Rector Ilshat Gafurov headed a regular meeting of the Council of Rectors of Tatarstan today.
A discussion about this new collective body ensued. The Association will cover a wider spectrum of issues than the Council has done so far. Among them are infrastructural development, accommodation for employees, joint research, educational methodology, exam panels, etc.
The Association will oversee the implementation of the decrees issued by the President of Tatarstan, including the planned transition to the University 4.0 model (first proposed by Kazan Federal University). The “4.0” here stands for education, research, technology transfer, and digitization. All local universities will now follow the path trailblazed by KFU. Furthermore, the universities must gear up the opening of creative industry centers.
United efforts are needed to achieve new goals set by President Putin's decree “On national goals and strategic tasks of development of the Russian Federation until 2024”, which, among other things, emphasizes heavily the importance of research and education development. 15 large-scale R&E centers shall be established through integration of universities, research institutions, and industrial entities.
“I am asking all Council members to join the Association of Universities of Tatarstan and start implementing these new ideas,” said Dr. Gafurov.
As was decided, the universities will join before 1st August, and a first meeting will be held in October 2018. By that time, some of the rectors will have visited the Council of Rectors of the Volga Federal District, so they should have even more initiatives to share.
Source text: Darya Bondarenko
Translation: Yury Nurmeev