The number of foreign students at Vitebsk State University almost doubled in 2010

January 14, Vitebsk / Sergey Kotovets - BELTA /. The number of foreign students studying at Vitebsk State University named after P. Masherov increased by almost half in 2010, the university's educational work department informed a BELTA correspondent. Today, more than 270 students from Turkmenistan, China, Russia, Ukraine, Azerbaijan, Italy, Germany, and Nigeria are pursuing full-time education at the Vitebsk university. In the current academic year, the university, in cooperation with Hohhot Professional Institute (China), has launched a joint student training project under the "3+3" system. Chinese citizens study at Hohhot Institute for 3 years in the specialties of "Musical Art" and "Fine Arts," and then continue their studies at VSU in the 4th and 5th years, as well as in the master's program of the Belarusian university. Training is conducted according to jointly developed curricula and programs. Also, the Vitebsk and Chinese universities continue to work on establishing the Belarusian-Chinese University on the basis of the Chinese university. In addition, in 2010, corrective courses for foreign citizens in the Russian language, general theory of law, soil geography, topography with the basics of geodesy, meteorology, and climatology were organized at VSU for the first time. In 2010, more than 1.7 thousand people graduated from the university, including almost 1 thousand young specialists in full-time education. University staff prepared nearly 2 thousand scientific works, including over 200 textbooks and about 740 scientific articles, obtained 10 patents, and filed 3 applications for inventions. The titles of "Professor" and "Associate Professor" were awarded to 11 staff members, and one doctoral and 9 candidate dissertations were defended at the university. Eight educational, scientific, and production complexes, four educational, scientific, and consulting centers, and the scientific, information, and methodological center "Current Problems of Social Assistance and Support for Citizens in Difficult Life Situations" have been established at the university. A travel agency has been created at the Faculty of History. VSU and its constituent Orsha and Polotsk Colleges have certified their quality management system for compliance with STB ISO 9001-2009 and the German accreditation system DIN EN ISO 9001-2008. Almost 200 university students became winners and prize-winners of international and republican sports competitions, creative contests, olympiads, and research paper competitions. Based on the results of 2010, for significant contributions to educational, methodological, scientific, and educational work, the title "University Person of the Year" was awarded to Vice-Rector for Academic Affairs Veslav Turkovsky. The Department of Social Pedagogy was recognized as the best humanities department, and the Department of Chemistry as the best natural sciences department. In addition, for special merits and significant contributions to the development of the university, the title "Department of the Year" was also awarded to the Department of Design. More than 50 teachers and staff members of the university were awarded the badge of the Ministry of Education "Excellent Student of Education," honorary diplomas from the ministry, the regional executive committee, and the university, including valuable gifts. For the first time, the best employees were also honored with the commemorative medal "For Merits in the Development of VSU," established for the university's 100th anniversary in 2010. -0-