KARACHI: A delegation of Russian professors and academics has revealed that around 400 government scholarships are available for Pakistani students every year in Russia’s institutions of higher education and expressed the hope that the number of Pakistani students availing the facility would increase in future.

A team of officials of the Sir Syed University of Engineering and Technology (SSUET), led by its Vice Chancellor Prof Dr Vali Uddin, visited the Russian Centre of Science and Culture (Friendship House) to meet the delegation comprising officials from seven leading universities of the Russian Federation.

The SSUET team included Registrar Commodore (retd) Syed Sarfraz Ali, deans of all faculties, chairperson of the Business Department, senior professors from the Mathematics Department and director of ORIC.

The Russian delegation agreed to establish a close working relationship with SSUET, Karachi, and other universities of Pakistan. The delegation, led by Vice Rector for International Affairs at the Tomsk State University Prof Dr Artyom Yu. Rykun, discussed and agreed to initiate various joint academic programmes, including faculty and student exchange schemes, joint research publications, and co-supervising PhD research projects of engineering departments of the SSUET.

The foreign delegation also appreciated the participation of a huge number of students from the Aligarh Institute of Technology, which is sponsored by the Aligarh Muslim University Old Boys’ Association of Pakistan along with SSUET.

The head of the Russian Centre of Science and Culture added that the Russian universities would like to initiate joint projects in the fields of engineering, computer science, business and mathematics with SSUET in the first phase and then would like to expand the collaboration to other fields including medical sciences whose programmes would be launched by SSUET soon.

A meaningful collaboration of SSUET with Russian universities would surely result in the enhancement of research areas such as engineering design, environment monitoring, climate change and smart agriculture.

Assistant Vice Rector for International Affairs Pavel Nedelko and Admission Manager Anastasia Sidorova of the Peter the Great St Petersburg Polytechnic University, the Director of Arabic Studies Centre Ahmed Ibrahim, and Associate Professor of the School of Anthropology Alexey Buller of the Tyumen State University, Vice President for International Affairs Yulia Davydova, and Deputy Head of International Integration and WFS Directorate Alina Andrukh of the Moscow Polytechnic University, Pro-Rector for Strategic and Innovative Development Dr Nikita Avralev, and Head of Department of International Students Recruitment Dr Stanislav Sidorenko of the North-Caucasus Federal University, Manager of the International Division Gulnara Makhmutova, and Manager of the Admission Department Elena Donskaia of the Irkutsk National Research Technological University, and Vice-Rector for International Affairs Timirkhan Alishev, Deputy Dean of Pre-University Department for International Students Airan Mukhametov, and Head of the International Recruitment Office Rauf Sabirov, and Head of the Russian Centre for Science and Culture Ruslan Prokorov and Natalia Zhadovets were present on the occasion.

Copyright Business Recorder, 2022