On 17 October, the Rector of Voronezh State University had a meeting with the EU Ambassador, Head of the Delegation of the European Union in the Russian Federation, his Excellency Markus Ederer.
“The Russian university community feels favourably disposed toward cooperation with the European Union. Your visit will have a positive effect, both in a direct and in an indirect way. The direct impact is getting more information about life in the European Union and spreading this information in the university community. The indirect effect will mean that more Russian universities will be involved in European projects and programmes. We are going to significantly increase the number of double degree programmes with European universities,” said Dmitry Endovitsky.
“VSU is one of the leading universities when it comes to cooperation with European partners. Now, I am representing the whole European Union and the Erasmus+ programme which is one of the most successful programmes in the Russian Federation. This year, we invested over 17 million into exchange programmes for students from Russia and the EU. Our programmes help students gain invaluable experience of academic mobility. I have been twice a member of such academic exchange programmes and I can say that they totally changed me,” said his Excellency Markus Ederer.
In his speech the EU Ambassador proposed to organise a three party conference between representatives of academic communities of the EU, Ukraine, and Russia.
“I would like to thank his Excellency for this proposal. It is a lot of responsibility to organise a meeting of this kind. If it takes place, it will be the first event on such a scale for a number of decades of relations between Russia and Ukraine. Without a doubt, it will be favourable for the political relations between our countries and the European Union will play an important role in it,” said Dmitry Endovitsky.
Later, in the framework of the conference “Regional Strategies of International Security: Russia, the EU, and the Middle East” the parties signed an agreement stipulating the opening of the Centre for the European Union Studies at Voronezh State University.
The goal of the centre is to support research in the area of European studies, teaching of the corresponding disciplines, and the development of courses, to provide information support for students to enhance their engagement in the EU educational programmes, and to consult lecturers and researchers with regard to participation in European research programmes.
“The Centre for EU studies is expected to become an information platform which will accumulate the most relevant information related to European studies and a platform for discussions of scientists specialising in European studies. Our goal is to expand student exchange programmes and to create new double degree programmes to attract more students from Europe,” said Alla Akulshina, the Director of the International Project and Programme Centre.
Today, 13 similar centres were established under the auspices of the delegation of the EU in the largest Russian universities. VSU has been actively involved in European studies: it is currently implementing 8 projects dedicated to the studies of the European Union supported by the EU Erasmus+ programme.
