Delegation of Lobachevsky University welcomed at KFU
Guests from Nizhny Novgorod arrived on 27 September.
The team is led by Vice-Rector for International Affairs Alexander Bedny and includes Head of Admission and Academic Coordination Office for International Students Yekaterina Smirnova, Head of Visa and Migration Support Office Nadezhda Shlykova, Head of International Students Support Office Dmitry Medvedev, and Lecturer Nailya Voytova. They were greeted by Vice-Rector for External Affairs of KFU Timirkhan Alishev, Head of the International Admission Unit Rauf Sabirov, and Deputy Director of the International Office Ramil Sayfutdinov.
Vice-Rector Alishev spoke about KFU’s international development. In particular, the number of overseas nationals at the University increased from 468 in 2011 to the amazing 11,400 in 2022. The sides then touched on export activities in education. Dr. Alishev informed that KFU organized 29 various meetings for prospective enrollees in the academic year 2021/2022. He also mentioned the opening of KFU’s branch in Jizzakh, Uzbekistan, and one such upcoming opening in Cairo, Egypt. As of now, Kazan University has 354 cooperation agreements with 249 partners from 58 countries, including 63 joint educational programs.
Vice-Rector Bedny thanked the Kazanites for their hospitality and noted, “Our universities have a lot in common. Geography, the Volga River, Nikolai Lobachevsky, and much more. We are pursuing the goal of exchanging best practices in international activity in general and in developing the export of education and working with foreign students. We are very interested in the experience of Kazan University, as we see that your school is carrying out large-scale work in international activities and attracting foreign students. The innovative approaches which are used to develop educational exports at KFU are certainly of great interest to us. We, in turn, take the opportunity to share our best practices in this area and discuss the problematic points and challenges that we face in working with foreign students. Together we hope to find an effective solution to existing problems.”
Timirkhan Alishev said that the visitors are familiarizing with best practices in international activities at KFU, “We have always had a good dialogue and relationship with colleagues from the Nizhny Novgorod University, named after Nikolai Lobachevsky, who was one of the rectors of Kazan University. We agreed with them in advance that they would have the opportunity to see how we work in terms of international activities. Today, Kazan University is one of the leaders in this field, and our task is to share best practices with colleagues. Nizhny Novgorod University also has interesting practices. We hope that soon our delegation will leave for Lobachevsky University. Such interaction, I think, will be for the benefit of our students.”
The delegation is visiting KFU’s International Office, Preparatory School for International Students, and several other educational units.