Konstantin Markelov Speaks on How ASU Works with International Students in Times of Pandemic

On October 9, IPR MEDIA Company and St. Petersburg University held an open expert online discussion upon results of the international student recruitment for the 2020/2021 academic year, featuring, among other speakers, the rector of Astrakhan State University.

The videoconference brought together heads of the leading universities that are involved into implementation of priority project “Export of Education”, including universities of Astrakhan, Bryansk, Moscow, Novocherkassk, St. Petersburg, Tomsk and Ufa.

The discussion participants summed up the results of the international student recruitment for Bachelor and Master’s degrees programmes, as well as preparatory courses, exchanged their practices in organization of the study process, adaptation and creation of conditions for international students’ accommodation under the new conditions.

Markelov told his colleagues about priority projects of the university that help foreign students keep doing educational programmes online if they couldn’t come to Astrakhan by the beginning of the academic year. For example, project “International Online against COVID-19”, which transformed from a series of lectures to an educational course for students of various majors, has been one of the positive practices in this field.

Besides, Konstantin Markelov mentioned a high demand for virtual academic mobility and double-degree programmes this year. The rector also stressed that this year, instead of traditional on-site traineeships in other countries, ASU students got a chance to pass them online in the form of summer online schools with partner universities.