The University of Eastern Finland (UEF) and the Kazakh National Agrarian University (KazNAU) will be implementing a joint Master’s degree programme, entitled Green Biotechnology and Food Security (GBFS), over the academic years 2018–2020. The agreement was signed by Rector Jukka Mönkkönen (UEF) and Rector Espolov Tlektes Isabaevich (KazNAU) at the Kazakhstan – Finland Business Meeting that took place in Helsinki on 16 October 2018, during the state visit of H.E. President Nursultan Nazarbayev to Finland. UEF and KazNAU also signed an agreement on collaboration in doctoral education, making it possible for PhD students at KazNAU to complete a double degree awarded by both universities.
Collaboration between the universities started already in 2012. The first GBFS programme implemented by UEF and KazNAU took place in 2014–2016, and graduates from this programme are all working in Kazakhstan in government agencies and research, putting their skills to practice and fostering deeper Kazakh-Finnish collaboration.
The new GBFS programme will be open for application in November 2018, with an intake of 20 students to the Department of Environmental and Biological Sciences at UEF. The students will complete their first academic year in Kazakhstan, and the second in Kuopio, Finland.
Since the beginning of the collaboration, KazNAU has annually hosted, on average, five UEF professors on teaching visits through mobility funds from the Government of Kazakhstan. KazNAU and UEF have also been granted Erasmus+ global mobility funding for teaching staff mobility between the two institutions.
Collaboration is also widening regionally in Central Asia
UEF and KazNAU also collaborate regionally in Central Asia. For instance, they both collaborate closely with the Kyrgyz National Agrarian University named after K.I. Skyrabin (KNAU) and have organised a Students’ Voices Seminar with participation from all three universities. KNAU and UEF are also implementing the project FishEDU: Capacity Building for Fisheries and Aquaculture Education in the Kyrgyz Republic, which is funded by the Ministry of Foreign Affairs of Finland (www.uef.fi/fishedu) and where KazNAU plays a consulting role in some of the project activities. Vice-Rector Irgashev Almazbek Shukurbaevich of KNAU visited UEF in September on a research visit and met with Academic Rector Harri Siiskonen and Dean Jukka Jurvelin. They reiterated their will to strengthen collaboration between the education partners in Central Asia, especially within the themes of water and food security.
Strong partnerships between universities with a focused vison and plan of action are instrumental to addressing global challenges, such as enhancing water and food security, development of quality education and enhancing public health. Addressing these issues contributes to the achievement of the sustainable development goals (SDGs) of Agenda 2030, relating to zero hunger and quality education, among others.
For further information, please contact:
Dean, Professor Jukka Jurvelin tel. +358 40 353 9282; jukka.jurvelin(at)uef.fi
Coordinator, Global and Transnational Education, Roseanna Avento tel. +358 40 3553828; roseanna.avento(at)uef.fi
