Thursday, August 21, Behrooz Abtahi, representative of the Ministry of Science, Research and Technologies of Iran, Counsellor of the Embassy of the Iranian Republic in Moscow, met KFU executives.

Kazan Federal University was represented by Linar Latypov, Vice-Rector for International Relations, Andrey Krylov, Director of the Department of External Affairs, and officials from other KFU divisions.

Behrooz Abtahi had visited the Institute of Physics, Institute of Fundamental Medicine and Biology, and other institutes the day before.

At the meeting the attendees discussed the future official trip of the Kazan University delegation to Iran late September-early October, aimed to establish close relationships with Iranian universities and prepare the ground for joint research projects.

After a brief des­cription of his country's education and science systems, Behrooz Abtahi attracted the attendees' attention to the necessity of increasing the number of Iranian students and postgraduates undertaking an internship in Russia: "About 6.5 thousand Iranian students study in Germany, over 20 thousand in the USA, and in Russia this number is several times less".

The discussion revealed the fact that Russia and Iran are interested in deepening the cooperation in fundamental medicine, physics, engineering, petrochemistry, IT. Sharif University of Technology, Tarbiat Modares University, Shahid Beheshti University, Firdousi University of Meshkhed, and University of Tehran are potential partners of KFU.

Airat Khasyanov, Director of Higher School of Information Technologies and Information Systems (HS ITIS) said that his division was ready to employ "A-students of Iranian universities to the positions of junior research associates and researchers". "We are eager to collaborate in the fields of robotics, visualization, virtual reality, communication systems, telecommunications", HS ITIS Director said.

According to the Counsellor of the Embassy of the Iranian Republic in Moscow, the universities of his country are also interested in cooperation with Russian educational institutions, especially in medicine, as medical education is much-in-demand in Iran.

The overriding priority in the development of scientific ties between Iranian and Russian universities belongs to natural sciences; however, cooperation in humanities was also discussed. Behrooz Abtahi suggested opening cross-cultural centres in an Iranian university and KFU aimed to exchange languages and culture of both countries.