Scientific and educational cooperation between Russia and Latin American countries: challenges and development prospects at Russian Council for International Affairs

On April 18, Irina Shokina, MSLU head of the department of international cooperation and internationalization, made a report on the scientific and educational cooperation of the University with Latin American countries as part of the expert seminar “Scientific and educational cooperation between Russia and Latin American countries: challenges and development prospects”, organized by the Russian Council for International Affairs.

The event participants were welcomed by representatives of the Ministry of Science and Higher Education of the Russian Federation, the Institute of Latin America, the Russian Academy of Sciences and the National Committee for the Promotion of Economic Cooperation with Latin American Countries. The participants shared their experiences and voiced the main difficulties they encounter in working with Latin America.

In her speech, Irina Shokina emphasized that the main areas of cooperation with Latin American universities are academic, scientific and cultural. Among the positive results of MSLU efforts to develop partnerships is that in recent years the University has established contacts with 16 universities in Cuba, Mexico, Guatemala and Brazil, and is now negotiating with leading universities in Argentina, Venezuela and other Latin American countries. MSLU has a long and fruitful cooperation with the embassies of Latin American countries, holds joint events both at MSLU and at other venues and takes part in international events in the relevant countries.

The priority task is to promote Russian as a foreign language, for which MSLU, in particular, participates in grant projects such as the Rossotrudnichestvo competition “Masters of the Russian Language” and the Ministry of Education grant “Russian Language - New Opportunities for Latin American Countries”. Participation in grants brings positive results: in addition to establishing contacts with potential partner universities, work is underway on plans for holding school Olympiads in RFL, cultural and educational festivals to promote the Russian language and literature in schools in Cuba and Venezuela; joint creation of textbooks for Spanish speakers studying the Russian language and Russian culture; creation of the Russian Language Center in Venezuela together with the Eurasian Institute of Latin America and the Caribbean.

In her report, Irina Shokina noted the importance of MSLU’s participation in the implementation of the project of the Ministry of Science and Higher Education of the Russian Federation “Comprehensive internship program for Cuban students in the Russian Federation “Internship in Russia - a step to success” together with the Southern Federal University and the Institute of Russian Language. A.S. Pushkin.

More than 1000 students at MSLU study Spanish and 100 Portuguese. Of course, they look forward to internships in the countries of the languages they study. Starting from the 2022/2023 academic year, MSLU began a student exchange program with the University of Veracruz (Mexico), and the University of Matanzas (Cuba). From the second semester of the 2023/2024 academic year, student exchange began with the University of Havana and the University of Information Sciences of Havana

In February 2024, a teacher from the Department of Spanish Language and Translation conducted a series of master classes and gave lectures for students of the Faculty of Foreign Languages of the University of Havana, and at the end of May a two-week visit by a teacher from the Faculty of Foreign Languages of the University of Havana is planned, during which a course of lectures will be given to MSLU students on translation

In 2023, MSLU joined the international scientific and practical project “Russia-Brazil-Belarus”, which united 60 universities from three countries in all areas of science. As part of the project, MSLU coordinates the cluster “Russian / Portuguese as a Foreign Language”, working groups have been created in each of the subclusters from teachers of the Department of Russian as a Foreign Language of the Institute of International Educational Programs, the Department of Russian Language and Theory of Literature of the Translation Faculty and the Department of Portuguese Language of the Translation Faculty.

Scientific and educational cooperation between MSLU and Latin American countries is an important step in the development of international cooperation and strengthening academic ties, which allows not only to create new opportunities for students and teachers of foreign universities and MSLU, but to exchange experience and innovations in the field of science and education.