INRTU Vice-Rector Stepan Bykov Participated in Russian-Vietnamese Commission on Cooperation in Education, Science, and Technology
Stepan Bykov, Vice-Rector for International Affairs of Irkutsk National Research Technical University (INRTU), took part in the sixth meeting of the Russian-Vietnamese Commission on Cooperation in Education, Science, and Technology. He presented INRTU's experience in organizing the International Summer Professional Development School for teachers of Russian as a Foreign Language.
The forum was held on December 2, 2025, in Hanoi. The Commission's work involved representatives of national academies of sciences and more than 25 scientific organizations and universities from the two countries. The meeting was co-chaired by Deputy Minister of the Russian Ministry of Science and Higher Education of Russia Konstantin Mogilevsky and Deputy Minister of the Vietnamese Ministry of Science and Technology Le Xuan Dinh.
The meeting summarized the current cooperation and defined future directions for comprehensive strategic partnership in education, science, and technology.
It was noted that currently, more than 3,000 Vietnamese students are studying in Russia, with 1,000 receiving scholarships annually. Academic exchanges and internships between universities of the two countries are actively developing, contributing to a modern model of inter-university cooperation.
Over the past 20 years, INRTU has graduated 370 Vietnamese students, 330 of whom were PhD students. The university traditionally trains Vietnamese postgraduates under Russian Government Scholarships in fields such as mechanical engineering, information technology and computer science, energy, oil and gas, and economics.
“Our university is interested in developing partnerships with Vietnamese universities, both in terms of academic exchange and in teaching students within our degree programs. We are also pleased to welcome Vietnamese postgraduate students in our key research areas, including geophysics, geoecology, mathematics, chemistry, and civil engineering,” noted INRTU Vice-Rector for International Affairs Stepan Bykov.
In his presentation, Stepan Bykov presented INRTU as a center for teaching Russian as a foreign language. He mentioned that annually, 500 international students complete Preparatory Russian Language Courses and subsequently enroll in degree programs at INRTU. These preparatory courses serve as the first step toward obtaining a quality education in Russia. Today, the multicultural environment of Irkutsk National Research Technical University hosts students from more than 50 countries across Africa, Asia, and the Middle East.
As a successful case, Stepan Bykov cited the Bachelor's degree program in Linguistics with a specialization “Russian in Intercultural Context”, which enrolled 70 international students this year. They entered the university after completing preparatory courses.
He also spoke about INRTU’s experience in organizing the International Summer School for teachers of Russian as a foreign language. Over four years, the School has trained more than 100 teachers of Russian from Mongolia, China, Nigeria, Indonesia, Uzbekistan, Tajikistan, Poland, and Thailand. Vice-Rector Stepan Bykov invited Vietnamese colleagues to attend the International Summer School in July 2026 and also proposed that Vietnamese students studying Russian come for two-week and semester-long internships at INRTU. He noted that the university covers the costs of tuition and accommodation, and School participants fully immerse themselves in the language and cultural environment, with a mandatory visit to Lake Baikal.
