Students from Afghanistan studied innovation management at UrFU

22:12, September 30, 2019

Students from Afghanistan and Master Students defended their projects in the scope of Autumn University - 2019

Nine Students from Kardan University of Afghanistan arrived to Ekaterinburg to participate in the short-term program “Innovation Management” organized by the Department of International Educational Programs of UrFU and Institute of Public Administration and Entrepreneurship.  

For 2 weeks, students together with Professors from Ural Federal University have been studying Business Models and Concepts as well as Strategies for Digital Innovation Systems. As an additional subject, students also had intensive Russian Language Course to be able to get around the city and communicate with the locals. 

For the final project students from Kardan University had to cooperate with First Year Master Degree students from “Global Entrepreneurship” program. Students had to select some product from Afghanistan and plan its implementation into the Russian market. The majority of students focused on fruits import, some of them presented the ideas of showrooms with local products and even pomegranate soup recipe. The majority of project got the highest score from the Head of the program Prof. Sergey Polbitsyn. 

“It was the first time for us welcoming students from Afghanistan for our short-term programs; we liked the discipline and involvement in study and cultural process. We have never mixed short-term students with Master students before but it was good experiment for all of them”, says Mrs. Iana Vysotskaia the director of the Department of International Educational Programs. 

Students also visited some of the local entrepreneurs in “Akademicheskiy” Mall to see how small business can compete with global chain stores. Another visit was to “DeltaPlan” PR Agency to study the cases of local marketing campaigns. 

“This course was very effective because we had a chance to share our ideas with local students and find new solutions together. It motivated us to study our own market and think how to export the products. Also, we have been living here for two weeks and saw what products can be potentially interesting to Russian costumers. It was very good experience! Thanks to Professors and Organizers of the program we can say that this time was well-spent”, says Ijaz Nizam one of the students of Kardan University. 

In addition to study program students also had massive cultural program specially planned for them by the Department of International Educational Programs. Students visited Opera, had cooking workshop on how to make Pelmenis and took a trip with other international students of UrFU to one of the Nature Reserves and the Border of Europe and Asia.