Educational cooperation within BRICS

Tags: BRICS

The decision on creation of League of universities and BRICS Network University was made 

The second meeting of Ministers of Education of Russia, Brazil, India, China and Republic of South Africa – countries that are members of the BRICS association - took place on the 2nd of March 2015 in Brasilia (Brazil). Russia was represented by the Deputy Minister of Education and Science of the Russian Federation Alexander Klimov.
One of the goals of the meeting was also the discussion of actual problems of staff training in the association countries taking into account modern aspects. Signing of the declaration of the ministerial meeting was the result of the collaborative work.
The basic provisions of the document are the common approach of countries to implementation of decisions of the 6th BRICS meeting in Fortaleza (Brazil, 2014) and the fulfillment of tasks for the development of the common educational environment.
The participants in detail discussed questions concerning the exchange of the best practices in the fields of vocational training and staff training. They also mentioned problems of the labor market access of the qualified young specialists. The parties noted the importance of holding within BRICS such competitions in working professions as WorldSkills International and expressed readiness to support the Russian demand for holding this championship in Russia in 2019.
As for the higher education the parties came here to an agreement to strengthen the process of the international integration and the academic mobility of students, researchers and higher education teaching personnel.
The decision on creation of League of universities and BRICS Network University became the main outcome in this field. It is supposed that the League of universities will become an “umbrella” interaction structure, while the Network University will be an educational cooperation project. Moreover, the Russian delegation has already expressed its readiness to contribute to the work and development of the University by means of resource usage of the program “Global education” and state grants for training master and PhD students.
Furthermore, the parties discussed the harmonization of data acquisition and analysis systems of standard for calculation social indicators of education and also mentioned the development of joint methods, which are based on approaches of equality, inclusivity and quality.
In general, following the results of the meeting, it is possible to note a positive attitude of the Ministers of the countries on the activation of joint actions within an educational dialogue of BRICS countries for ensuring continuous development of staff training in all directions.