The Russian-Turkmen Business Forum ended in Ashgabat on January 20. The Russian delegation was headed by the Russian Prime-Minister Mikhail Mishustin and the delegation of the Russian Ministry of Science and Higher Education – Deputy Minister Konstantin Mogilevskii. Saratov Region was represented by the Vice-Rector for International Affairs, SSU, Dmitrii Konakov.

At the panel sessions of the forum, the meeting members discussed the Russian-Turkmen cooperation in transport and logistics, industry, education, digital agenda, and other interaction areas.

Dmitrii Konakov took part in the panel discussion entitled The Russian-Turkmen Cooperation in Education. The moderator on the Russian side was the Deputy Director of the Department of International Cooperation of the Ministry of Higher Education and Science Elena Gorozhankina, on the part of colleagues from Turkmenistan – the Minister of Education Gurbangul Atayeva.

The participants discussed the prospects for the development of bilateral cooperation in education, in particular, the main trends in the development of online education, the experience of universities implementing educational and research cooperation. The event was attended by representatives of more than 20 Russian and Turkmen universities.

The SSU Vice-Rector told the participants of the panel discussion about the work of Saratov University, in particular, the development of partnerships with the international scientific community, educational trajectories, and achievements in research, which allows the university to enter the 500 leading universities of the world, according to international ranking agencies.

‘As of October 1, 2022, more than a thousand citizens of Turkmenistan are studying at the university. According to the analysis carried out over the past five years, the dynamics of the number of Turkmen students has increased by 2,5 times – from 474 people in the 2017/2018 academic year to 1,159 people in 2022/2023. The most popular among students are pedagogical courses,’ Dmitrii Konakov noted.

In this regard, Dmitrii Kanokov made a proposal to transfer the interaction of SSU with universities of Turkmenistan to a more meaningful and permanent stage. The panel discussion also considered the issue of Saratov State University joining the network project of the Russian-Turkmen university in a few areas.

Currently, more than 29 thousand citizens of Turkmenistan are studying at Russian universities. In addition, Turkmen students participate in summer and winter schools under international mobility programmes.

It should be noted that the Government of Turkmenistan has approved a list of internationally recognised universities for 2023, whose diplomas will be recognised in Turkmenistan. SSU has traditionally been included in the specified list of universities, the education of which is recognised as high-quality and promising.