HSE is Entering BRICS League of Universities
A group of Chinese and Russian higher education institutions, including the Higher School of Economics, have initiated the creation of a BRICS League of Universities. The League aims to become a platform for academic and expert cooperation, comparative research, and international educational projects.
The initiative to create the League was signed in Shanghai on July 6, 2013. On the Russian side, the initiative was supported by the HSE, MGIMO (Moscow Institute of International Relations), the Ural Federal University, and the Far Eastern Federal University. Chinese universities were represented by the Fudan University, TsinghuaUniversity, East-China Normal University, Sichuan University, and Zhejiang Normal University. The ceremony also brought together representatives from Saint Petersburg State University, as well as leading universities from India, Brazil, and South Africa.
The founding conference of the BRICS League of Universities will take place in Moscow in spring 2014. A BRICS Center will be created as part of the HSE, which will undertake coordinative and information-analytical functions. In the near future the Center will audit current and completed HSE projects related to BRICS countries and will become part of the newly founded League.
Olga Moshkova, HSE Director for International Cooperation, spoke to us about the prospects of creating a BRICS League of Universities.
— The universities which proposed creating this League are actively involved in BRICS studies and see many promising prospects in interuniversity cooperation in research and education, information exchange, creating and expert platform for a broad range of issues, including issues of socio-economic reforms.
The Higher School of Economics would like to have many of its researchers and teachers involved in joint research and educational projects as part of the League. We have outlined four main areas for ourselves. First, there is a block of problems related to administration, e.g. global administration, state regulation, business to government relations, and investment climate monitoring in developing countries. The second block is science and technology, along with innovation policy in BRICS countries. The HSE has already carried out some studies, including comparative ones, on this topic, and is currently developing partnerships with research organizations in Brazil and China. The third block is globalization and internationalization of education, and educational systems’ management. Finally, the fourth block is socio-cultural interaction, studies of values and social capital, as well as models of economic behaviour.
Joint educational projects as part of the League are also very promising. These include distance-learning courses on various topics, seen as very important for ‘rising countries’. Universities from all BRICS countries have expressed their interest in this type of interaction. Joint educational programmes at all levels, including master’s and postgraduate, are planned. We believe that our universities will be able to launch a competitive network of educational projects.
The task of those universities who have initiated the league is to investigate the way forward, to outline the key spheres of research, and to make sure the League is acknowledged by leading international associations. Initially, this work will be carried out by a special working group. But further down the line, leaders in specific fields will arise among the universities, and these will go on to form research and project teams.
Oleg Seregin, HSE News Service
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