S.V. Zemlyukov: Asian Universities Association is ready to participate in network universities in the framework of EAEU and BRICS

The forum was held in the framework of the 17th Meeting of Russian-Chinese Committee for Humanitarian Cooperation. It brought together the representatives of the Ministry of Education of China and the Embassy of China in Russia, rectors of 90 Russian and 80 Chinese universities. The total number of participants was more than 400. The welcoming speech was delivered by Vice Chairman of the Government of the Russian Federation Olga Yu. Golodets and Vice Premier of the People’s Republic of China Liu Yangdong. The discussion touched upon a wide range of issues concerning Russian-Chinese cooperation in science and education, the presence of Chinese universities in a new global ranking, establishment of headquarters in Moscow, conducting academic exchanges, development of youth intellectual competitions system and so on.

Rector of Altai State University S.V. Zemlyukov acted as a moderator at the section called “Cooperation between Russian and Chinese universities in realization of “One Belt, One Road” and “Eurasian Economic Union” projects” and opened the section meeting with a speech.

In his speech Sergey V. Zemlyukov reflected the main outcomes of our university’s work on international cooperation development in Asian educational space and the opportunities for realizing the experience and preliminary work in the Silk Road Economic Belt project, which urgently needs the educational element.

“Effective implementation of the shaped plans requires creating special workforce capacity, saturating the market with skilled specialists aimed at work in the leading areas of economy of particular regions under the current economic and legal conditions. Of course, universities play the key role in this process. They become not only educational, but also research centers that integrate new knowledge and innovative technologies  and influence the economic growth and countries’ competitiveness on both regional and global levels. This universities’ role makes them move beyond the national framework. Integration processes encourage activation and universalization of higher education establishments’ international activity,” noted S.V. Zemlyukov. “Our university possesses unique potential for that. Altai is the center of Asia, the place where Russian, Turkic and Chinese cultures contact with each other. It is no coincidence that Altai State University initiated establishment of Asian Universities Association, which unites 40 higher education institutions of 8 Asian countries.”

In the framework of Asian Universities Association ASU is systematically developing the international partnership network among the leading Asian universities. Of course, higher education institutions of China are the major partners of our university. For the present moment ASU has stable active relations with 25 Chinese universities. ASU carries out realization of 7 joint educational programs together with such universities as Dalian University of Foreign Languages, Northeast Normal University, Capital Normal University, Xinjiang University, Jilin University, Heilongjian Institute of Foreign Languages, etc. This includes such relevant programs as “Important Problems of Region’s Political, Social and Economic Development”, “Information Technologies in Management of Social and Economic Processes”, “Russian Regional Studies”, “Foreign Languages and Cultures” and so on.

A number of new programs are on the stage of development and coordination. There will certainly be demand among Asian students for such programs as “Economy of Asian Markets”, “Legal Groundwork for Eurasian Integration”, “Problems of Inter-ethnic Relations”, “Migration Processes”, “Actions against Religious Radicalism” and others, which have been developed by ASU Asian Expert-Analytical Center of Ethnology and International Educational Cooperation under the influence of modern trends for strengthening integration processes in Asia and work of EAEU and SCO.

Great emphasis is placed on cooperation in the sphere of student exchanges, academic mobility and work with youth. The most grand scale youth event organized by the Association is certainly the Asian Student Forum. The first forum of such kind was conducted at ASU in 2012. In 2015 it was transferred to Issyk-Kul Lake in Kyrgyzstan, where the Association tried using networking format for the first time. The main organizers of the forum were Altai State University and B.N. Yeltsin Kyrgyz Russian Slavic University. The participants included more than 260 students, young lecturers, scientists from the universities of India, Kazakhstan, China, Kyrgyzstan, Mongolia, Russia, Tajikistan, etc.

“Today we can safely say that establishment of Asian Universities Association had foreshadowed the activation of political and economic integration processes involving CIS, EAEU, SCO, BRICS, in the region, which has been observed in the recent years. The capacity, that has been created due to cooperation between Asian universities in the framework of the Association, allows us to fit into these processes confidently. We are ready for multilateral collaboration, which will make possible the consolidation of capabilities of world’s universities, increasing of intellectual resources, workforce, infrastructure, forming of effective international talent density  and, finally, creating a major basis for a new stage of development. The Association is open for cooperation. It is ready to provide its base, potential, projects to assist future networking universities in the framework of BRICS and EAEU!” concluded S.V. Zemlyukov.

ASU Rector’s report was positively taken by the audience. At the plenary session S.V. Zemlyukov, as a moderator, summarized the outcomes of the section work. The participants noted the important role of Altai State University in development of international educational cooperation with China.