UAE Delegation Visits HSE University
HSE University Rector Nikita Anisimov has held a meeting with a delegation from the United Arab Emirates headed by Undersecretary of Academic Affairs for Higher Education at the Ministry of Education Mohammed Ibrahim Al Mu’alla. Representatives of leading universities in the UAE took part in the meeting.
‘It is a great honour for us to welcome this delegation from the United Arab Emirates. It is a developed economic, financial, educational and transport centre. We are impressed by the efforts of the government of the UAE to update the system of science and education in the country in accordance with the highest international standards of quality,’ said HSE University Rector Nikita Anisimov, welcoming the overseas group.
He stressed that HSE is the only Russian university to appear in the top 35 of the world ranking of young universities, where it places 31st. Fifty-two thousand students study at HSE University, including 5,200 from almost 140 different countries. More than 5,000 teachers and researchers work at the university, including 200 international staff from 50 countries. In 2023, HSE University has shown strong results in 47 international subject rankings, placing in the top 100 in 11 of them.
Nikita Anisimov explained that HSE University is an international Russian university with a large number of fully English-taught programmes. He also spoke in detail about the university’s cooperation with Arab countries in the fields of education and research. In the last several years, scientists from HSE University and the UAE have launched 129 joint publications in various fields of scientific research. Around 140 students of HSE University study Arabic, and a new course on Islamic finance was launched this year.
Undersecretary Mohammed Ibrahim Al Mu’alla thanked Nikita Anisimov for the warm, heartfelt welcome at HSE University. The delegation included representatives of leading universities in the UAE: United Arab Emirates University, Zayed University, Higher Colleges of Technology, and Khalifa University. The esteemed guest noted that he was aware of the collaboration between HSE University and United Arab Emirates University, whose rector was in attendance at the meeting, as well as with other leading universities in the UAE. He also expressed his hope that the meeting at HSE University would add extra impetus to the development of contacts with universities in the UAE.
‘We are open to any form of cooperation, whether academic exchanges for teachers and students, the organisation of summer schools, or the implementation of joint educational programmes. We also invite Russian universities to open branches and representative offices in our country. The opportunities to foster bilateral cooperation are numerous,’ said the undersecretary.
HSE University Vice Rector Victoria Panova presented a range of proposals on cooperation in the fields of science and education, noting that there is interest not only in cooperation between universities: ‘We are ready for a higher level of partnership, not only between universities, and we would be very interested in sharing an educational space with the UAE. We propose the creation of a university mobility programme in a unified educational space between our two countries and, perhaps, more broadly—between the countries of the EEA and the Gulf Cooperation Council.’
Among the proposals was the organisation of joint studies into topical areas, the creation of specialised research centres (South Arabian studies at HSE University and Russian and Eurasian studies at HSE and universities in the UAE).
Victoria Panova also congratulated her colleagues on the UAE’s upcoming accession to BRICS and expressed hope in the creation of a more comprehensive mechanism for communication between young people in the two countries. ‘We will be happy to see young people from your country at our BRICS+ school in November of this year. And we would be happy to discuss other future similar exchanges in general.’
Mohammed Ibrahim Al Mu’alla said that he wholeheartedly supported the development of relations in interinstitutional spheres and expressed great interested in the BRICS youth event to be held at HSE University in November.
HSE University Vice Rector Leonid Gokhberg noted that HSE ranks first among Russian universities in terms of research volume, and that it is a leading analytical centre of the Russian government.
‘The efforts currently being made by the government of the UAE in terms of the country’s technological and digital transformation, as well as in achieving leading positions in many fields of modern science, reflect the areas of research and development in science and technology policy being conducted at our university, including international partnership,’ added Leonid Gokhberg.
He named several possible areas of cooperation and noted that HSE University recently completed the development of science and technology foresight for the South African government. Work is also underway with the science ministries of Morocco, Malasia, and Vietnam to create a system of state statistics and policy in the sphere of science and technology. Vice Rector Gokhberg also put forward a proposal for the creation of a joint centre in the field of science and technology policy and foresight.
Concluding the meeting, Mohammed Ibrahim Al Mu’alla highlighted the necessity of cooperating with HSE University under the auspices of BRICS, preparing students to take part in international competitions, and creating development forecasts for the country.
In turn, Nikita Anisimov thanked the undersecretary and his colleagues for the meeting and said that every participant on the Russian side will visit the UAE in the coming academic year in order to further develop their partner relations.