SHENZHEN /China/, September 13. /TASS/. The official opening ceremony of the first academic year at the Russian-Chinese university was held in the city of Shenzhen (China’s southern Guangdong province) on Wednesday. Taking part in it were Russian Deputy Prime Minister Olga Golodets and Chinese Vice Premier Liu Yandong. They read out the messages of congratulations from the two countries’ leaders on the opening of the university, which has become the biggest Russian-Chinese joint educational project.

Putin’s message

Olga Golodets read out a message of congratulations from Russian President Vladimir Putin. "I would like to extend my sincere congratulations on the beginning of the first academic year at the Russian-Chinese university established on the basis of Lomonosov Moscow State University and Beijing Polytechnic University," the Russian leader’s message said. "Cooperation in education has traditionally been an important component of the Russian-Chinese strategic partnership."

The head of state expressed the hope that the university’s graduates will be highly sought after not only in Russia and China but the world over as well. "I am confident that the opening of the Russian-Chinese university on the basis of two such authoritative universities will further strengthen friendship and mutual understanding between our countries’ peoples," Putin stressed.

For her part, Golodets emphasized that the opening of the university has marked a qualitative change in bilateral relations. "Russia and China have unique advantages. However, to realize these advantages for the benefit of the two counties’ economies and the two countries’ population, it is necessary to lay a solid educational foundation," she said.

"Our future begins today, it begins with you, the young people who came to study at this university," Golodets noted, expressing the hope that the ties established at the university "will make it possible to make many breakthrough discoveries for the benefit of humanity."

About university

An agreement on establishing the Russian-Chinese university was signed on September 5, 2014, by Moscow State University Rector Viktor Sadovnichiy and President of Beijing Polytechnic University Hu Haiyan. The university’s curriculum includes Russian language and literature, culture and the arts, IT and applied mathematics, economics, international trade, chemistry and physics. The university courses will be taught in Russian, Chinese and English. After completing their studies, graduates will receive two diplomas - of Moscow State University and of the Russian-Chinese University.

The construction of the new university building that began in 2014 is to be completed in 2018. Classes at the university began in late August, and the September 13 ceremony marked the formal launch of the project in the presence of government officials from the two countries.