Анастасия Литвинова

Five post-graduate students from Saint-Petersburg Mining University were awarded with prizes for steel industry participants at Saarland in Germany. The ceremony took place in Potsdam as a part of the XI Russian-German Raw Materials Dialogue, which came to its end on the 8th of November.

It was the first day of the Russian-German Raw Materials Dialogue when the following statement was released: our countries need a continuous and equal dialogue in conditions of good-neighbourliness.

Gold is one of the first metals to become known to mankind. In the Ancient Egypt, it was considered a part of Ra, the sun God. For this reason, the precious metal was accessible only to the pharaohs, their family members and the priests.

Improving the subject rankings system in the universities is an important issue and the matter of interest for the management of mineral and energy companies. These are the words of Valery Yazev, the President of the Voluntary Association "Russian Miners", following the signing of an agreement with Quacquarelli Symonds.

Throughout the summer, the higher school of Russia was shaken by scandals related to existing assessments of the quality of education. For example, the leaders of the 50 largest Russian universities appealed to Russian President Vladimir Putin with a proposal to abolish the current system of state accreditation as "outdated". The discussion escalated even further with a beginning of the school year. In fact some universities began planning the complete rejection of traditional lectures and their replacement with online courses. First meeting of the working group involved in development of a new system of state accreditation and licensing of higher education institutions took place on October 10. "Forpost" asked the Principal of Saint-Petersburg Mining University to comment on this issue. Under the leadership of Vladimir Litvinenko, the University got as high as number 16 in the Quacquarelli Symonds World University Rankings.

The Bologna process was a reason for a few adjustments made to the education systems of many countries. However, some European countries have succeeded in implementing the right to determine their own approach to the process of training future specialists, and Germany was not an exception. Carsten Drebenstedt, Director of Freiberg University of Mining and Technology, told “Forpost” about some specific features of school and university education in the country as well as about the consequences of switching to the two-level qualifications.

Students of the AGH University of Science and Technology (Akademia Górniczo-Hutnicza im. Stanisława Staszica w Krakowie) shared their views on the practice held by the Mining University in Saint-Petersburg. The practical training took place in July in accordance with a programme "Modern technologies of drilling, transportation and storage of oil and gas".