The year of 2015 was agreed to be the period of Russia’s presidency in the BRICS group. Thus, Russian government is leading the organization of different meetings to discuss and improve cooperation within the BRICS.
The BRICS Global University Summit “Education as resource for global development” was held in Moscow in October 26-28th and took place in 5 Universities of Moscow, recognized as best ones in the international communication sphere, namely: Moscow State Institute of International Relations MGIMO, Lomonosov Moscow State University, Peoples’ Friendship University of Russia RUDN, National University of Science and Technology MISiS, The Diplomatic Academy of Ministry of Foreign Affairs of Russian Federation.
The global university summit gathered more than 400 representatives of BRICS countries, including international organizations, research centers. The participants got the chance to see the Russia’s ministers of foreign affairs, education and science as well as the heads of other Ministries and Agencies that are working within the BRICS cooperation. The issues of education, subjects of general agenda of the Russian presidency were discussed.
The Program comprised talks on academic mobility, educational migration, college and university consortia ratings. Besides, the necessities of tackling with the challenges of the access to education and the perspectives of the distance education reflected in the BRICS Network University establishment have become the main object of collaboration within the BRICS Global University Summit. The agenda also included talks on international finance, the multilateral financial institutions reforms and their main trends and prospects within BRICS; international trade and prospects of preferential trade relations especially concerning the free trade zone creation among the BRICS countries; cybersecurity and other fundamental issues to foment the international exchange within the BRICS group.
(*) The above article is a contribution from Anita Dhar, a Russian student who attended the Summit, in Moscow, and was also a BRICS Summer student at FUDAN, in 2015.