Russian-Norwegian intensive course «Culture, society and development in the Barents region»
- 18.10.2017
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On 9-20 October 2017, Murmansk Arctic State University has been holding an intensive educational course «Culture, society and development in the Barents region». MASU has become a platform for the «pilot» project which is being organized in the region for the first time by the three Arctic universities. Main focal point of the course is relations between Russia and Norway. The initiative for the project was launched by Barents Institute — the Kirkines department of UiT — the Arctic University of Norway.
Apart from the students and professors of the regional flagship university, the projects also involves representatives of Arctic University of Norway (Tromso campus) and Northern Arctic Federal University — in total 15 professors and 26 students. The course consists of seven thematic modules, each being made up by lectures and seminars on historical, social, economic and cultural aspects of the northern territories’ development. Beyond that, the program includes sightseeing excursions in Murmansk and the region.
«We launched this project since we need closer relations and cooperation with our Russian partners in Murmansk and Arkhangelsk», — said the main project coordinator, Barents Institute leader, professor Marianne Soleim.
The final two days of the program are devoted to presentations of students’ research works that had to be done as group projects. Each team includes three representatives of different universities at each has its own research topic.
«We have got a lot of group-work, it helps us to communicate and interact with the students of other universities. In our research we will compare medical practices in Russia and Norway», — said MASU student Tatiana Markova.
On completion of the «pilot» project, the participants are to evaluate the program’s content that will help the organizers to improve the structure and modules of the course. The project leaders are planning to annually hold such joint educational courses and also develop a whole BA course in the same topic that would be included as an elective course in an existing Norwegian university program «Russian Studies».