Bogor, West Java (ANTARA News) - The Agricultural Institute of Bogor (IPB) and University of Indonesia (UI) are collaborating with the Russian State Agrarian University-Moscow Timiryazev Agricultural Academy (RSAU-MTAA).

IPB Chancellor Dr. Arif Satria noted in a press release received by Antara in Bogor on Thursday that the IPB and UI had signed a memorandum of understanding (MoU) on education, including the exchange of students and lecturers, and research in agriculture and environment.

"This is part of the working visit of several state university and PLN chancellors on energy development in Russia," Satria remarked.

The agreement was inked by Satria and Chancellor of UI Muhammad Anis.

Upon arrival, Satria and Anis were warmly welcomed by Chancellor of RSAU-MTAA Prof. Galina D. Zolin.

Satria expressed hope that this collaboration would be implemented in the near future and begin with student exchanges.

"We have the same expectations i.e., cooperation in the field of student exchange at the undergraduate, postgraduate, and doctoral levels, summer school, research, publications, and so on. Hence, the MoU that we have agreed upon can be beneficial for both countries, Indonesia and Russia," he explained.

According to Satria, the cost of living in Moscow is not too high, so the opportunity to immediately run the student exchange program has got bigger. Similarly, RSAU-MTAA is a leading agricultural university in Russia.

He noted that Eastern Europe needs to continue to explore the advantages of its agricultural technology. Moreover, Russia has been forecast to become a global economic power, so the cooperation needs to be pioneered from now on.

Chancellor of RSAU-MTAA Zolin remarked that three Indonesian students had this year received scholarships from the Russian Government after a student had earlier received S3 education at the campus a year ago.

"We hope this collaboration would bear promising results, and the cooperation would not merely be in the form of an MoU but would also be applied," Zolin remarked.

Three Indonesian students selected to study in Russia with a bachelor`s degree were from the Department of Agronomy, nutritional and environmental technology.

He noted that in college, the three will take up Russian language education in the first year.

"The following year will be continued with undergraduate education. Before this, we had only one student, Ade Irma Elvira, who is now studying S3 here," the rector of RSAU-MTAA stated.

Before the meeting ended, Zolin stated that she will visit Indonesia, as her plan had earlier been delayed for attending the GreenMetric University World Ranking activities held by UI in Undip in April 2018.

After the meeting, the Chancellors of IPB and UI were invited to visit the agronomy museum and Timiryazev`s land.

Various types of land can be seen at the museum, as RSAU-MTAA has good specialties and departments: agronomy and land. The department is the most popular major among other majors.

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Reporting by Laily Rahmawaty
Editing by Eliswan Azly

Reporter: Antara
Editor: Fardah Assegaf
Copyright © ANTARA 2018