Delegations from universities of four countries will take part in the celebrations for the 100th anniversary of Vitebsk State University

November 23, Vitebsk / Sergey Kotovets - BELTA /. Delegations from universities of four countries will take part in the celebrations dedicated to the 100th anniversary of Vitebsk State University named after P. Masherov. This was reported to a BELTA correspondent by the university's international cooperation department. The anniversary celebrations will be held throughout the current week in all faculties. For the 100th anniversary, an updated museum exhibition and an exhibition of works by students of the art and graphics faculty will be opened at the university. During the "University is only 100!" campaign, students will form the inscriptions "VSU - 100", "We love VSU" and "Happy Birthday, VSU" in front of the university's main building. Receptions for veterans of the Great Patriotic War and pedagogical labor, as well as the best students of the university, will be held at the rectorate. In addition, almost all scientific, educational and socially significant events of the university throughout the year were dedicated to the 100th anniversary. In total, the plan for preparing for the celebration of the university's 100th anniversary included almost 100 events that took place every week in the anniversary year. The culmination of the celebration will be on November 26, which is considered the founding date of the higher education institution. On this day, an expanded meeting of the VSU Council will be held, which will be attended by the teaching staff, veterans and student community, as well as honored guests of the university. Delegations from Bialystok University (Poland), East China University of Science and Technology and Hohhot Vocational College (China), Tatar State University of Humanities and Pedagogy and Mari State University (Russia), Vinnytsia State Pedagogical University named after M. Kotsyubinsky and Kremenchuk State Polytechnic University named after M. Ostrogradsky (Ukraine) will come to congratulate their colleagues on the anniversary. Vitebsk State University is actively working on the international stage, with cooperation agreements signed and implemented with more than 30 partner universities from 17 countries. Together with colleagues from Hohhot Vocational College, Vitebsk University is creating the Belarusian-Chinese University. VSU participates in the implementation of three international projects under the European Union's "Tempus-4" program. In addition, international projects are being implemented by the university's departments. For example, the Department of Zoology participates in the banding and study of bird migration within the SE European bird migration network program. The Department of Botany participates in the implementation of the Belarusian-Russian project "Chronology of the Flora and Fauna of the Belarusian-Valdai Lake District". The university's development concept for 2010-2015, which was developed for the first time at the university, provides for the expansion of cooperation with foreign universities and the increase of educational service exports, including through the annual increase in the admission of foreign citizens. Advertising campaigns are planned, with Syria, Turkey, China, India, Turkmenistan, and a number of other countries being among the promising directions for finding new partners. In 2010, Vitebsk State University certified its quality management system (QMS) for compliance with the STB ISO 9001-2009 standard and the German accreditation system DIN EN ISO 9001-2008. The implementation and certification of the QMS enhances the prestige and competitiveness of VSU at the international level, enabling the university to actively integrate into the European educational space. For the anniversary celebrations, the university published a book about the university's century-long history. The three-hundred-page volume will be presented as a gift to the honored guests of the anniversary celebrations. The publication, prepared by a team of authors led by VSU Rector, Professor Alexander Solodkov, includes materials reflecting the university's educational, scientific, and international activities, all aspects of training scientific and pedagogical staff, as well as the educational work carried out. Vitebsk Teachers' Institute was opened in November 1910 to train teachers for higher primary schools and became the first educational institution of its kind in the territory of modern Belarus. The institute included a two-grade city school for practical training of students with a three-year curriculum. Young people of all ranks and classes, not younger than 16 years of age, were admitted to the institute. Each entrant signed an undertaking to work for at least 6 years as a teacher in a city school according to the distribution of the educational authorities. The university staff included a director, 15 teachers, a chaplain, a doctor, and a clerk. The institute taught pedagogy, Russian and Church Slavonic languages, arithmetic, algebra, geometry, history, geography, natural history and physics, drawing and painting, penmanship, singing and gymnastics, and manual labor. Vitebsk Teachers' Institute existed until 1917, after the revolution it was transferred to the jurisdiction of Narkompros and transformed into a pedagogical institute. The institution received the status of a classical university on September 1, 1995, as a result of the reorganization of the pedagogical institute, and in February 1998 it was named after Pyotr Masherov, a graduate of the Vitebsk university. The university trains specialists in the fields of pedagogy, psychology, humanities, natural sciences and mathematics, art and design, law, social work, and physical education. In total, the university trains specialists with higher education in 8 profiles, 40 specialties, 15 fields, and 35 specializations across 11 faculties. Today, more than 4.7 thousand students study full-time and almost 5.5 thousand study by correspondence at VSU. -0-