Sergei Khristoliubov, regional director for Eastern Europe and Central Asia of "Quacquarelli Symonds" ("QS") Rating Agency, visited Sumgayit State University (SSU).
Rector of SSU Rufat Azizov gave detailed information to the guest about the innovations that happened in the university in the last year. Speaking about the importance of participation in the rankings for the strategic development of the university and the student-oriented policy of the university, the rector emphasized that the reforms carried out in the university serve the development of students as high-level specialists and preliminary results have already been achieved in this direction. As one of these results, it was noted that SSU was ranked 483rd in the "QS" Ranking of European Universities this year. In addition, Rufat Azizov stated that the global competition "Climate Change Challenge" organized by Oxford University this year is being implemented with the support of SSU.
The rector also spoke about the Forum on "Prioritizing climate education on the global higher education agenda", organized by the Times Higher Education (THE), SSU, and the Azerbaijan State Oil and Industry University (ASSU), as well as the meetings between renowned scientists and SSU students and staff, and other initiatives and events held at the university.
Sergei Khristoliubov, in turn, spoke about the development dynamics of Azerbaijani universities in the "QS" rankings, highlighting SSU as the first and only regional university to serve as an example to others. He expressed confidence that this progress will continue. Discussing the upcoming QS events in Macau and Almaty, Khristoliubov also mentioned that the results of the QS World University Rankings for the next year will be announced at the EduData Summit in Singapore.
Later, the "QS Stars" program, participation conditions and methodology were discussed.
At the end of the meeting, rector Rufat Azizov and regional director Sergey Khristolyubov signed an agreement on cooperation between SDU and "QS".