The “Days of the Russian International Affairs Council” have come to an end at Ural Federal University (UrFU) in Yekaterinburg. As usual, the event went off at a blistering pace. The three-day programme included meetings with University management, talks concerning cooperation with the Minister of Economic Relations of Sverdlovsk Region, a seminar for the region’s exporters, a training course for university employees and meetings with RIAC partners.
The “Days of the Russian International Affairs Council” have come to an end at Ural Federal University (UrFU) in Yekaterinburg. As usual, the event went off at a blistering pace. The three-day programme included meetings with University management, talks concerning cooperation with the Minister of Economic Relations of Sverdlovsk Region, a seminar for the region’s exporters, a training course for university employees and meetings with RIAC partners.
“RIAC Days was opened by UrFU Rector Viktor Koksharov, Vice-Rector for International Relations Maxim Khomyakov and RIAC Programme Director Ivan Timofeev. In their welcome addresses, the rector and vice-rector talked about the university’s strategic development goals and the specific features of its international relations. Both underlined RIAC’s role as a reliable partner in implementing UrFU international programmes and developing its international departments.”
The three years that UrFU and RIAC have been working together have proved to be very fruitful. UrFU and RIAC cooperate closely in the study of Central Asian issues, a joint summer school has been established, and university employees regularly attend RIAC educational programmes – including the Global Science project. In addition to this, the BRICS and SCO Centre has been set up under the auspices of RIAC, the UrFU library stocks RIAC publications, and scholars at the university are given the opportunity to publish their findings on the RIAC website.
Mr. Koksharov paid particular attention to the RIAC initiative to use the internet as a tool for promoting Russian universities abroad. One of the key elements of RIAC Days was the workshop on how to develop an English-language version of the UrFU website, an extremely pressing task for increasing the university’s international presence.
The experience of previous years has shown that an integral part of RIAC Days is the meeting with the region’s leaders. The RIAC delegation received Minister of International and Foreign Economic Relations of Sverdlovsk Region Andrei Sobolyev, with discussions about the common interests of the region and RIAC at the top of the agenda. The Sverdlovsk Regional Government asked RIAC to provide research findings on migration and Central Asian issues, material on the development of the SCO and BRICS, educational programmes for the region’s exporters, and forecasts on future developments. Guidelines were set for further cooperation, which will be coordinated by UrFU.
Another traditional element of RIAC Days is the working seminar for the region’s exporters, held under the auspices of the Sverdlovsk Regional Entrepreneurship Support Fund. The subject of the seminar was the creation of company websites aimed at foreign audiences, and the management of their content. The event attracted great interest among business leaders, with RIAC staff receiving numerous requests to audit their companies’ internet resources according to the А+Standard methodology.
The workshop on how to develop English-language resources was also a crucial part of the programme’s work with UrFU employees. Under the auspices of the Vice-Rector for International Relations, an interdisciplinary group of employees responsible for the substantive content of the university’s online resources, the use of social networking, the provision of technical support, and cooperation with Russian and foreign press was set up. Within two days, the group had been provided with RIAC technology in this field, and the best Russian and foreign cases had been explored. The workshop will hopefully result in the “Roadmap for the development of the English-language UrFU website.”
And last but not least. Over the past three years, a community of young scholars, international journalists, government officials and civil activists has been formed that works closely with RIAC, and with whom extraordinarily interesting and productive discussions took place. A number of interviews were recorded that will be posted on the video section of the RIAC website.
The RIAC delegation in Yekaterinburg was represented by Programme Director Ivan Timofeev, Ekaterina Chimiris, Education Coordinator and Anna Kuznetsova, Programme Coordinator. RIAC would also like to express its thanks to its irreplaceable cameraman and photographer Yuri Sergeyev.
The next stage in the partnership between RIAC and UrFU is the participation of the university’s administration in the meeting of the Council’s corporate members in Moscow on September 8, 2014, where the initial results of the RIAC Days project at a number of Russian universities – Northern (Arctic) Federal University, Saint Petersburg State University, Nizhny Novgorod State University, Moscow State Institute of International Relations and UrFU – will be discussed.
RIAC Days at Ural Federal University
