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In late December an international expert meeting “Formation of a common Caspian educational space - a factor in the development of regional integration processes” was held in Astrakhan in the format of a teleconference.
The event was organized by the Astrakhan State Technical University, the Association of State Universities and Research Centres of the Caspian Countries and the partner of the Eurasian Peoples' Assembly, the “Caspian-Eurasia” Centre for International Studies.
The purpose of the “no tie” expert meeting was to understand the tasks and problems that the countries of the Caspian region face today in creating a common educational space. Representatives of Atyrau University of Oil and Gas, Atyrau State University (Atyrau, Kazakhstan) and the Yessenov University (Caspian State University of Technology and Engineering) (Aktau, Kazakhstan) took part in the online round table meeting.
Recall, the universities of the Caspian region have a long and strong traditions of cooperation. They are double degree programs, teaching internships, student exchange. The main accumulating force for the integration of education in the Caspian Sea today is the Association of State Universities and Research Centres of the Caspian Countries; its headquarters is located on the basis of the Astrakhan State Technical University.
As Ksenia Tyurenkova, Head of the Caspian-Eurasia Centre for International Studies, noted at the beginning of the discussion, universities and research institutes of the Caspian Sea region have a unique opportunity to express their proposals and to deliver them to public authorities through the Association of Universities. In particular, the meeting participants discussed the possibility of creating new educational standards and the rating of higher educational institutions of the Caspian countries.
According to the Head of the international department of ASTU Evgeniya Yukina, the most attractive areas of the Caspian Area in higher education are “Ecology”, “Oil and Gas Industry” and “Regional Studies”. “The creation of curricula should be transferred to higher educational institutions, since we know well the market of professions and the competencies employers need today”, - the representative of the Astrakhan University emphasized.
The parties also discussed issues of “pointwise” cooperation. So, colleagues from the Republic of Kazakhstan were interested in the projects of the Caspian-Eurasia Centre in the media sphere. The Dean of the Industrial and Technological Faculty of the Atyrau University of Oil and Gas Aigul Bukanova proposed cooperation in the ecology of oil and gas production: “Our region is ecologically complex, but we have some groundwork, there is work and we could cooperate well. Including within the Caspian Hub, which was created on the basis of our university”.
The issue of financing educational and research projects has become topical for universities in Russia and Kazakhstan. According to the participants of the meeting, fundraising can become a way out of the situation. Thus, the Caspian-Eurasia Centre has extensive experience in the Grant system. As for the compilation of the rating of universities and research institutes of the Caspian region, representatives of universities and NGOs came to the conclusion that collaboration in science and international cooperation is needed, thereby higher educational institutions of the Caspian region can help each other in improving their image and work efficiency. The participants decided to discuss this issue again, next year, as part of a new working meeting.
