Within the framework of the annual meeting of the heads of diplomatic
representations of Georgia abroad - Ambassadorial Meeting – 2015, minister
Tamar Sanikidze gave a speech about international cooperation of the Ministry
of Education and Science of Georgia.
Ministry of Education and Science of Georgia actively cooperates with
various countries and international organizations. During recent years,
important steps were taken by the Ministry in terms of integration in
international scientific and educational areas.
During her speech at the Ambassadorial, Tamar Sanikidze spoke about some
of the important programs, which are being processed successfully:
- Under the
compact of 140 million US dollars, second funding by US Millennium Challenge
Corporation, through the cooperation with Millennium Challenge foundation, the
Ministry carries out programs promoting Education quality improvements in the
fields of Engineering, natural sciences and technology (STEM).
- Within the
framework of the project signed between Georgia and European Union, development
of state agencies institutional capacities is being carried out in order to
effectively coordinate and monitor the labor market and its qualification
requirements. On this purpose, following activities are being carried out:
Legislative changes; Modular programs; Colleges rehabilitation / equipment; Partnership
support and others.
- The Ministry
implements MathGeAr project within the EU program - ‘’Tempus’’, which mainly
aims to improve the quality of Science, technology, engineering and
Mathematics. 17 public and 6 private educational institutes are involved in
‘Erasmus Mundus’ 18 projects, through which 571 students and institute staff
mobility have been carried out.
- Since 2015
EU Erasmus+ program has been launched.
Erasmus + student and staff exchange programs preliminary results have
been published. In terms of a number of scholarship holders, Georgia ranks on
place 7 out of 74 partner countries.
350 students and 188 academic staff
members will receive scholarships in Europe for short-term work/study. Georgian
universities will host 53 European students and 93 professors.
Detailed information on participating universities and mobilities per
university will be published later.
- At present,
10 higher education establishments provide Bachelors’, Masters’, and Ph.D.
programs, after the completion of which, dual academic degree will be issued in
cooperation with the leading western universities, such as Jena, Potsdam, Paris
8, Grenoble, Bologna, Birmingham, Atlanta, Budapest, Tallinn Tech, Riga, Ariel
and other universities.
- Negotiations
between Georgia and Euro Commission about becoming associate member The EU
Framework Program for Research and Innovation ‘Horizon -2020’. The mentioned
program will allow Georgian scientists according to the legislation
incorporated legal entities to take part in the 2016 state budget-funded Joint
Research Centre activities under the same conditions, as it is applied to
physical and legal entities of EU member countries.
- Shota
Rustaveli National Science Foundation of the Ministry is actively involved in
EU research and technology development 7th framework program and
conducts joint competitions to support European and regional collaborative
research projects. In 2015, funding of Jülich (Forschungszentrum Jülich) Joint
Research Center contest winner scientists continues, 4 winner scientists of the
2014 year contest.
- Appropriate
website and necessary resources for Georgian as a foreign language has been
created by the Ministry. On the web page Georgian language manuals and many
other additional materials for foreign learners and teachers (methodology
books) are placed. A number of webpage users grow significantly and intensive
works go on.
- Bilingual
lexicography methodology manual has been created especially for the
"Georgian as a foreign language teaching program", which provides for
the creation of the history of the development of Georgian-European bilingual
lexicography. This year, materials for the history of Georgian-English
bilingual lexicography have been searched in the Bodleian Library of Oxford.
The collected materials are in the phase of processing and digital
transferring. As a result, a manual of the history of Georgian-English
bilingual lexicology will be created.
- Through the
support of the Ministry of Education and Science, higher education institutions
accredited in Georgia, will cooperate with many educational institutes in the
world.
This is a part of the projects, about which the Minister of Education
and Science of Georgia spoke in her report.