‘Living Values of the University in a Globalizing World’ - International Scientific Conference Dedicated to the 60th Anniversary of RUDN University

The conference participants were greeted by Vladimir Filippov, rector of RUDN University, and Oleg Belyavsky, Director of the Russian Foundation for Basic Research.

First Deputy Minister of Science and Higher Education Grigory Trubnikov sent a congratulatory address:

‘Dear colleagues, on behalf of the Ministry of Science and Higher Education of the Russian Federation and myself, I welcome you to the conference. The conference is held on the basis of RUDN University, which celebrates its 60th birthday these days. During this relatively small age by world standards, RUDN has made an invaluable contribution to the strengthening of friendship and cooperation between Russia and foreign countries. RUDN is a leading Russian university that applies modern tools of the pan-European global educational space in the Russian Federation on a large scale.’

The plenary session was opened by the rector of RUDN University Vladimir Filippov. In his report, he stressed that the conference will cover discussion topics related to globalization and internationalization of higher education in the modern world. Vladimir Filippov mentioned that today RUDN University is the most multi-disciplinary university in Russia: not a single modern university in our country has such a variety of disciplines taught and research areas developed. RUDN University has not only classical Humanities faculties and institutes, but also the faculty of Science, Agricultural and Medical institutes, and the Engineering Academy.

The rector stressed that tolerance is an integral part of the globalizing world:

‘For RUDN University, there is such a concept as ‘mutual enrichment with other cultures’, so the term" tolerance " is not enough for the actual social life of RUDN. There should be a desire to learn and enrich yourself with another culture, and not just to treat it with tolerance.’

Vladimir Filippov noted that the task of the global university is to involve the entire team in the process of internationalization and networking: concerning RUDN university, over the past 5 years the number of publications in journals indexed in Web of Science and Scopus databases has grown significantly, and the number of publications in collaboration with foreign scientists from other universities has reached 40%.

The participants of the plenary session were: Oleg Belyavsky (RFBR), Hans de Wit (Center for the Study of International Higher Education at Boston College), Jan Sadlak (IREG Observatory on Academic Ranking and Excellence), Willi Jäger (Center for Scientific Computing, Institute of Applied Mathematics, University of Heidelberg), Piotr Dutkiewicz (Center for Public Administration and Public Policy, Carleton University), Mikhail Strikhanov (National Research Nuclear University MEPhI (Moscow Engineering Physics Institute), Sijbolt Noorda (Magna Charter of Universities), Wolf-Ferdinand Wieland (Urology clinic of St. Joseph's Hospital Regensburg).

The plenary reports of the participants reflected the topics of the conference and touched upon the issues of living values of universities in a globalizing world. The speakers told about the features of the existence of a modern university in the framework of the 4th Industrial Revolution, the network integration of research and education, and the key challenges for a global university in a changing international social environment.

After the plenary session, Wolf-Ferdinand Wieland, Professor of the Department of Urology of Regensburg University, was awarded the degree of Honorary doctor of RUDN University for the great contribution to the development of bilateral international cooperation and communication in medicine and science. Professor Wieland became the 35th Honorary doctor of the RUDN University in the last 25 years.

The conference continued in 3 sections: ‘Internationalization of Higher Education in the Context of Globalization. Global Internationalization: Cross-Country and Cross-Border Education’; ‘Increasing the Attractiveness of Russian Education’; ‘Living Values of the Universities’.

Also, with the support of the Russian Foundation for Basic Research, an event of a unique format was organized — the International Scientific Symposium ‘New Research Dynamics in Society Development’.

The work of the sections continued on February 7.