TEHRAN –Iran and Russia have held a joint international course titled ‘Entrepreneurship and Future Skills’ aimed at fostering sustainable development and commercialization of ideas.

The three-month course was held at Amir Kabir University of Technology in Tehran, IRNA reported.

It was organized by the Russian Academy of Foreign Trade and the  Management faculty of Amir Kabir University of Technology.

Expanding international cooperation is one of the most important strategies of the management faculty of Amir Kabir University of Technology.

The objective of the course was to encourage teamwork to learn and generate ideas in business and sustainable development. Therefore, the course was designed based on learning and enhancing international interaction and participation via online collaboration between professors and students of the two countries.

A total of 30 Iranian and 30 Russian students took part in the course which was conducted with the cooperation of professors from both nations.

Completing a preliminary course, students in Iranian and Russian teams chose topics related to the challenges of sustainable development as well as the macro issues of their respective countries.

The students analyzed the topics and then conducted a comparative analysis of the situation in the two countries.

The course helped student groups develop entrepreneurial business ideas in line with sustainable development goals.

Tehran, Moscow to set up joint innovation center

Iran and Russia will soon establish a joint innovation center, the deputy science minister said on March 3.

"Launching the joint innovation center is at the final stages and will be inaugurated soon,” Hassan Zamanian said in a meeting in Tehran with his Russian counterpart Konstantin Mogilensky.

“We also proposed setting up a center at the Russian ministry of science to deal with problems faced by Iranian medical students in Russia,” he added, noting that the proposal was welcomed by the Russian side, IRNA reported.

Mogilensky, for his part, referred to the high capacity of Iranian universities in the field of research and technology, and said, “The areas of cooperation will be determined in the joint committee to be signed later by the high officials of the two countries’ ministries of science.”

He went on to say that Iranian and Russian universities have already signed dozens of memorandums of understanding.

Persian and Russian languages are already taught in universities reciprocally. The expansion of these trainings can further strengthen the relations between Russia and Iran.

Geographical proximity and Western countries’ sanctions on the two countries are the reasons for the two countries’ alliance in recent years, Mogilensky added.

He further noted the scientific and academic cooperation between the two countries has a long history that needs to be promoted.

After the meeting, the Russian delegation visited Sharif University of Technology.

Planning to recognize higher education degrees

Iran and Russia are about to reach an agreement on mutually recognizing higher education degrees, Hadi Goudarzi, the counselor of the Iranian Embassy in the Russian Federation, said in January.

Once the agreement is finalized, the governments of the two countries are expected to sign a document, TASS reported.

The document will cover the recognition of bachelor's, master's, postgraduate and doctoral diplomas.

"More than 90 percent of the agreement is ready, I think it will be signed at the level of the governments of Iran and Russia in the near future," TASS quoted Goudarzi as saying.

Moreover, Iran has just joined BRICS - comprising Brazil, Russia, India, China, and South Africa - starting academic and scientific cooperation with Russia within the BRICS framework.

"I think there will be a lot of meetings between us during this year where new treaties on scientific and practical cooperation within the BRICS framework can be proposed," Goudarzi added.

Iran, Saudi Arabia, the United Arab Emirates, Egypt, and Ethiopia became full members of BRICS as of January 1.

Iranian, Russian universities to boost ties

 On the sidelines of the 15th Congress of the Eurasian University Association which was held in March 2023 in Moscow, officials from the University of Gilan and the University of Lemonov held a meeting to enhance cooperation.

They discussed the improvement of inter-university cooperation, cultural and scientific exchange, and digitalization. The event was organized by Lomonosov Moscow State University.

In this meeting, the vice president of Moscow State University announced the university's readiness to implement the provisions of the memorandum of understanding between the two universities.

The proposal of conducting joint research, sending professors and doctoral students in the form of study opportunities, and holding joint academic courses were among the most important agreements between the two institutions.

In August 2022, Mohammad Javad Salmanpour, the deputy head of the Organization for Student Affairs, and Dmitry Kalinichenko, head of the Russian Federal Agency for the Commonwealth of Independent States Affairs, Compatriots Living Abroad, and the International Humanitarian Cooperation, met in Tehran.

During the meeting, Kalinichenko noted that there were 300 Iranian students with scholarships in Russia and that the number could increase in the future.

Salmanpour, for his part, said that most of the Russian students in Iran were studying without a scholarship mostly in the fields of Persian language and literature, linguistics, etc., and the Islamic Republic welcomes the increasing number of foreign students in these fields.

MT/MG