A sizable team of Japanese colleagues is headed by Vice President for International Affairs Yoshio Otani.
While greeting the guests during yesterday's meeting, Rector of KFU Ilshat Gafurov said, “I am glad that we have had breakthrough changes in cooperation in 2017 – namely, Kanazawa’s application for a governmental grant for cooperation between Russia and Japan was successful. This is a very important achievement, especially in today’s global context.”
The program, titled Leaders of the Future, includes cultural visits, joint educational programs, mutual nostrification of graduate certificates, and courses in business management and advanced technology.
Vice President Otani replied, “The aim of our trip is to start implementing the big governmental grant for cooperation with Russian universities. During our meeting, we have managed to discuss a multitude of questions, and we are ready to start a double diploma process in September. At a symposium in January, as I hope, we will be able to sign an addendum pertaining to our interregional and double diploma cooperation.”
The Rector then presented KFU and touched on how both universities are parts of very developed regions – the Republic of Tatarstan and Ishikawa Prefecture. He then moved to inter-institutional cooperation which habitually starts in language and culture studies.
Director of the Institute of International Relations, History and Oriental Studies Ramil Khayrutdinov joined the interlocution, “We already have 200 people who are studying Japanese. Kazan University is a leader in language education in the region. The Center for Japanese Studies plays a major role in arranging research and education about Japan.” He extended an invitation to a forum on Japan which is slated for October 2018.
Rector Gafurov proposed to create “mirror offices”, which are essentially special representative entities, at both universities. He concluded with giving Dr. Otani a copy of the Lobachevsky Medal – an honor reserved for notable guests.
The delegation comprises 24 persons and plans to spend two days at various KFU institutes and centers.