On October 20, KNRTU Acting Rector Yury Kazakov met with the professor at the Department of Vocational and Technical Didactics of the University of Siegen (Germany) Dr. Ralph Dreher.

Professor Dreher visited our university in the framework of the plenary session of the International Network Scientific and Practical Conference "Synergy". He noted that he has been cooperating with the KNRTU Institute of Further Vocational Education for many years and taking part in conferences, held in Kazan: “As experience shows, we have always been working on some joint research projects, so our university and I personally feel the need to continue this work."

"In some ways, our universities are really similar, that is in terms of the number of students, position in the rankings", - Yury Kazakov noted, "so it will be easy for us to find common ground."

During the conversation, it was mentioned that engineering universities professors still have perspectives for growth, especially today, when they are facing new challenges, such as the industrial revolution and digitalization, and KNRTU also needs to improve the quality of teaching.

Together with KNRTU Professor Vladimir Kondratiev, Dr.Ralph Dreher has been working on the engineering pedagogy problems for many years. At the University of Siegen, Mr. Dreher developed and improved the Comet competence assessment system for engineering universities professors, which may be useful when outlining growth points, as well as the ways of a professor’s further development. The Comet competence assessment methodology has been partially tested in China, and the results of its use at the Rhine-Westphalian Technical University (Aachen) have been published.

Dr. Dreher invited his colleagues from KNRTU to visit the University of Siegen personally and to see how this assessment tool works. Those, who complete the training, will be able to implement it practically.

Head of International Affairs Anna Ebel spoke on the regional grant program "Algarysh", which allows to complete an internship or to invite a leading scientist to give lectures at the university. Following the meeting, the parties agreed to prepare a memorandum of cooperation, which would outline specific ways to implement the projects in academic and research areas. Yury Kazakov entrusted the project preparation to the Vice-Rector for Academic Affairs Dilbar Sultanova and the Head of Educational and Methodical Department Gulnaz Lutfullina, having assured that it would be taken under his personal control.