russian Federation and foreign countries; increasing interest of foreign students and scholars in the Russian language, Russian education and science, educational programmes of Lobachevsky University.
UNN Rector Elena Zagaynova noted that this visit by Rossotrudnichestvo to Lobachevsky University was a long-awaited one.
"We worked effectively together from 2016 to 2019, however, the pandemic prevented us from extending our cooperation. Today, the time has come to renew our Agreement and to outline the prospects for joint work and for new ways of intensifying Lobachevsky University’s international cooperation. I would like to note that for the last two years, even after the formal suspension of the Agreement, we have continued our cooperation in three main areas. The first one is the export of Russian education (we participated actively in exhibition and presentation programmes organised by Rossotrudnichestvo in Serbia, Moldova, China, Uzbekistan, Kyrgyzstan and Kazakhstan). The second one is our International Olympiad in Russian as a foreign language "Lobachevsky/RU". We are proud of its participants and winners - foreign citizens, our future applicants, as well as students, who are genuinely interested in the Russian language and culture. And the third big area - with the assistance of Rossotrudnichestvo - is the development of partnerships and the signing of agreements on joint educational and research activities with universities in other countries. We will develop these areas and look forward to new projects and new vectors to move forward. In particular, we would like to emphasize the assistance of Rossotrudnichestvo in intensifying scientific and educational relations with Asian, Arab and South American countries," said Elena Zagaynova.
The head of Rossotrudnichestvo, Evgeny Primakov, thanked UNN for its warm welcome and hospitality and said that he had visited the university before and recognized it as a university with an excellent history and reputation.
"It is one of the best universities in the country, so the Agency has worked and will continue to work with Lobachevsky University. An important task is to get foreign students into the universities on the quotas of the Russian government. In addition, it is necessary to promote the university on foreign platforms and involve it more actively in scientific and methodological work abroad," Evgeny Primakov pointed out.
According to Evgeny Primakov, to make the university more visible in academic circles, its teaching staff nembers should participate in subject-specific seminars and give lectures abroad, especially in those areas where Russian education has a brilliant reputation, such as IT, physics and mathematics.
The signing of the Cooperation Agreement was followed by a tour of the UNN Innovation Development Centre's laboratories, where guests were introduced to the university's cutting-edge research projects.
