Russian and Dutch Universities: Meeting at the HSE
From November 15th – 16th a conference of the Russian-Dutch Universities Leaders ‘Russian-Dutch University Partnerships: Shaping Innovative Academic and Research Agenda’ will take place at the HSE. Olga Moshkova, HSE Director for International Cooperation, told us about aims of the conference.
—Ms. Moshkova, what are the main aims of the upcoming conference, and what are you expecting from it?
— The conference was organized to develop inter-university cooperation in a range of areas - alternative energy, IT, high-tech systems and materials, innovation policy and enterprise development, science and health care, and innovations in education. We also want to develop a network of cooperation and create sustainable forms of interaction between Russian and Dutch universities, to develop new approaches to education and its modernization.
— What is the history of partnership between the Higher School of Economics and Dutch universities?
— HSEhas a long history of cooperation with Dutch universities which goes back to the early days. Many HSE staff members who have become leading Russian researchers started their academic careers on internships and joint programmes with Dutch partners. Our first Double Degree Master’s programme in economics was launched with Erasmus University in Rotterdam. This programme still exists, and it’s rather successful. The HSE has taken part in some large international projects coordinated by Dutch partners, likethe TUNING Educational Programmes in Russian HEIs – TUNING Russia, the Russian part of the EU-KLEMS statistical project (University of Groningen), and multidimensional international global university ranking U-Multirank (University of Twente).
HSE’s partnership with Dutch universities today continues on the level of individual ties between researchers, through cooperation between faculties and departments and between institutions. The Association of Universities in the Netherlands (VSNU) promotes the development of our contacts with Dutch universities. This summer they invited the HSE to a special meeting for Russian and Dutch universities, where priority areas for bilateral cooperation in education, science, technology, and innovation were discussed and some ideas were put forward about network cooperation and creating inter-university research teams for implementing projects in these areas. In order to define the plans and their implementation, they decided to organize the next, larger-scale meeting in Russia at the Higher School of Economics. This is particularly important for us, taking into account the long history of HSE’s cooperation with various research and educational organizations from the Netherlands, as well as the fact that this meeting will take place on the eve of the Russia and The Netherlands Bilateral Year 2013.
— Which universities will participate in the conference from Dutch and Russian side?
—Ttop managers and administrators from leading Dutch and European universities and research centers, such as the University of Groningen, Maastricht University, University of Twente, Eindhoven University of Technology, Delft University of Technology, University of Amsterdam, Open University in the Netherlands, Netherlands Organization for Scientific Research, and Energy Academy Europe. And representatives of the Dutch business community are coming too.
On the Russian side (I’d like to specially mention the participation of HSE’s regional campuses), but also there will be representatives from 28 Russian universities, such as the Moscow Institute of Physics and Technology (MIPT), the Lomonosov Moscow State University (MSU), the Moscow Engineering and Physics Institute, the Lobachevsky Nizhny Novgorod State University, the Saint Petersburg National Research University of Information Technologies, Mechanics and Optics (University ITMO), and the Bauman Moscow State Technical University (MSTU). Representatives from the Russian Ministry of Education and Science, ROSNANO and several foundations will also attend. We are expecting a total of 100 participants.
— What will be the format of the conference?
— The conference has been prepared in close collaboration with the Association of Universities in the Netherlands and the New Eurasia Foundation. We are grateful to our partners for their considerable input in organizing this event. The conference will go on for two days. We start with a roundtable discussion with the rectors of Russian and Dutch universities to consider new forms of university cooperation and interaction with business. Dutch and Russian representatives will make presentations on priority areas of cooperation at the plenary session. On the first day we will discuss specific problems, such as energy, hi-tec, biomedicine, health care etc., as well as more generalized areas related to implementing innovations in education, mechanisms of valorization and enterprise development.
On the second day the participants will have the opportunity to discuss the projects of cooperation in small groups. The most elaborated initiatives will probably be included in the plan of Russia and The Netherlands Bilateral Year 2013. The conference papers will be published on the HSE website.
Liudmila Mezentseva, HSE News Service
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