SUSU and Republic of Uzbekistan: Achievements and Prospects of Collaboration

Russian Federation and the Republic of Uzbekistan, with the support from the governments of both countries, are actively developing the collaboration in the field of education. The collaboration between institutions of higher education in Russia and Uzbekistan is of special interest. South Ural State University has achieved significant results in joint projects with its academic partners from Uzbekistan.

Today 355 students from the Republic of Uzbekistan study at SUSU, with 340 of them mastering the main educational Bachelor’s programmes, and 9 studying in Specialist programmes, 4 in Master’s programmes, 1 in postgraduate programme, and 1 majoring in the field of secondary vocational education.

SUSU Key Partners in the Republic of Uzbekistan

Currently SUSU is collaborating with 15 universities in Uzbekistan. The building of contacts with the representatives of the Republic’s academic community was facilitated by the First Russia-Uzbekistan Educational Forum on New Human Resources for New Economics, which was held with the support and participation of the Russian Federation President Vladimir Putin and President of the Republic of Uzbekistan Shavkat Mirziyoyev in October of 2018. In the course of the forum memorandums of understanding and agreements on collaboration were signed with 6 foreign universities.

Samarkand State Architectural and Civil-Engineering Institute, Tashkent State Technical University named after Islam Karimov, Jizzakh Polytechnic Institute, Tashkent Chemical-Technological Institute, Bukhara Engineering Technological Institute, and Tashkent Railway Engineering Institute became SUSU partners. Following the forum results, Samarkand State Institute of Foreign Languages, Tashkent University of Information Technologies named after Muhammad al-Khwarizmi, Karshi Engineering Economics Institute, and Namangan Engineering-Construction Institute, Republic of Uzbekistan, showed initiative in collaboration with SUSU as well. These universities also became SUSU partners.

Thanks to signing the collaboration agreements, plans of practical actions (“road maps”) on the fulfilment of collaboration with the new partners were elaborated and approved. In the process of fulfilling these “road maps” active collaboration is being fulfilled in various fields of education, science and culture.

Opening of SUSU Faculty in Uzbekistan

The most big-scale project on expanding the options of collaboration with Uzbekistan is the opening of a SUSU’s own faculty in one of the Republic’s leading engineering universities – in Namangan Engineering-Construction Institute.

This is a vivid example of strengthening the international interaction in the academic sphere as a result of the First Russia-Uzbekistan Educational Forum on New Human Resources for New Economics, as following the forum results it was decided to simplify the procedure of organizing the educational subdivisions of Russian institutions of higher education in universities of the Republic of Uzbekistan.

It is planned to offer training in four educational Bachelor’s programmes:

  • 08.03.01 – Construction;
  • 09.03.01 – Computer Science and Computing Equipment;
  • 13.03.02 – Electrical Engineering and Electrical Power Engineering; and
  • 23.03.02 – Land Transport and Technological Complexes.

The selected majors take into account the economic needs of the region and the Republic in general. Meanwhile, it is especially pointed out that these fields do not compete with the ones already being offered at Namangan Engineering-Construction Institute. In 2019 students already enrolled in Bachelor’s programmes in Construction (about 20 people) and Architecture (17 people) within the frameworks of the agreement on joint educational programmes 2+2 (with the first 2 years studying at Namangan Engineering-Construction Institute, and the second 2 years at SUSU).

This means that such students will first obtain a degree at SUSU, as they will be completing the 4th year of study in Chelyabinsk. Further on, when Namangan Engineering-Construction Institute accumulates the required competences and will be able to fulfil the programmes independently, involving the SUSU’s academic staff when needed, then the graduates in these programmes will be able to obtain their degrees at Namangan Engineering-Construction Institute.

As was concerted by SUSU, Hokimiyat of the Namangan Region and the leadership of the partner university, the agreement on opening the SUSU faculty will be officially signed at the Second Russia-Uzbekistan Educational Forum to be held in Moscow on February 4, 2020.

Joint Educational Programmes

The university is also collaborating with partner universities from the Republic of Uzbekistan with regard to creating joint educational programmes: besides the joint educational programme in Architecture and in Construction with Namangan Engineering-Construction Institute (within the functioning of the faculty at the partner university), linguistic programmes will be created jointly with Samarkand State Institute of Foreign Languages.

Today negotiations are being held on the possibility of developing joint educational Master’s programmes in Linguistics and in Comparative Linguistics, Linguistic Theory of Translation on the stage of approving the curricula. Already in 2020 it is planned to sign an agreement on fulfilment of these programmes, to solve organisational issues of training under Double Degree Programme, as well as organize the admissions campaign for the Double Degree Programme in Samarkand State Institute of Foreign Languages and SUSU for the 2020-2021 academic year.

Collaboration in the In-demand Fields of Education

When choosing the fields of collaboration with its partners, SUSU takes into account the needs of the Republic in training specialists for various vectors of development of that country. The currently in-demand fields include economics, management, as well as food technology and biotechnology.

The Department of Information Technology in Economics of the SUSU School of Economics and Management collaborates with the Department of Information Technologies of Andijan Machine-Building Institute within the academic mobility programme. In particular, it is planned that SUSU academic staff will be visiting Uzbekistan to deliver lectures. In addition, big opportunities are opening for the fulfilment of the collaboration in scientific activity, since the research interests of the Department of Information Technologies of Andijan Machine-Building Institute touch upon the issues of implementing information technologies into the production sector of the economy and in other fields.

Moreover, the university’s collaboration with Jizzakh Polytechnic Institute looks promising. Negotiations are being held regarding joint work on implementing advanced pedagogical and information technologies into educational processes, on preparing fundamental research studies, international scientific and educational projects under international programmes and foundations.

Also, jointly with Jizzakh Polytechnic Institute the collaboration is being fulfilled in the management-related field. In April of 2019, teachers of Jizzakh Polytechnic Institute took part in the 71st SUSU Scientific Conference for Academic Staff, in the Management section. Ingoing and outgoing academic mobility of teachers is planned for April-June of 2020. In addition, the scientific collaboration is also planned: teachers of the Department of Management of Jizzakh Polytechnic Institute are supposed to be involved in a joint research on City Logistics and Urban Marketing.

For the year of 2020 a collaboration is planned between the SUSU Department of Food Technology and Biotechnology and the Department of Processing Agricultural Products of Jizzakh Polytechnic Institute: training teachers (academic staff) in priority fields for Jizzakh Polytechnic Institute, advanced training and training scientists at SUSU for Jizzakh Polytechnic Institute, as well as online webinars, joint scientific projects and joint publications.

Online Education and Training of Teachers

Like it is happening around the world, distance education is being actively implemented into the system of higher education in Uzbekistan today, and this also provides big opportunities for collaboration. In particular, this field features the experience of the SUSU’s work with Andijan Machine-Building Institute. In 2019 students of Andijan Machine-Building Institute could attend open online lectures in Psychology course delivered by the academic staff and associate professors of the Faculty of Psychology of the Institute of Media, Social Sciences and Humanities.

An important part of the SUSU’s work is the organization of advanced training courses for universities of Uzbekistan. Currently SUSU is elaborating a programme on improving teaching mastery for the Department of Engineering Pedagogy and Psychology of Andijan Machine-Building Institute. There are also discussions on offering scientific internships for the Department’s academic staff at SUSU, where teachers could obtain the required consultations, experience (including on how to render counselling, organize courses on improving teaching mastery), and decide on the fields of further scientific growth through studying in the SUSU Master’s and postgraduate programmes.

Collaboration with Official Representation Offices and Joint Cultural Projects

South Ural State University is actively collaborating with the Consulate General of the Republic of Uzbekistan in Ekaterinburg. Thanks to the support of the Consulate General, SUSU was granted an opportunity to hold travel occupation-guidance events and admissions campaigns at universities in Uzbekistan. On October 31, 2019 Consul General of the Republic of Uzbekistan Abdusalom Khatamov visited SUSU in order to discuss the prospects of further development of the collaboration.

On the eve of the Day of the State Flag of the Republic of Uzbekistan, Consulate General of Uzbekistan gathered Uzbek students from Chelyabinsk, Tyumen and Ekaterinburg. Among the active event participants were 10 SUSU students.

In 2020, the year of celebrating the 75th Anniversary of the Great Victory, such an important event in the history of the Russian Federation and the Republic of Uzbekistan, SUSU advances an initiative to issue to this important date a collection of works on invaluable joint contribution of our both countries to the victory “Ural Region and Central Asia in the Great Patriotic War”. SUSU’s partner universities in Uzbekistan intent to take part in creating this joint collective edition on the contribution of peoples to the Victory in the Great Patriotic War. The project is being fulfilled with the support from the Consulate General of the Republic of Uzbekistan in Ekaterinburg.

Cultural collaboration is also supported by the SUSU’s partner universities themselves. This year it is planned to invite students from Samarkand State Institute of Foreign Languages and from SUSU to participate in the annual translations contest within the frameworks of a cross-disciplinary project “Ural Region” in the War-publicist Discourse of the Period of Great Patriotic War (based on the materials of digitized archive documents from the USSR and Western Europe countries)”, organized by the SUSU Department of Linguistics and Translation Studies, as well as to participate in the annual exhibition within the grants project “Ural Region” in the War-publicist Discourse of the Period of Great Patriotic War (based on the materials of digitized archive documents from the USSR and Western Europe countries)”.

SUSU will take part in the Second Russia-Uzbekistan Educational Forum on New Human Resources for New Economics, which will be held at the Intellectual Centre – Fundamental Library in Lomonosov Moscow State University on February 4, 2020. Among the participants of the forthcoming Forum planned as part of the state visit of the President of the Republic of Uzbekistan Shavkat Mirziyoyev to Russia and of the Second Russia-Uzbekistan Interregional Forum will be rectors of the leading universities from Russia and Uzbekistan.

Azaliya Sharafutdinova, Julia Shmotina
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