“Convention of ASRTU in St. Petersburg”: the partnership of Chinese and Russian universities

Dr. Alexander Elensky, the Vice-Rector for International Relations and Accreditation described the horizons of future collaboration development with Chinese colleagues.

On September 22-24 St. Petersburg hosted the Convention of the Association of Sino-Russian Technical Universities (ASRTU) in the frameworks of “Year of Youth Exchange in Russia and China”.

ASRTU – a young international organization with such founders as Bauman Moscow State University and Harbin Institute of Technology was established on March 6, 2011 in Shenzhen, China in the branch of Harbin Institute of Technology. The main purpose of ASRTU is the development of scientific and technical cooperation between Russia and China, association of efforts of the leading technical universities with the training of highly-qualified staff for innovative economy and assistance to academic exchange of students and professors.

The first members of Association comprised 30 universities, 15 universities from each country, every university signed the Declaration of ASRTU establishment. Today ASRTU is an effective platform of cooperation between leading technical universities of Russia and China. Association headquarters are located in Qingdao, one of the rapidly developing centers in China, on the territory of scientific and Technical Park of Harbin Institute of Technology, in the process of construction of Blue Silicon Valley. Kalashnikov ISTU is a full member of Association since 2011.

Dr. Alexander Elensky who participated in the Convention shared his plans of the cooperation between Kalashnikov ISTU and Harbin Institute of Technology, and ASRTU Convention in St. Petersburg.

The meeting of ASRTU representatives in Saint Petersburg National Research University of Information Technologies, Mechanics and Optics (SPbNRU ITMO) got together more than 200 professors and students from 35 elite universities of Russia and China. The program of the Convention included the session of universities-participants of ASRTU program, the conference “Technical Education: Way to Success”, the round table “Future of Technical Education in Russia and China” and Russian-Chinese student competition of mobile applications and computer games.

The session of the universities-participants of ASRTU involved the detailed report and video-presentation about Association activity and also about practical arrangements. According to ASRTU Statute, the presiding organizations of Association from 2015 till 2017 were confirmed as Northwestern Polytechnic University from China and Moscow Aviation Institute from Russia. The status of some universities-observers of ASRTU was raised to the status of full members of Association. These universities are: Amur State University, Perm National Research Polytechnic University, National Research South Ural State University from Russia and Chongqing University, South China University of Technology from China. As a result, today 35 technical universities from Russia and China are the members of ASRTU.

After that there was the conference “Technical Education: Way to Success”, where representatives from both countries made reports. They had very interesting presentations, very wide and stage-manage analytical reports about problems in education were presented by the Chinese colleagues. In general, China pays very serious attention to problems of education and traditionally for China there are a lot of reforms in that field. For example, the Chinese colleagues told us that they have changed the whole system of education in the country with all programs and courses to education in the English language. Of course, that will attract students from Europe and the USA. Today, they have a lot of students from neighboring countries.

As a speaker, I participated in the round-table “Future of Technical Education in Russia and China”. I shared with my colleagues our experience in double-degree programs, successful cooperation with German partners – universities from Suderburg and Luneburg, about strategic partnership with Helwan University in Cairo and Egyptian-Russian University, where the initiative and longstanding work of Dr. Sherif Soliman and others played a crucial role in this cooperation. I also told them about our plans in every possible way to continue the cooperation with Harbin Institute of Technology.

We are going to actively participate in all arrangements of ASRTU, but top-priority in the individual strategy of the university in the fields of Russian-Chinese cooperation is the collaboration with Harbin Institute of Technology. This partnership, we hope, promises to us mutually beneficial and long-range teamwork in the field of science and education.

I want to remind that from 2012 in the frameworks of ASRTU project, the government of China provides scholarships to students, who want to obtain master and PhD degrees in China. In the end of March this year Kalashnikov Izhevsk State Technical University and Harbin Institute of Technology signed the agreement of cooperation in the field of education, scientific research and academic exchanges, and also reached an agreement on preparing bilateral agreements between faculties of both universities.

This autumn we are waiting for the delegation of our Chinese colleagues from the School of Civil Engineering of Harbin Institute of Technology. During our visit to Quingdao, Prof. Boris Yakimovich, our Rector and I visited a lot of faculties at HIT. Our colleagues from China were very interested in these programs. We are negotiating the agreement on double degrees and the particular actions that need to be taken. By the way, our Chinese colleagues invited Dr. Yury Tokarev, Assoc. Prof. of the Department of Geo-Engineering and Constructional Materials and Evgenia Grakhova, Senior Lecturer of the Department of Industrial and Civil Engineering of our university for research training this autumn.

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Last Updated on Wednesday, 15 October 2014 12:06