ASU Rector coordinated a plenary roundtable at the Russian-Iranian Forum

It is to be reminded that the Rectors’ Forum for Top Iranian and Russian Universities was held for the second time and was aimed at enhancing scientific and educational relations between Russia and Iran that has become an important strategic partner of Russia at the Middle East. This fact explains the list of the high-status guests having visited the event: Minister of Science, Research and Technology of Iran Mohammad Farhadi, Rector of the University of Tehran Mahmoud Nili Ahmadabadi, Ambassador Extraordinary and Plenipotentiary of the Islamic Republic of Iran to theRussian Federation Mehdi Sanai and Ambassador Extraordinary and Plenipotentiary of the Russian Federation to the Islamic Republic of Iran Levan S. Dzhagaryan.

Russia was represented by 23 rectors of mostly federal and research universities such as M.V. Lomonosov Moscow State University, Saint-Petersburg State University, Kazan Federal University, Altai State University, Moscow Aviation Institute, Lobachevsky State University of Nizhni Novgorod, Southern Federal University, North-Caucasus Federal University, etc. 13 rectors of Iranian leading universities participated from the receiving party. The forum was conducted on the premises of the University of Tehran.

S.V. Zemlyukov was entrusted to coordinate the first plenary roundtable “Scientific and Educational Collaboration between Universities and Competitiveness Improvement”, which started working immediately after the welcoming speech of Minister M. Farhadi at the opening ceremony.

Moreover, ASU Rector delivered a report titled “Networking Cooperation of Central Asian Universities: Experience, Problems and Opportunities”. The roundtable also involved rectors of other universities from both parties speaking. Experience of Altai State University in organizational work and scientific and educational collaboration in the framework of Asian Universities Association came in useful for Iranian and Russian colleagues.

The day before the forum, on 19 October 2016, Russian rectors met with authorities of Iranian universities and got acquainted with infrastructure of the University of Tehran and Shahid Beheshti University.

One of the most significant outcomes of the forum for Altai State University has been execution of agreements for cooperation with four leading higher education establishments of Iran: the University of Tehran, Shiraz University, Shahid Beheshti University and Ferdowsi University of Mashhad.

The universities of Iran are to cooperate with Altai State University in several directions. First of all, they are interested in science and education. Iranian scientists had been attracted by Kulunda joint project of ASU and German universities. Iran and Altai Krai turned out to be similar in terms of climate. Thus, both territories suffer from dust storms. The problem of dealing with this phenomenon is relevant for Iranian science. Iranians also want to send students to Altai State University for training in such programs as Environmental Management, Geo-Ecological Monitoring, Biotechnology, etc.

The remarkable thing is that researchers of ASU Faculty of Biology and South-Siberian Botanic Garden have already established firm relations with Iranian biologists. Professor of the Department of Ecology, Biochemistry and Biotechnology, Doctor of Biology R.V. Yakovlev, employees of South-Siberian Botanic Garden Candidate of Biology P.Ya. Ustyuzhanin and Candidate of Biology D.A. German regularly publish joint articles in top-rated journals indexed in Web of Science and Scopus together with Iranian colleagues from the University of Tehran, Ferdowsi University of Mashhad, Iranian Research Institute of Plant Protection (Tehran), etc. Moreover, ASU entomologists R.V. Yakovlev and P.Ya. Ustyuzhanin described several Lepidoptera species inhabiting Iran (Fars, Hormozgan, East Azerbaijan, West Azerbaijan and Kurdistan Provinces) on the base of materials provided by European museums. Cooperation with Iran is supposed to become even closer, as joint research and expeditions are planned.

Learning Persian (Farsi) may become another direction of cooperative work between Altai State University and higher education organizations of Iran. Farsi has been an international language of culture and science for Islamic countries since 10-12 centuries. It has influenced the languages of the region from Turkey and Caucasus to Crimea, Central Asia and India. Literary and colloquial Farsi has affected the development of other Iranian, Turkic and Modern-Indian languages. Persian was the language of Ferdowsi, Omar Khayyam, Nizami Ganjavi, Saadi Shirazi and other outstanding Eastern poets. The University of Tehran is ready to assist in creating the Center for Persian Language Learning on the premises of Altai State University. In the long term such center can start working closely with ASU Asian Expert-Analytical Center of Ethnology and International Educational Cooperation and Center for Language and Culture of Kyrgyzstan and Tajikistan. In the foreseeable future head of ASU departments should submit specific proposals for promising directions of cooperation with Iranian universities.