Today, June 16, the 10th Meeting of Education Ministers of the SCO Member States was held in Moscow. A delegation led by Rector Sergei Kharitonchik represented the Belarusian National Technical University at this important meeting.
This large-scale international event brought together heads of relevant ministries and rectors of leading universities from SCO countries to discuss joint educational and research projects. Participants were able to summarize the results of their joint work and outline areas for new educational and research projects.
Minister of Education of the Republic of Belarus Andrei Ivanets called the SCO University a strategic project that is expanding and moving beyond the simple transfer of knowledge to the development of applied competencies for real-world economic challenges.
— The establishment of the SCO University was a truly important and strategic step, which allowed for the establishment of a new model of interstate academic cooperation between our countries. Today, the training program at the SCO University not only addresses the crucial issue of training highly qualified personnel for the diverse sectors of our countries' economies, but also develops new interdisciplinary specialties by leveraging the resources of higher education institutions, research centers, and industrial corporations. I would like to especially welcome the new participants in SCO university cooperation. Today, nearly 150 universities are affiliated with our university, and 22 new universities were admitted as full members today, following the decision taken by our esteemed colleagues, the education ministers. All this demonstrates the high interest, high reputation, and relevance of the SCO University in our countries. At the same time, the current stage of development places new demands not only on our national university but also on the SCO University. What we are doing today in the Republic of Belarus and what experience we believe can be applied to the SCO University. We certainly see the need to shift the focus of university education from knowledge transfer to the development of highly specific competencies. This is a crucial aspect, because those who train our young specialists today want to receive not only highly educated graduates, but also highly qualified specialists who are ready to join a specific company, take on a specific position, and perform the relevant work.
A significant event at the meeting for the Polytechnic University was the signing of an official agreement on strategic cooperation between BNTU and Nanjing University (People's Republic of China). The parties confirmed their intentions to develop academic exchange, launch joint educational programs, and conduct integrative scientific research.
Sergey Kharitonchik emphasized the particular importance of developing cooperation within the SCO and the university's role in this process:
"This year's SCO camp will be memorable because it was held in the Republic of Belarus for the first time. This is the second event of the "China-SCO" postgraduate program, and it is very important that we are the next country to host the event. A large number of representatives from leading Chinese universities and universities from other countries are coming to us." We will discuss how to train young scientists, how to standardize our approaches to training these scientists in different countries, and how to move toward understanding and recognizing that we must provide experience in meeting the general requirements for graduate students to prepare their dissertations. Our university provided not only the platform, but also our position, organizing all the events, interacting with universities, and discussing the entire business agenda, including not only academic issues in graduate school but also issues of organizing joint research projects. Our university, I believe, is a very important participant in scientific cooperation with Chinese universities, so our voice is very important today.
The signed agreement and new arrangements open up broad prospects for the faculty and students of BNTU, strengthening the university's position as a key scientific and educational center in the SCO region.
