Center for International Certification in Arabic Language Opened at Kazan University

This is the first such center in Russia and the CIS.

The ceremony was attended by international guests – Director of the Center for Arabic Language Testing in Morocco Mohammed El Hannach and Ambassador of Syria in Russia Riad Haddad.

The Center was opened in fulfilment of a trilateral agreement between KFU, Abdelmalek Essaadi University, and International Agency for Natural Language Processing.

It's worth noting that, unlike European languages, the Arabic language has not yet established a unified testing and evaluation system for foreign learners. It was not long ago when Cairo University first introduced two certificates – ECA (for the Egyptian Arabic) and MSA (for Standard Arabic). However, those two are just national-level as of now.

A more universal test program has been proposed by Dr. El Hannach. The system currently includes 25 thousand questions and is in use in Morocco, Saudi Arabia, Canada, and some European countries. It is based on classic Arabic standards and has already gained traction among employers.

Director of the Higher School of International Relations and Oriental Studies Elmira Khabibullina said during the opening ceremony, “Until now Russia and post-Soviet states didn't have a center for certification in Arabic language. People who wanted to be certified needed to apply to international organizations. This new center gives way to all the Russian and CIS citizens to pass tests. For instance, students of Yerevan State University have already expressed interest.”

The exams at KFU will be held by experts who have trained at Abdelmalek Essaadi University. The Center will also introduce preparation courses for test takers. AEU and KFU will continue their cooperation within the framework of a memorandum that was signed today as a part of the opening proceedings.