New | Mainland's first Chinese-Russian university will open its doors by 2015
Teaching courses from Russian language to aerospace engineering, Shenzhen school will train bright minds for both countries
The first-ever university jointly founded by Russia and China will start accepting students next year at its planned campus in Shenzhen, in another project marking closer strategic ties between the two countries.
The organising committee of the proposed Russo-Chinese University agreed on Wednesday to open its doors next year.
A party official from Beijing Institute of Technology (BIT) confirmed they signed an agreement with Russia to found the school. The Beijing institute will set up the school together with Moscow State University (MSU), according to the website of Communist Party mouthpiece People’s Daily.
Its 20-hectare campus will be constructed within 10 months, the Russian state news agency RIA reported.
The university expects to enrol 5,000 students in its first year, the report said.
”The detailed plan for this university will only be out in the new academic year [which starts this autumn]. Students will come from both Russia and China,” said the BIT official, surnamed Duan.
Duan added that students would spend their first two years of their course in their home country and the last two years in the foreign country.
Under the auspices of the MSU, the new school will offer courses such as Russian language studies, arts, economics and international trade, as well as aerospace engineering, car manufacturing and physics, among others.
Students will be taught in Russian, Chinese and English and will get dual diplomas from Moscow State University and the Russo-Chinese University after graduation.
Chinese ambassador to Russia Li Hui said the university was an important education cooperative project, which further enriched the two countries’ comprehensive strategic partnership.
It also makes history as “the first university jointly founded by Russia and China”, Li said.
MSU’s president, Viktor Sadovnichy, said the university would train highly qualified personnel to further cooperation between the two countries.
Russian Duma Speaker Sergei Naryshkin commented the project came in a time when China and Russia relations were at their best.
The two sides signed a memorandum of understanding on establishing the Russo-Chinese University during a meeting between President Vladimir Putin and President Xi Jinping in Shanghai in May.
To thresh out the new university’s administration, the two countries will ink an intergovernmental agreement in October.
MSU, founded in 1755, is the largest and oldest university in Russia, according to its website. It ranked 120th last year’s list of top schools by the Centre for World University Rankings.
The Beijing Institute of Technology, meanwhile, is know for its strong sciences programmes and ranks 79th in Asia, according to the world university ranking.
