ICCIR establishes links

The BelSU Institute of Cross-cultural Communications and International Relations hosted an International conference “Actual Problems of Linguistics, Literature Studies, Intercultural communication and Linguodidactics” which ended by signing an agreement between Belgorod State National Research University and the Nice Sophia Antipolis University.

The conference was organized in cooperation with the Institute of Language Studies at the Russian Academy of Sciences, and the Nice Sophia Antipolis University. Numerous works on modern problems of language, literature and cross-communication studies were presented by scientists and researchers from Russia, Ukraine and France.

Professor Olga Prokhorova, Director of the BelSU Institute of Cross-cultural Communications and International Relations, made the opening speech in which she welcomed guests and participants and underlined the importance of studying foreign languages and mastering cross-cultural communication in the era of globalization. Vadim Mishunin, Head of the BelSU Office of Science and Innovation, also came to greet the conference attendees. He stressed the value and significance of establishing professional links and sharing experiences and ideas between researchers from different countries.

The participants from the Nice Sophia Antipolis University – Irina Kor Chahine, Beatrix Pernelle, and Josiane Rieu gave three-day series of lectures for BelSU undergraduates, master’s and bachelor’s degree students, PhD students, teachers of French, English, and Russian as a foreign language.

The day following the closure of the Conference, two agreements between the two Universities were signed by Aleksander Mamatov, Vice-Rector for Academic Affairs and Informatization, on behalf of BelSU, in the presence of the BelSU ICCIR senior officials and the delegates from the Nice University. Provided by the agreements signed, bilateral cooperation is supposed to address development of joint education and research programmes, academic and student exchange for teachers, academicians, bachelor’s and master’s degree students, PhD students, and other ways and forms for mutually beneficial collaboration. It will cover the spheres of Philology, Translation and Interpretation Theory and Practice, Linguistics and Cross-cultural Communication, Language education, and the Russian language. Academic exchange, envisioned by the agreements, will promote academic excellence improvement, develop joint research programmes, and secure bilateral understanding between the universities and their further growth.

Cooperation with the Nice Sophia Antipolis University will considerably contribute to BelSU students and staff academic mobility – an essential condition for university’s continuous development and improvement. In the era of globalization, academic mobility is any university’s efficiency factor that would ensure its successful integration in the common education space.