BRICS University Presidents Conference

The conference of the university presidents of BRICS member countries was held on October 17 and 18, 2024, in Moscow.

The event was hosted by the Ministry of Science and Higher Education of the Russian Federation and Lomonosov University (Moscow State University), which was attended by various universities at the level of presidents and vice presidents.

From the Islamic Republic of Iran, the presidents of Tarbiat Modares, Shahid Beheshti, Allameh Tabatabai, Vice President for International Affairs, University of Tehran and Shahid Beheshti universities, and the head of ISC based in Shiraz were present in this confernce. The program of presidents of BRICS member universities was held in three parts.

The first part was conducted by the president of Moscow State University, Prof. Dr. Viktor Antonovich Sadovnichiy, and the speeches of the presidents of universities in China, South Africa, UAE, India, Iran, Egypt, and Brazil. It is worth noting that in the first meeting attended by Mr. Sergei Ryabkov, Deputy Minister of Foreign Affairs of the Russian Federation, he emphasized the importance of BRICS scientific diplomacy alongside the official diplomacy of BRICS member states.

In the second session, which was chaired by Prof. Dr. Sadovonichiy, the representatives of the universities of Egypt, Iran, South Africa, China and Brazil presented their points of view to introduce the universities and provide a way to strengthen scientific cooperation and create platforms for education, research, ranking system and using   the joint libraries of BRICS members.

The main points of the presidents of BRICS member universities, the Deputy Minister of Foreign Affairs of Russia, the special representative of the Russian President for international cooperation and the head of the Russian Academy of Sciences included the following:

1. Inviting the BRICS universities to participate in the celebration of the 270th anniversary of the establishment of Moscow State Universities.

2.  The importance of BRICS working groups, including aerospace, biotechnology, medicine, oceanography, and Arctic studies in relation to BRICS, along with numerous conferences in each field, which has led to the formation of the global complex.

3.The establishment of the Informatics and Computing Center in the form of BRICS has led to the exchange of technology. BRICS Virtual Institute to launch undergraduate and graduate courses in Egypt, Iran, UAE and 17 other countries.

 4.Creating a new ranking of universities in the BRICS framework and launching the BRICS Olympiad mechanism are among Russia's actions.

5.  Creating geographers' day and mathematics day to familiarize people with geography and mathematics in a favorable environment

6. The president of Shahid Beheshti University emphasized on the long history of scientific interactions with the universities of India, Russia, China and South Africa, because based on the teachings of Islam and the teachings of the Prophet (PBUH), science is everywhere in the world, and efforts must be made to achieve it. Also, emphasis on the BRICS ranking system was one of the key points of the speech.

7.Vice  President for International  Affairs , University of Tehran, emphasizing the new economic, scientific and technological flow of civil institutions that BRICS member countries have created in the world, announced the readiness of Iranian universities to cooperate to strengthen various sciences in BRICS member countries , so that as a symbol of international cooperation, BRICS could be a voice in global affairs.

BRICS member universities can play a role in regional and global initiatives. BRICS seeks the equality of nations and pursues a horizon of the world where justice and fairness are the source of its governance. Without BRICS academic cooperation, the economy will not improve in the current living conditions of BRICS member countries.

8.Emphasis on research between BRICS member universities along with cohesion and cooperation

9. Emphasis by representatives of Indian universities on study opportunities, branches and campuses of Indian universities outside India, which has been done for many years.

10. The President of Sharjah University emphasized the importance of foreign branches of UAE universities, which are 80 private and public universities. Artificial intelligence is actively pursued in the UAE.

11.The representative of Ethiopia spoke about the problems of higher education in African countries and the lack of laboratory equipment.

12. The representative of South Africa considered the lack of unity of the BRICS member countries as an important challenge and based on the African proverb, if the lion and the leopard do not unite, a bigger animal will win over them, so the BRICS member countries will overcome any problem by uniting.

13.Prof. Sadovinchiy, the President of Moscow State University, in his keynote speech, pointed out the importance of BRICS as one of the largest organizations in the world, which is of interest from the geographical and economic dimensions in the world today. There are 700 universities in Russia, and he is the head of the Union of Russian Universities with extensive interaction with world universities. In Russia, LEAGVE, ASSOCIATION, and NETWORK are organizations in which universities operate.

China, India and Arab countries have good cooperation with Russian universities. We are in regular contact with the Islamic Republic of Iran and in the near future we will hold a summit with the presence of the presidents of Iranian and Russian universities.

There is a good relationship with Brazil. The BRICS member universities are the oldest. There was a university in China 2000 years ago. There was excellent education in Baghdad and in Bologna, Italy. Universities have played an important role in the destiny of countries. Moscow University has foreign branches in Tajikistan, Armenia, and Azerbaijan.

All branches have been established at the request of those countries, where 3000 students are studying. Moscow University has 7 schools. In these high schools, the best students are identified and future scientists are among these students. A common school can be established in BRICS.

Consortium of faculties can be created. Kavkaz University has a math park. After learning math, students go for a walk in the mountains and nature. The walk is combined with math. Astronomy school, observatories and astronomical science are available to children. BRICS member countries are invited to participate in these events.

We invite Iran, China, India and South Africa to participate in the Mathematical Olympiad and Russia, which was created by Prof. Dr. Sadovichiy's initiative.

As it is the day of geographers, the day of mathematicians is supposed to be created and we celebrate that day on the first of December every year. Russia has a long tradition in mathematics and basic sciences and has always been a supporter of such projects.

 Universities should be the place to use the best experiences, the society looks at the university and people look at the future of their children in terms of education, so cooperation between countries and sharing experiences to BRICS member universities is very important.

14. In the specialized panels of the presidents of BRICS member universities, 6 panels were planned with the following titles.

1. Scientific cooperation between universities from the aspect of joint research
2. Academic cooperation between universities of BRICS member countries
3.  BRICS studies
4. Digital governance and international information security
5.  Development of the BRICS Union
6. The working group of the global ranking system and the special ranking system of BRICS universities

15.  Each of the presidents of the universities of the Islamic Republic of Iran participated in specialized panels and expressed their positions and introduced the Iranian university system.

16. The International Vice President of the University of Tehran participated in the BRICS development panel held at the Faculty of World Studies in Moscow, after referring to the structure of international organizations and the need to compensate for the lack of efficiency and legitimacy of international organizations that are unable to effectively participate in crises, the need to develop BRICS as an organization emphasized the emerging, but he did not consider the future world to be a unipolar world, and with the emergence of emerging powers in BRICS, he declared the future world to be a multipolar world, which should seek to eliminate peace violations, threats to peace, insecurity, and poverty, and BRICS, due to the request of a large number of countries for membership It has created the hope that it will be a safe organization for the welfare of humanity.

The representative of University Tehran (Vice President for International Affairs) invited the presidents of Russian universities to the audience, which included 300 students, professors and representatives of BRICS member countries, for summer and winter schools in Iran. It was explained to the interested parties that in (2024) University of Tehran has celebrated 1757 years of tradition of higher education in Iran based on the approval of UNESCO.