Versatile Cooperation between ASU & Iran’s Universities

Dr. Nikolay Khurchak, Vice Rector for International Activities of Astrakhan State University, has told us about his traveling to two Iran’s provinces - Guilan and Mazandaran.

“On April 28, our delegation met Dr. Razi (Rector of the University of Guilan), Dr. Shirini (Vice Rector for Academic Affairs), Dr. Mirhosseyni (Vice Rector for Research), Dr. Geydarzadeh (Vice Rector of the Medical University), and Dr. Motagitalab (Director of the Guilan Science & Technology Park). We’ve signed an additional agreement about student exchanges in 2014-2015 (up to 15 people from each of the parties) for at least three months. Besides, we’ve agreed that two our faculty staff members will go to the University of Guilan to teach their students: Prof. Usmanov to give lectures in international relations and Prof. Zolotykh to give classes in Russian. The Iranian party has also suggested bilateral cooperation in the research sphere and intensified faculty exchanges. As for our University, we came up with an idea to launch a joint master program “Russian as a Foreign Language”. We also discussed the issue of arranging the 17^th Assembly of the Association of Universities of Caspian Countries in Astrakhan - as a part of the Summit of Caspian Countries in September 2014. As the University of Guilan is a member of this Association, they agreed with our proposal and supported our initiative. During our meeting with them, we also talked about possible ways of cooperation between the Medical University of Rasht and Astrakhan’s higher educational institutions.

On April 29, we visited the University of Agricultural Sciences and Natural Resources in Sari. In 2013, when two our people (Professor Vladimir Pilipenko and Professor Alexander Barmin) came there, a cooperation agreement between our universities was signed. As for this meeting, we talked with Prof.  Mohammad Ali Bahmanyar (Vice Chancellor), Dr. Gholam Ali Ranjbar (Research Deputy of Vice Chancellor), Dr. Seyed Ali Jafarpour (Director of the International Scientific Cooperation Office), and Dr. Ghorban Ali Nematzade (Director of their Genetic & Agricultural Biotechnology Institute). We negotiated about a visit of a delegation from this University to ASU in June 2014 and to launch our cooperation in researching some species of plants. They also shared with their projects of agreements concerning joint researches, practical trainings, and PhD programs.

The same day, our delegation visited the Babol University of Technology, which expressed their interest in bilateral cooperation with Astrakhan’s universities. They supported the idea of holding the 17^th Assembly of the Association of Universities of Caspian Countries in Astrakhan; they also agreed to host the next Assembly.

On April 30, we came to the University of Mazandaran, which is located in Babolsar. We took part in the official opening of the Russian Language Classroom. In 2003, ASU and the University of Mazandaran signed a cooperation treaty and ran exchange programs. But after this University was split into 3 universities in 2008, interaction was halted. During our current visit, we renewed our partnership in the field of exchange language programs, as well as in other areas. Their reps suggested exchanging students and faculty, arranging scientific conferences, seminars, and exhibitions, launching joint master programs, and running short-term courses for the faculty”.

Russian original information source: the Innovative Laboratory of Information Linguistics of ASU