Cooperation after the Battle of Programmers

12:44, July 2, 2014

Universities of Morocco and Thailand are interested in cooperating with UrFU

During ACM ICPC days in Ekaterinburg the heads of several universities of Morocco and Thailand visited UrFU. All of them came to the capital of the Urals with their national teams of programmers and decided not to miss a chance to learn more about one of the largest Russian university, for UrFU contributed a lot to the high level of championship organization. By the way, it is Morocco and Thailand that will host the championship in 2015 and 2016 correspondingly.

Morocco delegation was represented by the heads of two universities, Raduan Mrabet, President of Mohammed V University, and Amine Bensaid, President of Mundiapolis University. UrFU Rector Victor Koksharov told the guests about the history of the largest federal university in Russia, its structure, and implementation of the plan, calling for UrFU entering the top 100 world university rankings by 2020. The issue of effective international cooperation is the key one on the way to achieving this goal.

In April 2014 UrFU representatives were engaged with the serious work in Morocco, they took part in «a2 Morocco Spring Fairs» exhibition, held in Casablanca and Rabat. About 2,000 people visited the exhibition. UrFU Master’s degree programs in English and Bachelor’s degree programs in technical and natural sciences aroused the greatest interest. Many prospective students are interested in studying in the Institute of Mechanics and Machine Building and in learning Russian. UrFU, in its turn, is very concerned with attracting bachelors and masters from Morocco; the university does its best to meet severe competition in the educational market, from developing competitive educational programs and inviting the best lectures to purchasing modern scientific equipment and providing international students with excellent accommodation.

By the way, is its Morocco that will attract the best programmers in 2015, like Ekaterinburg has done recently, for the next championship will be held in this country in northwestern Africa.

That day representatives of Prince of Songkla University in Phuket also visited UrFU. They are members of the jury of ACM ICPC championship that will be held in Phuket in 2016, namely Udomfon Puetpainbun, Dean of the Faculty of Engineering, Pan Tongchamnam, Dean of the Faculty of Technology and Environment, Amarin Dimagarn, lecturer of the Faculty of Engineering and lecturer of the Faculty of Technology and Environment.

At the meeting Vice-Rector for International Relations Maxim Khomyakov said that 5 master students from Thailand are currently studying in UrFU and the university has tight links with three Thai universities, Khon Kaen University, Burapha Univerdsity and Thammasat University. It is very promising to develop relations with Thai universities in the sphere of tourism and language learning, UrFU can send its lectures to teach Russian in exchange for Thai lecturers. The guests pointed out that the lectures from the USA, France and China are currently faculty members of Thai university and now they are very interested in inviting a lecturer from Russia. The duration of the exchange visit was discussed at the meeting, it was mentioned that it could last up to 4 semesters.  Maxim Khomyakov suggested that the young professors (less than 40 years of age) should participate in this exchange program; he also discussed the variants of student exchange. Now there are opportunities for that purpose but it is necessary to seize them as quickly as possible.