A faculty for training foreign citizens is planned to be established at Vitebsk State University

May 2, Vitebsk / Sergey Kotovets - BELTA /. A faculty for training foreign citizens is planned to be established at the Vitebsk State University named after P. Masherov by the beginning of the new academic year, the university's international cooperation department informed a BELTA correspondent. The new structure is designed to address the tasks of optimizing the training process for foreign citizens and increasing the effectiveness of their preparation. Currently, more than 300 students from Turkmenistan, China, Russia, Ukraine, Azerbaijan, Kazakhstan, Tajikistan, Latvia, and Estonia are studying at the Vitebsk university. In the current academic year, almost 120 young people from abroad became students of VSU, which is almost twice the enrollment result of 2009/2010. In the next academic year, it is planned to admit at least 120 foreign citizens to the preparatory department, as well as to the first year of full-time and part-time studies. In addition, it is planned to expand the list of specialties for which foreigners are trained. For example, in the current academic year, the university, in cooperation with the Hohhot Professional Institute (China), launched a joint student training project under the "3+3" system. Chinese citizens study at the Hohhot Institute for 3 years in the specialties "Musical Art" and "Fine Art," and then continue their studies at VSU in their 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. In addition, the issue of organizing training in the specialty "Design" for students of the East China University of Technology, also under the "3+3" system, is currently being worked out. In the university's immediate plans is to enroll foreign students in the specialty "Applied Informatics." The concept of the university's development for 2010-2015 provides for the expansion of cooperation with foreign universities and the increase in the export of educational services, including through the annual increase in the admission of foreign citizens. It is planned to organize advertising campaigns, with Syria, Turkey, the PRC, India, Turkmenistan, and a number of other countries being among the promising areas for finding new partners. Vitebsk State University is actively working on the international stage, with cooperation agreements already signed and being implemented with more than 30 partner universities from 17 countries worldwide. -0-