The forum gathers leaders of UNESCO institutes and centers, the World Federation of Engineering Organizations, and top technical universities from 65 countries.
On Wednesday, November 13, the International Forum "The Role of Engineering Education and Science in Achieving Sustainable Development Goals: New Challenges and Solutions" began at Empress Catherine II St. Petersburg Mining University. The university's rector, Vladimir Litvinenko, opened the plenary discussion, highlighting that civilization today is consuming more and more resources, partly due to the widespread adoption of renewable energy sources, which are highly material-intensive.
Thus, a global increase of just 1% in primary energy from renewable sources (RES) requires more than 100,000 tons of rare earth elements and over 5 million tons of copper, even though the total global production of this metal, which is highly demanded across various economic sectors, is only 22 million tons.
«The global market is fragmenting into local segments, and trust in traditional financial institutions is waning. The pillars that seemed unshakable during the era of dollar dominance are collapsing right before our eyes. Labor productivity is falling, partly due to the emergence of numerous jobs that are not only unproductive but also entirely useless to society. This includes lobbyists pushing for an accelerated energy transition, who claim to aim at minimizing human impact on nature but are, in reality, simply redistributing financial resources from one pocket to another. These people earn substantial sums and draw considerable attention, while the genuine work of engineers and significant scientific research remains in the shadows», - Vladimir Litvinenko remarked, setting the tone for the discussions.
He emphasized that no resource can benefit society if there are no experts nearby who understand how to extract it and engage in deep processing to create specific goods. In this context, the rector urged those present to "focus efforts on developing a unified policy in engineering education," as the effectiveness of engineers is directly tied to addressing various state needs and advancing humanity as a whole.
Mustapha Shefu, President of the World Federation of Engineering Organizations affiliated with UNESCO, expressed his unequivocal support for the pilot project aimed at enhancing the higher education system currently underway at St. Petersburg Mining University. He assured the audience that "the global community stands to gain greatly from intensified collaboration among the forum’s delegates, as each individual's work will become more productive in this shared endeavor.
Participants in the plenary discussions on the first day of the conference included Sergey Kabishev, Chairman of the State Duma Committee on Science and Higher Education; Karin Kneissl, former Austrian Foreign Minister and Head of the G.O.R.K.I. Center at St. Petersburg State University; Bakri Osman Saeed, Chairman of the Board of Trustees of the Association of African Universities; Su Lihui, Assistant Secretary-General of the UNESCO International Center for Engineering Education at Tsinghua University in China; Sergey Kharitonchik, Rector of the Belarusian National Technical University; and Alexander Yakovenko, Deputy Director-General of the international media group "Russia Today."
The main goal of the attendees was to study the experience of St. Petersburg Mining University, particularly its pilot project aimed at improving the training process by moving away from the two-tier system in technical education (bachelor's and master's degrees), which does not align with the needs of developing countries, in favor of a unified engineering education cycle.
Another goal is to create a more effective system for collaboration among all UNESCO Centers worldwide, focused on developing a wide range of competencies such as lifelong learning, capacity building in Africa, education for peace, preservation of water ecosystems, and more.
Let us recall that the focus of the forum’s organizer, the UNESCO Competence Center based at the Mining University, is on enhancing the quality of mining engineering education.
