French-Russian University

Opening the Trianon Dialogue expert debates held on the first day of the 10^th Jubilee Gaidar Forum, its moderator Andrei Fursenko, Aide to the President of the Russian Federation suggested that the heads of research and academic agencies of Russia and France should formulate the priority lines of cooperation between the two countries in education, science and development of intellectual potential.

Answering the question of the moderator, Mikhail Kotyukov, Minister of Science and Higher Education said that the signing of the road map between Russia and France in the sphere of higher education and science held on the fields of the St. Petersburg International Economic Forum last year was based on substantial experience in development of joint laboratories and implementation of joint training programs. The road map envisages promotion of the scientific and technological cooperation between the two countries and cooperation between universities, including academic mobility. The prospect of establishing in Russia of joint research centers of global importance, for instance, in the field of math is regarded as challenging. The second important line is the development of the scientific infrastructure and participation in such projects as the ITER and the ESRF.  Also, for the French side it would be interesting to take part in Russian projects of the megascience class in nuclear physics and the research fleet, including the NICA project. The third line is the cooperation between universities, joint training programs, including the receipt of two diplomas and establishment of on-line universities, including the Russian-French University. Frederique Vidal outlined some social challenges which formed new requirements to education:  adaptation of training programs to the interests of the modern youth and facilitation of accessibility of knowledge.

Frederique Vidal stressed the importance of establishment of ties between the academic world and enterprises: “it is not monetization of knowledge alone that is meant here, but also the prospect of a country’s economy gaining the added value via knowledge.” During the debates, Russian and French experts raised the issue of customization of educational tracks. It is not excluded that a formal diploma will cease to be the main purpose of education in the foreseeable future and one will be able to see a digital version of a classical “professor-student” scheme in gaining of competences and verification thereof. As regards specific important sectorial lines of cooperation between the two countries, experts singled out the following: artificial intelligence macro-technologies and advanced agriculture genom technologies. “Speaking about the issues of education in future, we should comprehend what future we are talking about. We should serve the society and adapt education to the needs of the society and the world”, stressed Jean Chambaz, President of the Sorbonne University.

Emmanuel Tric, President of the University of Nice Sophia Antipolis touched upon the aspects of the stimulation of multidisciplinary development in the university community and integration of the outputs of such development into the economy, particularly, with regard to regions. At present, experts believe that this line is a decisive format for promotion of the social and economic role of universities and efficiency of their information and educational activities. Amid further expansion of the information society, the role of higher educational establishments in training the vast strata of the population to work correctly with the information and receive skills to make the difference between the quality information and the false one in various spheres is gaining momentum. Emmanuel Tric pointed out that “the modern youth should be aware of what society it is going to live in tomorrow and what society it should be trained for because artificial intelligence is not  just something about mathematics, it will influence social development all together.”

The session was attended by Pierre Morel, Co-Chairman of the Trianon Dialogue, Vladimir Mau, Rector of the RANEPA and Anatoly Torkunov, Rector of the Moscow State Institute for International Relations (University) of the Ministry of Foreign Affairs of the Russian Federation.