On 29 September, the Rector of Voronezh State University, Dmitry Endovitsky, met the Head of the Voronezh representative office of Turkish airlines, Yavuz Chakar. Among other participants of the meeting was the director of the International Project and Programme Centre, Alla Akulshina.
The main area of cooperation which was discussed during the meeting was student’s academic mobility.
“In the current global economic situation there is a growing demand for specialists that can speak Turkish. We can train them. The cooperation between Turkish airlines and VSU will provide the impetus for the development of collaboration between Russian and Turkish universities. “We can join the forces of the university and the airline to let gifted students from Turkey have an opportunity to come and study in Voronezh,” said Dmitry Endovitsky.
Yavuz Chakar said that the representatives of Turkish universities are also interested in cooperation with Russian universities and Turkish airlines are ready to support this area:
Now, we are selecting Turkish universities that teach the Russian language and literature. We are planning to bring students from these universities to study in Voronezh. Many universities that are eager to cooperate don’t teach such disciplines. I’m planning to negotiate with them and discuss the possibility of opening the faculty of the Russian language. VSU lecturers could teach there”.
He also emphasised that they are planning to start student exchange programmes in the nearest future.
Another opportunity to provide students from Turkey with an opportunity to learn Russian is to open a Centre of Russian language and culture in Turkey. Similar institutions are already working in China and they have proved to be very effective.
‘We need to hold a meeting between representatives of universities from Russia and China to define further areas for cooperation. Voronezh State University is interested in creating a Centre of Turkish Language and Culture in our university,” concluded the discussion Dmitry Endovitsky.
The Head of the university also thanked Yavuz Chakar for his assistance in VSU’s accreditation by the Higher Education Council of Turkey.
