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Higher Education in the Union State Is in the Spotlight

Grand opening of a theoretical and practical conference “State and Problems of Higher Education Development within the Union State” took place today at BSU Lyc'ee in Minsk. In his speech Belarus’ Minister of Education Alexander Radkov read out the words of welcome on behalf of President of Belarus Alexander Lukashenko and State Secretary of the Union State Pavel Borodin.

Grand opening of a theoretical and practical conference “State and Problems of Higher Education Development within the Union State” took place today at BSU Lyc?e in Minsk. In his speech Belarus’ Minister of Education Alexander Radkov read out the words of welcome on behalf of President of Belarus Alexander Lukashenko and State Secretary of the Union State Pavel Borodin.

Addressing himself to the audience First Deputy Minister of Education of Belarus Alexander Zhuk noted that “Belarusian and Russian educational systems are quite often reformed without regard for the fact of the Union State formation”: “We now need a common normative legal basis to form Common Educational Area. One can observe certain progress in the relations with our Russian partners and we are grateful for supporting the initiatives that have been brought forward by our state for the ten years of the Union State functioning”. “At present more than 20 Russian regions cooperate with educational establishments of Belarus. More than 270 agreements on inter-university cooperation have been concluded. In the last two years the quantity of such agreements has almost doubled,” noted Alexander Zhuk. The Deputy Minister emphasized that “the decisions taken during the conference will favour the strengthening of cooperation in the field of higher education”.

The state and problems of higher education development in Russia were highlighted in the report of Vladimir Fridlyanov, Deputy Minister of Education and Science of the Russian Federation. The Deputy Minister informed the audience about pressing problems of Russian higher school: “Last year the number of school-leavers in Russia decreased by 30%. Taking into account current situation higher education reform is seen as the barest necessity”.

Nowadays developed countries gain around $100 billion from export of educational services whereas Russia’s profit makes just $1 billion. “That is why the export of educational services is a matter of grave importance for us,” stressed Vladimir Fridlyanov.

Stimulation of Union State educational area formation was the topic of the report presented by the Chairman of the National Council of Chancellors of Belarusian Higher Education Institutions, Chancellor of Belarus State Economic University Vladimir Shimov. In his speech he noted that “formation of Common Educational Area fits with the spirit and context of the Bolognese process. These activities are primary for economic integration”. The Chancellor suggested organizing automatic diploma recognition in the way “which would enable scientists to work in any part of the Union State”.

The problem of scientific research financing wasn’t ignored either. “In order to receive finance for scientific research from the budget of the Union State we still need to cut through red tape,” stated Vladimir Shimov. Thereby, the Chancellor noted the necessity to reform the system of assigning means for scientific research from the Union State budget.