Strategic Partnership Status Assigned to Cooperation with One of Berlin Universities by Academic Council of KubSU

Having adopted a dynamic internationalization strategy, Kuban State University considers international strategic partnership an important tool of improving its status in the global academic community. International strategic partnership is a special form of cooperation in a wide range of areas and is of the greatest strategic importance for internationalization with regard to long-term benefits, sustainability, and interdisciplinary cooperation.

On November 27, 2020, the Academic Council of Kuban State University assigned the status of a strategic partnership to the cooperation between the Kuban State University (KubSU) and the University of Applied Sciences in Berlin (Hochschule für Technik und Wirtschaft Berlin).

The first agreement on inter-University cooperation in the field of promoting the Russian language and joint certification work (linguodidactic testing on Russian as a Foreign Language) was signed in November 2000, and a year later the universities signed the Agreement on scientific cooperation, under which the academic partnership has been steadily developing for 20 years. Mikhail B. Astapov, the rector of Kuban State University put a special highlight on the contribution that Brigitte Dressler, the deputy director of the Foreign Languages Centre of the University of Applied Sciences of Berlin and a graduate of the Faculty of Philology of Kuban State University, has made to the successful development of 20-year cooperation.

The main results of the joint work include the following:

• more than 650 students, professors, and employees of KubSU and the University of Applied Sciences participated in academic mobility programs in the fields of economics, business, law, design, archeology, architecture, computer science, applied mathematics, engineering, intercultural business communication, Russian language for professional communication, translation studies, and management, including management in the field of education;
• Mikhail B. Astapov, the rector of KubSU, and V.A. Babeshko, academician of the Russian Academy of Sciences, were granted titles of Honorary Senators of the University of Applied Sciences;
• Kessler Jurgen, a professor of the University of Applied Sciences (1994-2018) was granted the title of an Honorary Professor of KubSU;
• 15 students of KubSU and the University of Applied Sciences completed their joint degree program and continue to develop the cooperation between the universities, participating in different projects;
• about 300 students of the University of Applied Sciences Berlin, as well as schoolchildren and other citizens of Germany and other countries around the world took part in annual testing (Testing Russian as a foreign language) held by the University of Applied Sciences;
• 38 sessions of the joint Russian-German student seminar on topical issues of economics, business, and law were held in Berlin and Krasnodar;
• the coordinators of cooperation have successfully defended their Ph.D. theses in KubSU. Galina N. Govorova defended (2006) the  thesis "Linguistics of business communication in subject domain 'The international scientific and educational cooperation'". Brigitte Dressler defended (2011) the thesis «Formation and evolution of terminology in subject domain 'Higher and post-graduate professional education': cognitive-derivational and socio-cultural aspects (based on the Russian and German languages)".

The cooperation between the universities in Krasnodar and Berlin could not have been possible without active participation and support of the Embassies of both countries, the Trade Delegation of the Russian Federation in the Federal Republic of Germany, Russian Centre of Science and Culture in Berlin, German Academic Exchange Service (DAAD), Lichtenberg Association of bilingual educational organizations (German/Russian), member companies of the South Regional Committee of the Association of European Businesses in the Krasnodar territory, and the business community of the Federal state of Berlin.

Academic Senate of the University of Applied Sciences in Berlin assigned the status of a strategic partnership to the inter-university cooperation in 2012, highly estimating the results of joint work both in the field of education and research.

It is important to note that Kuban State University and the University of Applied Sciences in Berlin are active participants of the Russian-German academic and cultural exchange. The Universities managed to hold a range of activities online during the pandemics within the framework of the Russian-German Year of Scientific and Educational Partnerships (2018-2020): in June annual Russian language certification test was held; in October the TORFL certificates were handed to all participants of the test by the Ambassador of the Russian Federation Sergey Yu. Nechaev https://russische-botschaft.ru/ru/2020/10/16/o-torzhestvennoy-ceremonii-vrucheniya-m/ ; an annual meeting of the common scientific and practical interest took place in September. At the conference, the students of the Faculty of Economics of Kuban State University presented their reports on the topic "Social Economy: Experience of Russia and Germany". In November, the Russian Cultural Centre in Berlin hosted a series of events during the Week of the Russian Language, providing the experience of teaching Russian to the students of non-linguistic majors to the teachers from German schools and universities.  

On November 25, Prof. Dr.-Ing. Friedrich Sick gave a lecture on the topic "Environmentally safe construction: successful design experience" to undergraduate and graduate KubSU students majoring in Architecture.