In compliance with Premier Medvedev’s directive "On the Distribution of Subsidies between Russia’s Leading Universities to Enhance Their Competitiveness among the World’s Top Universities", Boris Yeltsin Ural Federal University (UFU) establishes SCO and BRICS Center, whose parameters were discussed at the meeting organized by the RIAC.
In compliance with Premier Medvedev’s directive "On the Distribution of Subsidies between Russia’s Leading Universities to Enhance Their Competitiveness among the World’s Top Universities", Boris Yeltsin Ural Federal University (UFU) establishes SCO and BRICS Center, whose parameters were discussed at the meeting organized by the RIAC.
The working meeting took place on September 10 at the Russian International Affairs Council. Representatives of the Ministry of Economic Development, UFU and RIAC leaders, as well as experts on the SCO and the BRICS are expected to draw up an action plan for the created SCO and BRICS Research Center to meet the interests of the relevant agencies and partners. UFU Vice-Rector for International Relations Maxim Khomyakov believes that the work of the Center “can have a positive impact on virtually all indicators that define universities’ positions in the leading world rankings.”
In last May President Putin set the goal that at least five Russian universities should be among the world’s top one hundred by 2020. As a result of an open competitive tender held by the Ministry of Education and Science of the Russian Federation, the UFU became one of 15 winning universities selected for subsidies to improve international competitiveness of Russian higher education. On August 31, it became known that these universities will receive 592.4 million rubles each to implement relevant development programs.
The state budget will allocate subsidies to increase citation index of Russian professors, develop sites and strengthen prestige of universities. The government believes that it should improve the position of the country in international educational rankings. Currently, there are only 18 universities from Russia in the Quacquarelli Symonds (QS) rating of top 800 universities in the world. Moscow State University occupies the 120th place which is the highest position of Russian universities in the rating.
RIAC activities include recommendations for internationalization of higher education in Russia to improve its quality and competitiveness in 2013-2017. The project aims to analyze the state of the internationalization of Russian universities and offer recommendations to promote Russian scientific and educational products abroad. MGIMO, UFU, St. Petersburg State University and other institutions of higher learning are RIAC's corporate members.
SCO and BRICS Center parameters were discussed at the meeting organized by the RIAC
