On 19 February 2018, the First Forum of the Federation of Russian and Arab Universities opened in Beirut (Lebanon).

Olga Vasilieva, Minister of Education and Science of the Russian Federation, addressed the opening session of the forum. In her welcoming remarks, the Minister emphasised that the Forum is a landmark event for the development of academic and scientific cooperation between Russia and Arab countries.

“Our country highly appreciates the significant contribution of Arab researchers to world science, who worked in numerous universities and libraries on the territory of modern Egypt, Iraq, Lebanon, Morocco, and Syria in the early Middle Ages. I should like to emphasise that, only through their actions, the creative legacy of the great ancient school was preserved and handed to new generations. This legacy became the global commons of world civilization,” Olga Vasilieva stated.

The minister specified that 11982 students from Arab countries study in the current academic year in Russian universities, 2127 of them study using budget allocations from the federal budget and 9855 students are trained under the education agreements financed by individuals and entities. By 2025 Russia intends to increase the number of foreign citizens studying in Russian HEIs from 272 thousand to 700 thousand students.

“This is a significant event, so many rectors from Russia and Arab countries have not gathered at the same time over the past decades,” Aleksandr Gulyakov highlighted in the interview to TASS correspondent. In the course of the forum, Rector of Penza State University signed four agreements with Arab partners. According to him, “the forum left much to be done in terms of implementing academic and research programmes, as well as exchanging best practices in teaching and education”.

Aleksandr Gulyakov reported that Penza State University trains 1700 international students from 47 states, including 307 from 12 Arab countries. “The cooperation with partners from the Arab East is very timely, given that friendship between our peoples since is long-standing since the construction of the Aswan Dam in Egypt,” he claimed.

The meeting in Beirut was initiated by Moscow State University and Arts, Science and Technology University in Lebanon. 40 heads of leading Russian HEIs and over 60 rectors of the key universities and institutes from the member-states of the Arab League arrived in Beirut (Lebanon).

At the First Forum of the Federation of Russian and Arab Universities in Beirut, its participants signed over 20 agreements. On Monday Viktor Sadovnichy, President of the Russian Union of Rectors and Rector of M.V. Lomonosov Moscow State University stated this summing up the results of the meeting held in the conference room of Phoenicia Hotel.