Ambassador of Cuba to Russia Visits UrFU
Julio Antonio Garmendía Peña, Ambassador Extraordinary and Plenipotentiary of the Republic of Cuba to the Russian Federation, visited UrFU on April 23. The Cuban delegation also included Gustavo Jose Cobreiro Suarez, Counselor for Education and Science.
Mr. Ambassador met with Victor Koksharov, UrFU Rector, Sergey Tushin, Vice-Rector for International Relations, and Vladimir Kruzhayev, Deputy Vice-Rector for Research, and had a meeting with Cuban Master’s students. During the meeting, the parties discussed issues of cooperation between UrFU and Cuban higher education institutions: the University of Havana, the Technological University of Havana, the University of Computer Science, the University of Cienfuegos, the Central University “Marta Abreu” of Las Villas.
“We are interested in increasing the number of students of UrFU from among the citizens of the Republic of Cuba. It is important to continue promoting the Russian language in this country, to conduct professional development courses, and to provide educational and methodological support for Russian language teachers. We are also ready to support the professional development of teachers and scientists of Cuban universities in priority areas of cooperation: biotechnology, medicine, pharmaceuticals, world economy, engineering, and healthcare,” said Victor Koksharov.
Another promising form of cooperation is the joint training of highly qualified personnel with the use of interactive network forms with partner universities in Cuba. Victor Koksharov also told the guests about the opportunities for Cuban citizens to study at the UrFU Postgraduate programs and invited the 3rd and 4th year Bachelor Cuban students to participate in the Summer University which will be held in July 2024.
In addition, Koksharov noted the opportunities for cooperation within the framework of scientific journals included in the world’s leading citation indices. First of all, these are the journals Quaestio Rossica (History and Literary Studies), Problems of Onomastics (Philology), Changing Societies and Personalities (Philosophy and Sociology).
In turn, Julio Antonio Garmendia Peña thanked the university administration for the reception and expressed confidence that the cooperation between UrFU and Cuban universities will gain momentum.
“I want as many students as possible to take advantage of the unique conditions for higher education that the Russian government is creating today and that are offered by UrFU, one of the leading universities in the Urals. We have great prospects and our relations are developing upwards. Cuba is interested in training qualified specialists in a wide range of areas. Our enterprises need such specialists, and the role of UrFU can hardly be overestimated in this field. Besides, the university has a great experience of introducing advanced developments of scientists in the industry. We are also very interested in such experience,” said the Ambassador.