INRTU develops cooperation with Chinese universities

INRTU delegation, headed by Rector Mikhail Korniakov, visited 15 universities and educational organizations in China on May 4-12. The delegation included Stepan Bykov, Vice Rector for International Affairs, Aleksei Govorkov, Director of School of Information Technology and Data Science, and Vladimir Mironenko, Associate Professor at Networking Technology Lab. This is the first official visit of INRTU delegation to China after the pandemic. Despite the forced restrictions, cooperation between INRTU and Chinese universities continued in this difficult period. Currently, 466 students from China study at INRTU. The joint educational program in Energy and Power Engineering with Shenyang University of Chemical Technology has been run for the third year. A new program with Binzhou University was opened to train specialists in aircraft engineering in December 2022.

INRTU delegation visited the headquarters of Minsheng Education Group on the first day. The Russian delegation was greeted by Board Co-Chairman Jiang Qiang, Deputy General Director Zhou Xiaomin and Deputy General Director Guan Jiaxi. The parties discussed cooperation between the higher educational institutions of the two countries, educational and cultural exchanges.
Minsheng Education Group is the owner of one of the largest educational online platforms in China. The platform has 1 million users, including 65,000 students from all over the world who study Chinese as a foreign language. The company cooperates with more than one thousand universities, attracts foreign students to study at Chinese universities, and helps them to adapt in China. Today the company is engaged in adult education and vocational training.
Board Co-Chairman of Minsheng Education Group Jiang Qiang warmly welcomed the Russian delegation, and noted that the Chinese and Russian nations are bound by a strong friendship. The two countries have been cooperating actively in the field of education and culture for many years. As a result of this interaction more and more Chinese students go to Russia to get a degree in higher education.
The parties discussed the opportunity for Russian students to study Chinese as a foreign language on MINSHENGEDU platform. They also discussed the potential for posting courses and lectures by INRTU professors in English on the training platform for Chinese students.

On May 5, the delegation from INRTU visited Beijing Jiaotong University (BJTU), one of China's key national universities, which is directly managed by the Ministry of Education, the Chinese Railway Corporation, and the Beijing government. The strongest engineering university runs more than 100 educational programs in intelligent transport, e-commerce, logistics, electrical engineering and automation. Today Beijing Jiaotong University has three campuses, which are located in Beijing, Weihai (Shandong Province) and Tangshan (Hebei Province). BJTU is one of the first Chinese universities that began to accept international students and develop international education. BJTU is equipped with 70 modern laboratories, which influence the development of the integrated transport system of China. According to Global Ranking of Academic Subjects 2018, BJTU was ranked first worldwide in transportation science and technology.
During the communication, the parties agreed on academic exchange programs for INRTU students in areas related to information technology. It is also planned to develop a project on intelligent transport and use aircraft engineering technologies to improve the reliability of high-speed trains. Also, the issue of opening a double degree program in information technology (in English and Chinese) is being worked out.

Another important meeting was held at China University of Geosciences (CUG, Beijing). The university was founded in 1952. The university actively develops areas related to geology, mining of mineral resources, and environmental protection. The university is the first in China in the field of geology. The university has about 13 thousand students study in the university. It develops academic exchange programs with more than 220 partner universities around the world. The beginning of cooperation between China University of Geosciences and Irkutsk Technical University was established in 1990 by Raisa Lobatskaya, Head of Department of Jewelry Design and Technology. Chinese University of Geosciences and Irkutsk Technical University signed a memo in online format in July 2021. The rector of the Chinese university Youhong Sun invited INRTU delegation headed by Mikhail Korniakov to visit the CUG campus in Beijing.

Mr. Youhong Sun initiated the organization of joint internships, exchange events for students and teachers, and the implementation of scientific projects in the field of subsoil use. China University of Geosciences and Irkutsk Technical University plan to cooperate on the projects "Earth Information Center" (China), "Digital Baikal", "Baikal". The parties agreed that the delegation of CUG will visit INRTU in July this year.