Lorena DI PLACIDO / The BRICS cooperation in University and Cultural context
Introduction:
Within the BRICS, the issue of University and Culture cooperation has an important place among the group's priorities. The interest for the efforts made in promoting and developing contacts between universities, professors, students, cultural operators belonging to different fields is connected, in fact, to a clear goal: create a lasting bond between the people able to accompany them, evolving at various levels of depth and for a long stretch of their working and daily life. Under Russia's Presidency, 2015 marked a turning point for cooperation in these fields with the signature of several agreements, while the 2016 Indian Presidency continued this work, by improving both the operating modes aimed to implement effective exchanges, in the broadest sense, in the university and science contest, both by promoting the arts and culture with a variety of initiatives. The BRICS cooperation in university and cultural context can be understood as a synthesis and connection of all other areas of cooperation, as a driver of innovation for countries still considered “developing countries”, but full of enormous potential and creative, scientific, study capabilities. By attaching importance to the exchange between scholars, artists, scientists inside the BRICS means, therefore, to invest on the synergy between the best minds, the assets of the individual member states, and to ensure the effectiveness of development activities of the BRICS as a whole
1 - The cooperation in the University contest
The VII BRICS Academic Forum (Moscow, from 22 to 23 May 2015) gave rise to specific recommendations, drawn up by the delegates of the member countries and 200 experts. The conceptual premise of the Forum lies in the vision of the world shared by the BRICS: in a global context divided between advanced and emerging economies, the member states are as a sparkle of civilization and culture in their respective regions in order to make the benefits of globalization as a common heritage. After having recalled the Group's guiding principles - sovereignty, cultural diversity, plurality, strengthening of international law, opposition to unilateral actions, the centrality of the United Nations and the need to reform the Security Council - and having reaffirmed the aspiration to a community of interests and the converge to shared approaches, the summary of the recommendations proceeds recalling the evolution as well as the Group's institutional vision, the new drivers of economic and trade cooperation, the vision of peace and security, the goal of a sustainable inclusive development.
Only after having completed (in 34 articles) this comprehensive summary of the principles and drivers of growth and cooperation, the Group introduces the common settings for culture and education, as culmination and synthesis of the entire evolutionary process. Culture, science and education drew the attention of the BRICS leaders since the foundation and find now the right moment to strengthen the competitive advantage of the universities of the member states. In the Group's vision, greater investments in education at international stage involve an increasing influence in the global educational system through the establishment of scholarships and programs for students, researchers and scholars. Exchanges and mobility in academia are perceived as a necessity so as to promote a visa free regime for experts, called BRICS Travel Card (Art. 38), to consider the development of common education standards (Art. 39 ), along with an educational project inspired by the European Union's Erasmus program (Art. 41).
The Academic Forum on May 2015 and the related recommendations started an evolutionary process in the education systems of the member states that led to the creation of a real university network inside BRICS reality, the BRICS Network University (NU), which become operational in April 2016. (to remind that the first agreement to this goal was signed by the BRICS ministers of education on November 5 2013, in Paris, at the UNESCO headquarters). Further steps of this process have been: a) the Global University Summit, 26-28 October 2015, which brought together in Moscow, in the structures of the four best Russian universities - MGIMO, Lomonosov Moscow State University, the People's Friendship University and the National University of Science and Technology MISIS - 300 representatives from equally prestigious universities of the member countries, international organizations and research centers, who exchanged opinions on cooperation in various areas of interest of the Group, b) afterwards, on November 18 2015, the BRICS have signed in Moscow a Memorandum of Understanding on the Establishment of the BRICS University Network.
Under the MoU terms, the BRICS Network University (NU) is an educational project that aims to develop short periods of bi - or multilateral education, master's and PhD programs in the framework of joint research projects in various fields of knowledge, according to common standards and quality criteria. The Network University is based on the principles of openness, equality of rights among the participants, on reciprocal treatment (essentially derived from the cardinal principles of the BRICS) and focuses on educational programs, assurance of high quality in teaching and respect for national regulations. Learning opportunities can be of long and short period and develop various forms of training programs (masters, PhD, etc.) in the priority areas for the Group which are listed in Art. 3 of the Memorandum of Understanding on Cooperation in Science, Technology and Innovation and other documents adopted by the member states. Among the priorities the following are mentioned: energy, information technology and security sciences, BRICS studies, ecology and climate change, water resources and pollution, economy. Further new topics may be identified for the BRICS Network University and introduced by the BRICS UN International Governing Board, which joins other network bodies as BRICS NU National Coordination Committee (NCC) or other similar national facilities, and the International Thematic Groups (ITG)
The first Forum of the BRICS Network University held the 6 to 9 April 2016, in Yekaterinburg, at the Ural Federal University, was attended by over 150 representatives of universities and ministries of education of the member countries. Result of the initiative was the definition of an action plan for the development of joint study programs in priority areas, in English language, the expansion of academic exchanges between the BRICS and the organization of even short-term programs (summer schools, internships, etc.). Common programs for Masters and PhD should start already during 2016. At least 45 universities of the five BRICS members have expressed interest in joining the network.
2- The Cultural cooperation
The cultural cooperation within BRICS is the latest initiative among those promoted by the Group inside a special shared cooperation framework. Cultural cooperation deals with a strategically relevant context for improving the effective interaction between the member states, which, as repeatedly stressed in the signed documents, requires a greater partnership and mutual understanding. The challenge in this respect lies not so much in identifying a set of principles and related identity values for the entire Group, but rather in the enhancement of individual specificities that constitute, each of them, a portion of the success for the BRICS as a whole. Being an aggregate for its nature dynamic and free of bureaucratic institutions, made up of members distant among themselves from experience and geographical evidence, it is necessary that the components of the Group give priority to mutual knowledge and exchange with the aim to meet and in the same time to respect the specific wealth given to the shared experience so as to valorize the quality made as a contribution to the value of this innovative international experience..
The BRICS, therefore, shared a sincere interest on the issue of cultural cooperation aimed at mutual understanding, the promotion and protection of cultural diversity, strengthening of mutual respect, encouragement of the exchange of experiences and knowledge about life and traditions of the peoples of the member countries. Particular emphasis is given to the contribution by modern technology in the arts and the entire cultural heritage.
The first meeting by the BRICS ministers of culture was held in Moscow on June 17, 2015, preceded by a session of the expert’ working group. The ministers agreed to promote: the development of cooperation in art and cultural heritage among the BRICS countries; the exchange of ideas and opinions on the prospects for strengthening cooperation in the sector; the building of a legal framework for multilateral cooperation. The outcome of their deliberation has been the Agreement on Cooperation in the field of Culture signed a little later in the occasion of the Ufa summit (8 to 9 July 2015).
The Agreement provides that, in harmony with what already established by the national laws and policies, member states shall develop and promote cooperation and exchanges in the field of culture, including music, dance, choreography, theater, circus, archives, libraries, museums, fine arts, decorative and applied arts, publishing, audio-visual and other creative activities under the Agreement.
To this purpose, the BRICS commit to facilitate exchanges between scientists and researchers, academics, experts and students as part of programs of common interest, also developed between the individual institutions, as well as the training of specialists in the field.
Parallel to the promotion of art in its broadest sense, open to the sensitivity of contemporaneity and to the contribution by the technological experience, the BRICS also support the protection, preservation, restoration and use of cultural heritage and its objects, also by the registration of the national sites of main interest in the World Heritage List.
Similarly, by means of laws and internal regulations of the states, the BRICS also promote the preservation of the intangible cultural heritage by implementing the widest possible cooperation in the field of traditional and popular expressions of culture, including the organization of shows, festivals, national days of culture, traditional festivals to be held in each country. Consultations are also provided for issues of common interest relating to traditional knowledge and cultural expressions.
A great importance is given by the Agreement to the initiatives aimed at encouraging exchanges between groups of young creatives and artists in international programs dedicated to youth.
With regard to the documentary heritage, the Agreement promotes the exchange of cultural, historical, social and political documentation material on the development of the individual states as well as the initiatives of knowledge in the same fields with exhibitions in libraries and museums.
The promotion of cultural cooperation finds its application also in the world of industrial production, by means of a pact with the training contexts aimed at sustainable development, especially for what concerns research activities, information systems, support to business and creative entrepreneurship and the ability to build the capacity and the skills of professionals.
Finally, for what concerns the object of the activities, the participation in this Agreement does not prejudice the possibility of conducting similar initiatives in other multilateral or bilateral contexts.
The final declaration by Ufa summit (July 2015) acknowledges, in Article 64, the motivations of the Agreement on Cooperation in the field of Culture and summarizes it in the improvement of cultural diversity as a source of development, in the belief that cultural exchange and cooperation facilitate mutual understanding. Therefore, the BRICS commit to encourage every possible initiative of direct cooperation between the countries in the fields of culture and arts, in order to strengthen and improve the friendly relations between the different countries and its people. At the base of this approach, the BRICS welcome and put the Declaration of Principles of International Cultural Cooperation (1966) and the Declaration on Cultural Diversity (2001), both by UNESCO.
EURISPES – BRICS - LAB