University of al-Qarawiyyin at KFU

On November, 10 delegation from the University of al-Qarawiyyin headed by its president Abdel-Wahab Tazi-Saoud visited Kazan Federal University.

Their visit started with the meeting where participated KFU administration. KFU Rector, Ilshat Gafurov, Vice-rector for International Relations, Linar Latypov, Head of External Relations Office, Andrey Krylov, and Director of the Institute of International Relations, History, and Oriental Studies, Ramil Khairutdinov, participated in the meeting.

After greeting the guests, Ilshat Gafurov told about a specially developed programme with tours to various University departments, which would help them to form a view of the University activity. Thus, honorary guests saw the exhibition at the University Museum, as well as laboratory facilities, peculiarities of educational process pursued at the Institute of International Relations, History, and Oriental Studies, Institute of Socio-Philosophic Sciences and Mass Communication, Institute of Fundamental Medicine and Biology, Institute of Physics and Institute of Chemistry.

During the conversation there were made brief presentations of the universities and discussed possible prospects for cooperation development. Ilshat Gafurov introduced several offers to the development of academic mobility programmes both for students and faculty members and startup of distance learning. First of all, these prospects involve Linguistics, but they also seek for other possible areas of common interest.

As a reference: Al-Qarawiyyin is a university located in Fes (Morocco). It was founded by Fatima al-Fihri in 859, and has grown to one of the major spiritual and educational centers of the Muslim world. Scientists, philosophers, and theologians who had immensely influenced the development of Muslim and world culture graduated from the university. According to Guinness World Records it appears to be "the oldest existing and continually operating educational institution in the world".