30th Anniversary of the UNITWIN/UNESCO Chairs Programme

Unesco 20 june 2022

Peter the Great St. Petersburg Polytechnic University hosted the conference to celebrate 30th anniversary of the UNITWIN/UNESCO chairs programme: contribution to the development of education, science and culture.

Among the participants were Nella Pruss, the Head of the International UNESCO Chair and the National Coordinator of the UNESCO ASPnet in the Russian Federation, the Head of the UNEVOC Centre, the President of the University of Management “TISBI”, the Member of the Commission of the Russian Federation for UNESCO;  Natalya Larionova, the Executive director of the UNESCO ASPnet in the Russian Federation; Grigory Ordzhonikidze, the Secretary-General of the Commission of the Russian Federation for UNESCO, Ambassador-at-Large at the Ministry of Foreign Affairs of the Russian Federation; Inga Nishanyan, the Coordinator of the UNITWIN/UNESCO Chairs Programme, UNESCO headquarters in Paris.

Nella Pruss addressed the colleagues with a report “UNESCO Chair as an initiator and organizer of the networking ”. Unlike many other programmes and projects at the territory of Russia, the unique project has been realized in the Republic of Tatarstan.

Every year the UNESCO Chair at the University of Management “TISBI” transforms in its content and form. It becomes an innovative center for development, testing and dissemination of best practices of training and retraining specialists under market economy conditions.

UNESCO Chair has established a considerable cooperation with the UNESCO ASPnet. A number of joint projects have been implemented: training courses for teachers of UNESCO ASPnet Schools, conferences, network projects. The beginning of this interaction took its place in 2013 at the international conference devoted to the improving the mechanisms of cooperation between UNESCO ASPnet, UNITWIN/UNESCO Chairs and UNEVOC Centres for sustainable development: challenges, projects, prospects.

Best practices have been applied at the UNESCO Chairs of St.-Petersburg, Moscow, Astrakhan, Khanty-Mansiysk.

At the moment our Chair develops the UNESCO Network Cooperation Concept based on our own experience in networking and taking into account the best practices of other organizations. We believe that the Chairs need changes; they have to become the centres of competence, centres of knowledge transfer and technologies for other UNESCO Networks. Nella Pruss President of the University of Management “TISBI”

On the one hand, the realization of this project will provide its members with the direct permanent access to the advanced techniques and experience of the Chairs, UNEVOC Centres, UNESCO ASPnet Schools and, on the other hand, it will give the opportunity to disseminate the experience to other educational establishments at national and regional levels.

unesco aspnet unevoc exchange of experience