Regional Governor Backs Development Strategy of Astrakhan State University

Our Acting Rector pointed out that ASU performs its activities considering with Astrakhan Region’s strategic development program. Such a policy was carried out even before the Russian President set this task at the session of rectors of national universities.

Now several major fields of activities have been identified, including pre-university training. “Already when they are still secondary school students, children should have a real opportunity to choose those specialties that are really demanded by economy today, and start preparing for their university studies by taking this fact into account”, Mr. Markelov pointed out. Now several projects are available for our future students at ASU – schools of history, archaeology, robotics, and journalism. Our University is planning to extend the number of such educational initiatives and become a base for various competitions and contests.

Another urgent area is development of cooperation with countries located at the Caspian Sea. Now over 2, 000 foreign students study at ASU; most of them come from the countries that are our neighbors at the Caspian Sea. New language programs are implemented now, and new centers of interaction are established.

Acting as a major site to train demanded specialists, Astrakhan State University develops its partnership with business companies, as well as with regional ministries, Russian and foreign universities. Over the past months, over 20 cooperation agreements have been signed. There are faculty and student exchange programs; joint researches are conducted; joint projects are implemented. For instance, the Lotos Economic Development Zone is ready to establish its own HR center at ASU. Our University has already begun to train specialists to meet the needs of the Lotos Zone, and our students cover practical training programs there.

General engineering training for all the technical specialties have been planned as well. Thanks to it, our students shall get the necessary base; they will learn how to read drawings and work with technical appliances. As for languages, the range of fifteen foreign languages that are taught at ASU will be extended with two other languages – Hindi and Greek. Just as before, qualified linguistics will be trained considering with real needs of the world labor market. Students specializing in any sphere will be able to learn a foreign language, which is especially important under current conditions of globalization and developing international links. For example, students of our Department of Agribusiness, Technologies, & Veterinary Medicine plant young trees by applying Greek technologies, thanks to support of the Aristotle University of Thessaloniki.

Mr. Markelov pointed out that demanded specialists are trained in close cooperation with other educational institutions of Astrakhan. Moreover, there are plans to establish a consortium of universities of the Caspian Sea Region to provide transportation and logistic infrastructure. A number of top universities of the Russian South is ready to join that consortium.

Astrakhan State University has prospects of national scale. “We are ready to act as a site to establish a base university. This year, we are planning to take part in a competition of the Ministry of Education and Science. We only need our Governor’s support”, our Acting Rector said.

In his turn, Mr. Zhilkin promised to do his best to make ASU a base university, considering with all those viable projects that it will be implementing.