UNESCO Center

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.

A delegation from the UK, who came to St. Petersburg to participate in the Russian-British Raw Materials Dialogue, aims to destroy the negative buzz surrounding Russia that builds up in the Western media.

One of the main advantages of meetings held in the forum format is in the opportunity to establish real contacts between the scientific and business communities of two countries, achieved by switching from exchange of opinions and theoretical discussions to more practical concerns.

There is an initiative to establish an award, which would be granted annually to two researchers for exceptional scientific achievements or inventions contributing to the further development of the mining industry.

After visiting the Mining University, the Ambassador of Australia to the Russian Federation stated the need to expand academic cooperation between both countries.

This August, Russian President Vladimir Putin paid a visit to Finland to meet his Finnish colleague Sauli Niinistö. It is expected that one of the fruitful areas of our partnership will most likely be introduction of innovations in the field of environmental protection and landfill reclamation.

This September, a new academic year has begun and, with the start of the new school year, traditional discussions on the role of education and universities in Russia have once again resumed.

A number of Finnish universities is keen on cooperating with higher education institutions of St. Petersburg. Why would they do so?

LUT University is now the key partner university in Finland for the International Competence Centre for Mining-Engineering Education under the auspices of UNESCO.