First Visit of Ambassador of France to Astrakhan State University

Today, on September 16, ASU hosted a meeting of Ambassador of France to the Russian Federation Sylvie Bermann with Rector Konstantin Markelov, vice rectors, faculty deans and teachers of the university. During the meeting, the parties discussed possible joint projects and outlined several promising areas for cooperation. Besides, the Rector presented the educational facilities of the university to the distinguished guest.

The deans and heads of several structural units of the university prepared reports on the projects, implemented in cooperation with French universities. Elena Kuznetsova, the Head of the ASU Department of Romanic Philology, told the delegates about the double degree projects and students that undertake traineeships within Erasmus+ programmes. The university traditionally holds theatre festivals in French, and students of different faculties defend their final and Master’s degree theses in French and Russian.

Aleksey Rybakov, the Director of the Institute of Physics & Mathematics, presented some projects in robotic technology, engineering and electronics, and put forward an idea to consider the issue of non-linguistic students’ participation in international programmes.

In her speech of response, Sylvie Bermann shared her impressions from the educational system of Astrakhan State University: “I’m deeply impressed with your hard work in studying the French language and culture. I’d like to express my gratitude for the quality of education and the development dynamics and to congratulate on all the results you’ve achieved. For our part, we’ll render any kind of support in implementing joint projects. We are ready to continue our cooperation and we hope to pay visits to your university in future more frequently.”

Elena Timofeeva, the Dean of the ASU Historical Faculty, made a brief excursus to the history of Astrakhan, which is rich in meeting different cultures and civilizations. Elena Timofeeva proposed to organize a summer archeological school — a joint project that will allow students of ASU and French universities to do research on unique Astrakhan artefacts.

At the end of the meeting, the Ambassador of France received the commemorative medal of Astrakhan State University from Konstantin Markelov.