Before the new academic year, on August 25, Penza State University received a visit from Han Yongwei, Director of Wuhan Renfu Education Consulting Co., Ltd. - a Chinese company specialising in international cooperation in the field of education.

In 2016, the company started assisting Chinese universities in establishing international cooperation with Russian universities. The company established partnerships with more than 100 universities in Hubei, Hunan, Jiangxi, Guizhou, Henan, Hebei, Guangdong, Shandong and Shaanxi provinces.

After the working meeting with the foreign guest Gleb Sintsov, Vice-Rector for International Affairs of PSU, Director of the Institute of International Cooperation, said that the creation of joint educational programmes with Chinese universities is one of the strategies of Penza State University to develop a partnership network and, at the same time, to increase the number of foreign students from the People's Republic of China.

The meeting with representatives of the Polytechnic Institute was held on the basis of the Polytechnic Museum, where it was possible not only to learn about modern educational programmes of the Faculty of Computer Science, the Faculty of Industrial Technologies, Electric Power and Transport, as well as the Faculty of Information Technologies and Electronics, but also to get acquainted with the history of technology and science.

Ekaterina Pecherskaya, Deputy Director of the Polytechnic Institute of PSU, spoke to the Chinese partners about the structure, educational and scientific activities of the Polytechnic Institute.

Lyudmila Fionova, Dean of the Faculty of Computer Science, and Maxim Mitrokhin, Head of the Department of Computer Science, presented educational programmes related to information technologies; they told about scientific achievements of students in the field of programming and computer science, which demonstrates the high level of teaching at Penza State University.

Andrey Rosen, Head of the Department of Welding, Foundry and Materials Science, introduced the colleagues to the educational activities of the department, showed the results of scientific projects related to the development of layered metallic innovative materials.

Maria Myasnikova, Associate Professor of the Department of Automation and Telemechanics, presented the main aspects of training students in the field of process automation.

Foreign colleagues were interested in the possibility of joint implementation for Chinese students of Bachelor's degree programmes 09.03.01 - Informatics and Computer Science, 15.03.01 - Mechanical Engineering.

Olga Surina, Director of the Pedagogical Institute, she mentioned that a joint educational programme in music has been successfully developing for several years on the basis of the Department of Music and Music Teaching Methodology. Currently, the teaching staff proposes to develop and implement a joint educational programme in fine arts.

Han Yongwei expressed great interest in cooperation with the Institute of Physical Culture and Sport in the field of creating a joint bachelor's programme in the field of study 49.03.01 Physical Culture. Elena Dvoryaninova, Director of the Institute, noted that the staff can provide the programme with highly qualified specialists and is ready to start the project.

The meeting was also held at the Russian as a Foreign Language Department of the PSU Institute of International Cooperation. Head of the department Olga Barabash told about the implemented educational programmes, noted the long-standing successful experience of the department in teaching students from China and suggested several areas of possible cooperation, including the development of a joint educational programme for bachelors in the field of study 45.03.02 Linguistics (profile - Theory and practice of intercultural communication); joint use of the digital educational platform www.RussianUniLink.ru and holding a summer language school in 2024.

Olga Meshcheryakova, Head of the International Relations Office of the Institute of International Cooperation, informed about the experience and prospects of the "3+2" cooperation form with Chinese universities at the undergraduate level. Students of a professional educational institution in China enter the university for intensive study of the Russian language, study in China for 3 years to obtain a diploma and at the same time, having passed the Russian language exam, enter the Russian university for the third year of study and continue their studies for 2 years to obtain a bachelor's diploma issued by the Russian university. After completing the Bachelor's degree, a student may continue his/her studies for 2 years to obtain a Master's degree (4+2 cooperation form).