2 December 2019
November 28th-29th, the Russian Rectors’ Union organized the Second Forum of Rectors of the Federation of Russian and Arab universities. MGIMO’s Vice-Rector for Human Resources, V. Morozov attended the event.
The opening ceremony had for guests of honour the President of The Russian Rectors’ Union, also Rector of Moscow State University V. Sadovnichy and the Secretary General of the Arab Universities’ Association Amr Ezzat Salama, as well as representatives of various Russian ministries.
The forum brought together the presidents and rectors of leading Russian and Arab universities interested in sharing best practices and expanding bilateral cooperation. In all, 46 Russian universities and institutes from 11 countries of the Middle East and Northern Africa (Egypt, Saudi Arabia, Jordan, UAE, Yemen, Syria, Libya, Lebanon, Palestine, Algeria and Somalia) came to the event.
The program included sessions during which participants shared their impressions on how to set up fruitful partnerships between universities and panel discussions on cooperation in research and education, student mobility and academic exchanges. V. Sadovnichy remarked that in times of intense globalization one should not forget that European and Arab universities have close historical ties, and that both sides would benefit from an increase in interaction. In turn, Amr Ezzat Salama noted that thousands of Arab students are currently studying in Russia, and that it would be productive to organize bilateral student exchanges not only during the term time, but also during the summer holidays.
The forum participants expressed the desire to expand scientific cooperation between Russian and Arab universities, with a special focus on the humanities and medicine.
As a result of the forum, a joint document on the development of cooperation was signed, along with a number of bilateral agreements between universities.
— See the MGIMO web-site for russian version
