For years the ITMO University Institute of International Business and Law cooperates with such international organizations as United Nations Economic Commission for Europe, World Intellectual Property Organization, World Customs Organization (WCO). Today IIBL is the only institution that represents Russia in World Customs Organization. This allows the institution to involve students in international activities from the very first years of study at the university.
As noted by Elena Bogdanova, the dean of the Institute of International Business and Law, the education is unthinkable without practice, which is provided by the chain of interactions with partners in educational programs, tax and customs services, business that exists in the University.
"The cooperation agreement with the Lapland University of Applied Sciences will complement our six-year collaboration with the Customs Department of Finland and customs school. With the Finnish higher education, we are working for the first time. Finnish market is strongly diversified, so new avenues for the Russian-Finnish relations are opening up. Education and research activities are among them. Our Institute, which trains specialists not only in the customs field but also professionals in the field of foreign trade, innovations and intellectual property, is interested in cooperation," Helena says.
In April, a group of IIBL students will go to Helsinki where they will visit the Customs Training Centre, Port of Vuosaari and Finnish logistics companies. Students personally told the guests of ITMO University about the possibilities offered by the training in IIBL, shared their impressions of the internship in Costa Rica, Geneva, Brussels, Riga and other European cities.
The visit of guests from Finland, Norway and Murmansk included the 2 ways interaction details discussion: organization of joint projects, international student conferences, training and exchange of students and teachers, which includes the signing of a cooperation agreement with the Lapland University of Applied Sciences; and the IIBL participation in educational cooperation between bordering Finland countries.
Since 2011, the union of Finnish, Norwegian and Murmansk universities was engaged in the Practice Future project, the purpose of which was to establishing the interaction between university students and employers of the union countries. The project was done successfully, but the organizers want to launch a new, with the increased number of companies and universities participating in it. Peter Fisher, the professor of the University of Tromsø believes that the ITMO University Institute of International Business and Law is an excellent candidate to participate.
"A story about the Institute of International Business and Law, which we have heard from staff and students, made a strong impression on me. It is well seen that the education here is interesting and its level is high: internships abroad, teachers who have creative approach to their work. We learned that ITMO University is one of the leaders of the program to improve the competitiveness of Russian universities, which only fuels our interest in cooperation," Peter says.
IIBL students are ready to take part in international projects. For this purpose they organize their own annual scientific conference, where they read their reports using the English language only. This year's conference will be held at the university level on the 15th of May. Top speakers will be able to participate in the Youth Forum of the 10th International Conference PICARD, which will be held in Baku (Azerbaijan).