On 8 September 2014, the RIAC held a symposium “Promoting Russian Universities on the Foreign Internet and Academic Press”. The event gathered representatives of universities that are corporate members and partners of the Council.
RIAC General Director Andrei Kortunov opened the symposium by pointing out the heightened importance of educational cooperation in the current international situation.
On 8 September 2014, the RIAC held a symposium “Promoting Russian Universities on the Foreign Internet and Academic Press”. The event gathered representatives of universities that are corporate members and partners of the Council.
RIAC General Director Andrei Kortunov opened the symposium by pointing out the heightened importance of educational cooperation in the current international situation. He identified the following focus points for the Council for 2015:
— Mobilising university experts for the Council’s core programme activities;
— Engaging universities in reviewing and revising analytical documents;
— Announcing and reviewing monographs and course books on the RIAC web site;
— Forming a network of promising young experts from all over the country on the RIAC platform;
— Rethinking the experience of teaching global studies.
Alexey Koropchenko, Head of the Department of Information and Analytical Support for International Activities of the Russian Ministry of Education and Science, spoke on the topic of double degrees and using English as a teaching language at Russian universities.
The Symposium’s programme featured a special session on Russian researchers’ publications in foreign peer-reviewed journals, in response to the growing need of Russian universities to promote and streamline the publication process. Natalie Reid, expert on academic writing and the leading trainer of the RIAC Global Science programme, spoke in detail about the challenges faced by Russian scientists in getting published in Anglophone academic journals. At the end of her presentation, Ms Reid gave a number of practical tips on how university administrations can get more of their staff’s works published:
- Invest in subscriptions to academic databases to ensure that your staff keep abreast of the latest publications and findings in their field.
- Ensure that your university’s library has books on academic writing in English, as well as Anglophone monographs and collections of leading experts in relevant fields.
- Award grants for empirical research.
- Invest in retaining native speakers as editors.
- Another helpful suggestion is to form an inter-university review board.
A lively discussion was sparked by the presentation by RIAC Programme Director Ivan Timofeev on the Council’s experience of appraising university Internet resources and designing roadmaps for developing English versions of their web sites. Vera Zabotkina, Vice-Rector for International Projects at the Russian State University for the Humanities, noted the importance of localising and adapting Internet resources to their target audiences. Vice-Rector for Public Relations at Nizhni Novgorod Lobachevsky State University Nikita Avralev pointed out the need to create Russian university brands and to form teams of content managers for their web sites. Vice-Rector for International Affairs at Ural Federal University Maxim Khomyakov raised the issue of entering the Asian educational market and creating Chinese versions of university web sites. Oleg Zmeyev, Vice-Rector for IT at Tomsk State University, pointed out that, in addition to setting up English versions of web sites, Russian universities are faced with another pressing task: creating convenient conditions for their international students. Northern (Arctic) Federal University’s Vice Rector for International Cooperation Marina Kalinina proposed a network approach to internationalization of Russian universities.
On the basis of the Symposium results, the participants discussed further plans for cooperation between the RIAC and its corporate member and partner universities. Apart from the existing formats of cooperation, the 2015 agenda envisages using a multilateral approach for project implementation and engaging regional exporters and executive authorities.
Symposium “Promoting Russian Universities on the Foreign Internet and Academic Press”
