Wilfried Bergmann: "Online studies will dominate universities in the future"

14:47, October 15, 2018

The delegation from Germany, headed by "Petersburger Dialog" board member, visited UrFU

The prospects of the efficient implementation of online education for purposes of digital economics development were discussed at UrFU during the German delegation's visit. Wilfried Bergmann - the "Petersburger Dialog" board member, - rector of Steinbeis University Berlin, the "German-Russian Forum" science counsellor Dr. Gregor Berghorn, and Initonline company representative Ernestus Baron von Renteln came to UrFU in order to work through the cooperation opportunities.

During the meeting with UrFU administration representatives Wilfried Bergmann stated that each year online education will play an exponentially bigger role in the development of digital economy. He added that the efficiency of its implementation in the universities will shape Russia's and Germany's technological development in this field.

‘I'm sure that in the future the ratio of online education in universities' curriculums will be more than 50%,’ Wilfried Bergmann says. ‘This concerns not only the lectures, but also the exams. The cooperation of our universities is crucial in order to use the most advanced technologies and avoid possible mistakes. This is the reason why collaborative work with both Ekaterinburg and Ural Federal University is one of our key priorities.’

The delegation of German colleagues met with the Acting UrFU Rector Sergey Knyazev, Vice-rector for Research Vladimir Kruzhaev, Deputy Vice-rector for Academic Affairs Elena Avramenko, Head of the UrFU International Cooperation Division Victoria Beliaeva, and Deputy Head of the Development of GSEM Svetlana Kovalenko. The questions of project-based learning, artificial intelligence, Russian-German universities exchange programs were discissed during the meeting.

Wilfried Bergmann also delivered a lecture to the students of economics on the key challenges of digital economy and what it requires of the university graduates. During the lecture UrFU students asked topical questions, and thus initiated a lively discussion with Pr. Bergman, which resulted in the outcrop of the conditions for positive change in the digital sphere.

Mind you, nowadays Germany is the number one major partner of UrFU in international scientific coperation. Annually Web of Science and Scopus databases index more than 100 scientific papers written by UrFU scientists in collaboration with their German colleagues.