Founding conference of BRICS Network University held in Moscow

On 15-16 September, Moscow hosted the founding conference of the BRICS Network University. The event was attended by Russian Deputy Minister of Education and Science Alexander Klimov, Director of the Graduate Programmes at the Higher Secretariat of Brazil's Ministry of Education Dilvo Ristoff, Minister in India's embassy in Russia Andjali Pandey, Minister-Counsellor for Education in China's embassy in Russia Zhao Guocheng, Deputy Director General of the University Education Department in South Africa's Ministry of Education Diane Cecile Parker, university rectors and academics from the BRICS countries.

Those at the conference gave preliminary approval to a draft memorandum of understanding on the creation of BRICS Network University, which the BRICS education ministers are expected to sign when they meet in Moscow in November 2015. The memorandum will be the future university's top regulatory document.

During the in-depth discussion of the draft, prepared by Russia's Ministry of Education and Science in cooperation with the Federal Service for Supervision in Education and Science and experts from the Association of Global Universities and other leading Russian universities, the participants finalised the outline defining the BRICS Network University's future development priorities.

BRICS Network University will embody the principles of mutual respect for national laws and education practices as well as equality and transparency. Its governance structure will include an international board of governors formed by the BRICS countries on a parity basis to deal with organisational issues and coordination work and consisting of two rotating plenipotentiary representatives from each member country to maintain continuity.

In addition, the national education ministries will create their own coordination committees. At the initial stage, they will select ten universities in their respective countries for participation in BRICS Network University. That number will make it easier to administer and help fine-tune its mechanisms. With time, more universities will join.

The university will offer various forms of education, both traditional academic programmes and module courses envisaging joint participation in research projects. Practical issues concerning the structure and content of university programmes will be addressed by special international working groups.

Conference participants also considered the priority majors for BRICS Network University. During the first phase they will be determined in accordance with the BRICS Memorandum of Understanding and Cooperation in Science, Technology and Innovation that was signed in Brazil in March 2015. Therefore, the first disciplines will include energy engineering, economics, informatics and information security, environmental protection and climate change, water resources and anti-pollution studies.

Also discussed were ways of promoting information exchanges, short-term network courses and summer schools and encouraging post-graduate students and young researchers.