PSU will cooperate with universities of Saudi Arabia and Algeria

Aleksandr Guliakov, Rector of PSU, during the II Forum of the Federation of Russian and Arab Universities Rectors, which was held in Moscow, signed agreements on joint activities with two leading universities in the Arab world - Prince Mohammad bin Fahd University (Al Khobar, Saudi Arabia) and Djilali Bounaama University (Khemis Miliana, Algeria).

The cooperation with Arab universities and associations began in 2015. The first cooperation agreement was signed with the University of Lebanon (May, 2015). In the same year, interaction with the University of Isra (Jordan) started. Later, agreements were signed with the Lebanese University of Arts, Science and Technology AUL (May, 2016); Association of Arab Universities (October, 2017); American University of Culture and Education (Lebanon, October, 2017).

As a result of the PSU Rector’s participation in I Forum of the Federation of Rectors of Russian and Arab Universities in 2018-2019, 6 more agreements were signed: with the University of Science and Technology (Sana'a, Yemen), the University of Menoufia (Menoufia, Egypt), the National Arab-Russian Association (Beirut, Lebanon), the Lebanese-French hospital, Hadhramout University (Yemen) and Tishk International University (Iraq).

In 2018, under the agreement with the National Arab-Russian Association, PSU enrolled 102 foreign students from 7 Arab countries (Lebanon, Egypt, Yemen, Jordan, Iraq, Sudan, and Syria), and in 2019 another 178 students from 9 countries (geography expanded by representatives from Algeria and Morocco).

In April 2019, the first internship was organized for students of the Department of Journalism of the Faculty of History, Languages and Literature, PSU, in informational and educational organizations of the Lebanese Republic, and in July, the first internship for 10 students of the PSU Medical Institute in the Lebanese-French hospital was held.

As part of the agreement with Hadhramout University (Yemen), it is planned to organize a Russian Language Center at Hadhramout University and to teach the Russian language to Yemen students so that they could continue their studies in engineering at PSU.

At present, 394 international students from 12 Arab countries are studying at PSU (Egypt, Jordan, Lebanon, Yemen, Iraq, Syria, Sudan, Tunisia, Algeria, Morocco, Libya, Palestine). They are getting education at the Medical Institute, Polytechnic Institute, Institute of Teacher Education, Institute of Law, and the Institute of Economics and Administration. There are two post-graduate students and four residency students.

In 2018–2019 25 people from 7 Arab countries (Egypt, Algeria, Yemen, Tunisia, Iraq, Jordan, Lebanon) received PSU diplomas.

As for the prospects for further cooperation, Rector Aleksandr Guliakov speaks about the implementation of the joint project to build a student-type hotel campus for international students, as well as about the work on the project to create a modern medical clinic.

Much attention at the university is paid to preparing online bachelor’s and master’s degree educational programmes in economics and information technologies, together with higher education institutions that are members of the Association of Arab Universities.

PSU is also planning to expand the geography of international students from Arab countries at economic and IT specialties.