The universities plan to work together in medicine, physics, IT, engineering, Oriental studies, linguistics, and law.

Masaryk University delegation headed by Rector Mikulas Bek met Rector Ilshat Gafurov, directors of the University's institutes, heads of priority research projects yesterday, June 11th.

The cooperation started in 2013 after the memorandum of understanding had been signed. Last year saw the opening of the Czech Centre in KFU. Conversely, the Centre of Russian Language and Culture was established at Masaryk University in May 2015. One of its objectives is to attract Czech students to KFU.

Dr. Gafurov suggested joint NMR research as one of the potential fields of mutual interest (both universities have good labs). Student exchange is also of particular interest, both educationally and culturally.

The Czech delegation was very intrigued by another big project – the Russian student media portal of which our University is one of the primary initiators. Dr. Gafurov said, “You can become one of the champions of Czech education and science here in Russia by joining this project. And our youth can learn more about Czech universities”.

Dr. Bek said he would be pleased to accept this suggestion. He also mentioned that Masaryk University would like to seek cooperation in Arabic studies; the Czech side is also interested in learning more about the experience of the Tatarstan's educational system in bilingual (Russian and Tatar) context, peaceful coexistence of Islam and Eastern Orthodox Church is also of particular interest. Furthermore, cybersecurity is another domain where mutual interest is high. Masaryk University has a special cybersecurity lab serving as a test ground for many clients, including government agencies.

Other possible fields include clinical linguistics, cognition studies, Russian language teachers training.

Further negotiations will be held by the professionals in their respective areas.