KFU Rector Ilshat Gafurov and President of Penn State University Rodney Erickson Signed MoU
The signing ceremony took place in University Park on March, 27 within the official trip of KFU delegation to the USA.
Before signing MoU the representatives of Penn State University and KFU administration discussed joint research projects in priority areas, in particular, in petroleum and gas engineering and in material sciences. Joint training of graduate and postgraduate students that involves establishment of equal laboratories and introduction of distance educational courses to curricula were discussed, too.
Ilshat Gafurov expressed his gratitude to Rodney Erickson and to the President of American Councils for International Education David Davidson for invitation and administration of KFU visit. The Rector presented KFU, its structure, main development directions and partners.
The President of Penn State University in his welcome speech expressed hope that the joint projects would be further developed.
Reference:
Penn State University is a public research university located in University Park, Pennsylvania. It is listed among 15 best US state-related universities. The annual enrollment is more than 44, 000 student that makes Penn State one of the largest US universities.
Penn State was founded in 1855 as the Farmers’ High School of Pennsylvania. Today it has 24 campuses, 100, 000 students, 17, 000 faculty. Wall Street Journal survey released in September 2010, Penn State was ranked 1 among 479 corporate recruiting executives who were asked to identify “whose bachelor degree graduates were the best-trained and educated, and best able to succeed once hired”. QS World University Rankings ranks the University 107-th (2013-2014).
According to Times Higher Education ranking for 2013-2014 Penn State is ranked as 49th best university in the world. The University is known for its high entrance competition.
The visit to USA was possible due to partnership of the Republic of Tatarstan and Pennsylvania at the level of RT President and Pennsylvania’s Governor. The project US-Russia Innovation corridor initiated by American Councils for International Education is aimed at efficient collaboration between the state, business and universities as driving force of innovative regional economics in the specified cluster.
During consecutive days KFU administration is planning to visit University of Pennsylvania, headquarters of American Councils for International Education in Washington, DC and meet with Ravil Nigmetzyanov, the Trade Representative of the Republic of Tatarstan in USA.
