Slovak partner universities. A new round of cooperation

Not long ago Dr. Alexander Gubert, Senior Vice-Rector of Kalashnikov Izhevsk State Technical University and Mr. Sergey Babushkin, Head of Division of International Programs & Academic Mobility visited four partner universities in Slovak Republic.

The purpose of the visit was to further develop and expand collaboration. Based on the experience of the projects already implemented, it is time to carry out new programs, new options for cooperation, which will be rewarded in the foreseeable future.

“The first point of the trip was Slovak University of Technology in Bratislava”, says Alexander Gubert, “We have had long-standing friendly relations with this university within the framework of the agreement on mutual cooperation”.

At the meeting with Prof. Oliver Moravčík, Vice-Rector for Strategic Projects and Development, Dr. Štefan Stanko, Vice-Rector for Education and Prof. Pavel Čičák, Vice-Rector for International Relations and IT, the guests presented their vision of the further joint work. Of course, the main area of activity remains the same: academic mobility of students and teachers. In principle, this scheme works with other universities, as well. The next option is to write and publish joint scientific articles, both in our journals and foreign ones. And the next issue that was discussed – language knowledge. Since Slovak youth do not know the Russian language, there is a desire to cooperate within the framework of language schools. And if the Slovak colleagues are interested in this, Kalashnikov ISTU is ready to open a center of Slovak language. Center of Czech Language and Culture has been successfully operation at our university for nearly 10 years already. The issue of opening a Russian language school in Slovakia was also discussed.

“We have agreed that we will try to implement a pilot project: to organize on-line Russian language school”, continues Alexander Gubert, “This is also envisaged in the program “Export of Russian Education”, where one of the key points is the elements of e-learning and on-line courses”.

The next meeting was held at the Faculty of Materials Sciences and Technology – the division of Slovak University of Technology – which is located in the city of Trnava. It should be pointed out that the faculty is impressing, everything is state-of-the-art: a new academic building with modern equipment and a new chic campus were built at the expense of the European Union. Prof. Jozef Peterka, Dean of the faculty, kindly offered to use this equipment for joint research. By the way, two of our PhD students are having training at the faculty at the moment as a part of the exchange program, and two other PhD students had such training last year in the frameworks of EU program “Erasmus+”. In fact, we can participate in EU programs as applicants, i.e., if our partners submit a joint application and it’s successful, we can join.

“We have established relations with the faculty in Trnava since the 1990-es. Now we propose to expand the range of our cooperation: technologies, telecommunications, management, economy. Today we want to extend the joint areas of training. We are pleased that our foreign colleagues are positive”, continues Alexander Gubert.

The next visit was to Trenčín. We also have long and strong relations with Alexander Dubček University of Trenčín. So far, we have been cooperating with them in two areas – mechatronics and mechanical engineering. The new rector, former Deputy Minister of Education of Slovakia, is interested in developing international cooperation with Kalashnikov ISTU. His proposal is to organize a meeting of three rectors: University of Bologna, Trenčín and ISTU to sign a joint agreement on collaboration, primarily in the fields of construction, information technologies, etc. In the course of the meeting, both sides discussed the proposal to establish an international creative research team of Alexander Dubček University and Kalashnikov ISTU. That is, it is proposed to create a group of scientists who would be interested to participate in Russian projects.

“And the fourth university was Technical University in Zvolen. This university is focused on forestry and woodworking. They have four faculties, which our students visit in the frameworks of the program of academic exchange, in particular, from the Faculty of Advertising and Design. At the meeting with Dr. Branislav Olah, Vice-Rector for International Relations we discussed areas in which we could participate, e.g., technospheric and environmental safety. We also discussed the implementation of double degree programs ”, says Alexander Gubert.

Summing up the results of the visit to Slovak partner universities, we can say that preliminary agreements have been reached, and this allows us to hope for long-term and fruitful cooperation in various fields of science and education.

Return visits to Kalashnikov Izhevsk State Technical University are planned in April, May and June.

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Last Updated on Wednesday, 04 April 2018 15:10