Society

A major international congress ”Africa Seeks Solutions”, attended by heads of leading universities, representatives of executive and legislative authorities, scientists and businessmen from more than 40 countries of the sunny continent, ended in St. Petersburg. Many of these countries have even more mineral resources per capita than Russia, but are unable to monetize them and use them to improve the quality of life of the population.

The initiative group of the new community includes higher education institutions supported by their Governments. This will allow them to participate on equal terms in the implementation of partnership programmes envisaged by the agreement.

The idea for this forum was born during the II Russia-Africa Economic and Humanitarian Forum. On Tuesday, 12 December, the Empress Catherine II St. Petersburg Mining University hosted the opening ceremony of the International Congress ”Africa Seeks Solutions”. More than 100 heads of leading universities, representatives of executive and legislative authorities, as well as big business from more than 40 countries of the continent are taking part in the Congress.

The discovery of the largest field in Russia and the seventh largest in the world, called Samotlor, was a resounding victory for Russian geologists and drillers in 1965. At that time, few believed in the prospects of an oil deposit located under a huge lake, surrounded for many kilometres by impassable swamps.

It includes the construction of new dormitories and an educational complex, as well as the implementation of a pilot project to improve the system of higher education in Russia and scaling its results to the whole country.

The size of the state scholarship for students today is 2,819 rubles. Even taking into account the additional payments for those who study ”excellent” and ”good”, and they amount to 50% and 25% of the basic rate, respectively, these funds are not enough even for food. Obviously, when entering university, young men and women rely primarily on the support of their parents. But what should a young man do if his family for one reason or another cannot or does not want to provide him with material support?

More than 90% of first-year students of the Empress Catherine II Saint Petersburg Mining University who were enrolled in bachelor’s degree programmes took advantage of the offer to transfer to 5.5-year specialisation programmes. This became possible due to the participation of the first technical university of Russia in the pilot project to improve the system of domestic higher education, which was initiated by President Vladimir Putin.

Today, business coaches often hear the ”cautionary tale of the life of Parkes Cadman”, who lived at the turn of the 19th and 20th centuries. A boy from a poor family, from the age of 11 he was forced to work in a mine as a ”ponyboy” - driving a coal wagon. At the unloading point he always kept a book and for the standard 120 seconds while the cart was being unloaded he managed to read a page or two. In 10 years the young man managed to devour more than a thousand books, as he was convinced that ”only education can get him out of the mine”.

In December, the Empress Catherine II Saint Petersburg Mining University will host the International Congress ”Africa Seeks Solutions”, during which the Russian-African Consortium of Technical Higher Education Institutions will be established and the relevant founding documents will be signed. The task of the new structure will be to develop and coordinate co-operation between the parties in the field of education and science, as well as to promote sustainable development of the extractive and processing sectors.

Behrouz Abtahi, Vice Chancellor for International Relations of Iran’s Shahid Beheshti University, paid a working visit to the Empress Catherine II Saint Petersburg Mining University. During the meeting with the Dean of the Mining Faculty Oleg Kazanin he discussed the prospects of co-operation between the two universities in the field of research related to deep-sea mining of solid minerals.