On 20 June, the International Conference “Internationalization of higher education as the driving force of the institutional transformation of society, economy, and the state” opened the large-scale two-days event — VII International Nevsky Forum 2024, organized by RANEPA St.Petersburg.
The conference took place in the St. Petersburg Chamber of Commerce and Trade. As an expert dialogue the event was attended by 70 representatives of St. Petersburg authorities, scientific organizations and the delegates of the leading Russian and foreign universities from 10 countries, particularly, U Aung Thaw, Chairman of the Union Civil Service Board of the Republic of the Union of Myanmar, Slobodan Dimitrievich, Chairman of the Serbian-Russian Movement, Ratko Ristič, Vice-rector of University of Belgrade, Maxim Zalivsky, Member of the Human Resources Committee, St. Petersburg Chamber of Commerce and Industry, Head of the Project Office at the Russian-African Network University, Peter the Great St. Petersburg Polytechnic University, Daniela Perrotta, Researcher at the National Council for Scientific and Technological Activities of Argentina (CONICET), University of Buenos Aires, Liu Xiaoyin, Deputy Director of Institute of Management and Customs, Shanghai Customs College.
Andrey Khlutkov, Director at RANEPA St. Petersburg and Pavel Shevtsov, Deputy Head of Rossotrudnichestvo, welcomed the participants.
The topic of internationalization has always been relevant. But now it has a special resonance. The present event is an opportunity to discuss the vision of the processes of the internationalization of education from the standpoint of universities in different countries. We are particularly focused on the approaches and practices of our partners with whom we are currently actively building up various ties. We are very pleased that the representatives of universities from Serbia, the CIS countries, Southeast Asia — Myanmar and China, Latin America joined us in person and online.
Olga Nesterova, Deputy director, RANEPA St. Petersburg
…On behalf of our delegation, I have an honor to express my deepest gratitude to the Presidential Academy in St. Petersburg and the Committee for External Relations of St. Petersburg for the warm invitation and the creation of a platform for discussion and for a well-orginized work. Moreover, I would like to say that I firmly believe that thanks to Nevsky Forum, useful and valuable solutions and concepts emerge for many countries. I would like to end my speech with one important fact that I should note: we are all now in the trand on internationalization but not westernalization, no matter how fa,iliar it may sound. I would like to say that we will achieve success only through an effective cooperation and interaction, taking into account the national special features of each country.
U Aung Thaw, Chairman of the Union Civil Service Board of the Republic of the Union of Myanmar
At the panel discussion focused on internationalization as a university development priority participants from Russia, Serbia, China, Armenia, and Belarus discussed tools and principles for managing internationalization processes, ensuring the quality of education, the role of the linguistic component in the internationalization process.
At the panel discussion focused on the educational integration of the CIS countries participants addressed issues of national and regional approaches to understanding the processes of internationalization, local education systems restructuring, competitiveness of local universities, student motivation and improving the quality of education.
