UNESCO Center

There is an enormous amount of waste rock dumps left by the companies after extraction. Neither officials nor business people are interested in doing anything about the open dumps, although development of waste materials could earn them reasonable profits

It was a year ago when the launch of a large-scale waste management reform was announced in Russia.

What can be done to prevent questioning the quality of awarded degrees and what should Russian universities and research institutes do to handle the issue and facilitate introduction of new scientific developments into production?

One of the main topics of this year’s Russian-German Raw Materials Dialogue was cooperation prospects for the two countries, as they have been seeking for the ways to contribute to environmentally sustainable development and fight against the global warming.

The network of foreign partner universities of Russian scientific community is set to increase further.

This autumn, the Russia-Africa Summit took place in Sochi, one of the most southern Russian cities. Over the course of two days the event lasted, a number of significant agreements were achieved.

Beirut, Damascus, Latakia, Batroun, Tripoli - what would you think of when seeing the list of those cities? Most likely, the first things that spring to mind are military operations and counterterrorism efforts; Russians are not the exception and have similar thoughts. What do Syrian and Lebanese people think of Russia though - in particular, about higher education in the country?

This year, green energy sources is one of the hottest topics. Bold statements made by activists, globally held large-scale campaigns and numerous discussions are shaping the world today, with UK not being an exception. The country is moving swiftly towards closure of coal-fire plants, and the London Stock Exchange now expects companies listed on the LSE to adhere to new principles of environmental safety and encourages them to adopt green and sustainable business models.

At the end of October, a closing ceremony of the Russian-British Raw Materials Dialogue was held in St. Petersburg. During the course of the event, Ian Bowbrick, Director of Membership and Professional Standards at the Institute of Materials, Minerals and Mining, awarded 12 experts of the Russian National Association of Mining Engineers with certificates granting them power to accredit mining specialists on behalf of the Institute one of the most prestigious professional bodies in the world.

Out of the many challenges that mining industry is facing nowadays, the Dialogue’s participants placed specific attention to whittling down deficit of skilled engineers through competency assessment and development.