VICIOUS CIRCLE

- We meet you after exactly nine months after you were appointed to the post and the Azerbaijan State Oil Academy was renamed the Azerbaijan State University of Oil and Industry. What has changed since then apart from the name and the head of the university?

- When the head of state Ilham Aliyev changed the name of the Azerbaijan State Oil Academy to the Azerbaijan State University of Oil and Industry (ASUOI) and appointed me to this position, our mission was to train highly qualified and patriotic staff not only for the oil sector, but also for national industry as a whole. Given that the university has a long and glorious history, it seemed that it was not difficult to accomplish this task. However, the world is constantly progressing and flaunting yesterday's success, it's impossible to achieve any success.

Today, one of our goals is to enter the ranks of average European universities in the next 5 years. If expressed in figures, this means to become one of 700 universities in the world ranking. And in the next 5 years, i.e. after 10 years, we have to carry out our activities at the level of leading European universities as an Azerbaijani brand. If we consider that there are more than 100,000 universities in the world, it becomes clear how difficult this task is.

- The goals are quite ambitious. What do you intend to do to achieve them?

- I want to present some statistics, so you can see with what baggage the Azerbaijan State University of Oil and Industry is going to the future. In the middle of the 1990s, only a few of all the students entering our university gained 500 points. In the 2015/2016 academic year, our university was chosen by 2,005 students, and 117 of them scored more than 600 points. The choice of the speciality of an oil and gas engineer by entrants who gained 695 points indicates that due to the policy pursued by the head of state, citizens strive to master the most important specialities for the future of our country.

Therefore, we don't have the right to work badly. However, we are not satisfied with the existing curriculum. They've remained since the Soviet era and are outdated. In fact, they match respective programmes of leading universities in Europe by only 15-20 per cent, and that's in the best case. Therefore, in order to withstand the tremendous competition, we need to integrate our programmes into the European educational space.

Our main aim is to train qualitatively new personnel. What do we need to do for that? Give preference to modern professions, improve the industrial practice of students and develop links with industries. In this regard, the university is implementing very successful projects designed for the future.

- Which one can be cited as an example?

- One of these projects is the creation of a French-Azerbaijani University (UFAZ) on the basis of a memorandum signed by the President of the Azerbaijan Republic Ilham Aliyev and French President Francois Hollande. This year, it's planned to accept 120 students in four specialities from students who gained high points. Education will be fully financed by the state. Graduates of this university will receive not one, but two diplomas. It will be a diploma of the ASUOI and, depending on the speciality, a diploma of the University of Strasbourg or the University of Rennes 1. Education at UFAZ will meet French standards, and the teachers are mostly professors from France. Gradually, our specialists will meet these standards to be able to train staff of such quality in the future.

- You said that you attach great importance to the acquisition of practical skills by students and the development of links with industries to this end...

- Yes, one of the main objectives set to our university by the head of state is to attract innovative, high-tech businesses to the university. Of course, this is not a question of one or two days. However, today we must organize our work so as to achieve success in the future. Today we are on the verge of creating an ecosystem project under the guidance of the Ministry of Education of Azerbaijan. What's the essence of the project? Development of startup projects, i.e. creation of startup companies based on the best ideas of undergraduates and holders of master's and doctor's degrees of the university. That's to say after graduating from the university, the student leaves it not only with a diploma, but also with his own business. Since the university is not able to fully cope with this task alone, we were forced to open a "startup" school as part of the university. As there are few experts in this field in Azerbaijan, we invited them from the United States, Israel and Ukraine. In late June, the first graduation will take place in this school.

Students already have more than 15 projects or rather their prototypes, which will be presented at the time of graduation. The authors will explain the essence of their idea and try to justify it to enable investors to invest in these projects. By the way, we invited more than 10 foreign investors to the graduation ceremony, and they've already confirmed their participation. For the time being, these presentations will be held in the form of the defence of graduation works, but in autumn we will hold a festival of startup projects on a national scale.

We'll put companies created with startup ideas in incubators and try to take care of them for 3-4 years, and then we'll move them at their own risk into an industrial park, which will be created at the university. During the period of stay in the incubator, we'll exempt them from most taxes, but then they'll be paying state duties, of course, with certain discounts.

- In your remarks and in the students' feedback, one can feel a new spirit and a modern atmosphere at the university. To what extend can the teaching staff adapt to new conditions and rules of work? I don't want to touch on the negative legacy of the past and cast a shadow over the history of the university. But it's impossible to change people overnight...

- Currently, 700 professors and teachers are working at our university. Approximately 80 of them are doctors of sciences, professors, corresponding members and full members of the National Academy of Sciences and more than 400 people are candidates of sciences and associate professors. We work with a wonderful team. Very few universities can be proud of such a contingent. However, if you look at the age level, you'll see that 51 per cent of teachers of the university are over 60, and 23 per cent are already over 70. We also have teachers who are more than 90 years old. Of course, we have to renew, rejuvenate this contingent.

You don't want to cast a shadow on our past, and we strive to avoid it too, but it's impossible to deny the facts. Over the last 5 years our university has released 1,627 masters. Ask how many of them have been invited to the university as teachers? Only 13 people. All this is due to negative moments. If good students witness positive things in universities, they'll try to get there. Our youth is committed to positive, creative work. In the nine months you mentioned, we recruited nearly 40 young masters. In summer, there will be even more of them. We'll also involve young professionals in a college handed over to us for management.

- Will this policy of rejuvenation not lead to unemployment among older teachers?

- We want people to remain at the university regardless of their age. But raising the level of teachers and improving the quality of education are also inevitable. Regardless of age, a teacher should be creative, have modern thinking and know modern information technology. Today, we are moving onto an electronic system of education. As you can imagine, if a teacher isn't able to move the cursor and open a file, what kind of success can we talk about? Can we keep this teacher in the education system?

Therefore, we are trying to create an environment in which everyone can get a well-deserved salary. For example, in order to take up the post of professor, you need to gain 110 points. This amount is made up of points for articles published in five years, patent work, published books, links to them and proposed projects. More points are given for articles published in international journals. Therefore, our authors tend to publish as many articles as possible in publications such as Thomson Reuters, Science Citation and Elsever.

Those who gain the required number of points shall be elected professors for 5 years and get a full-time salary of 1,100 manats. With the support of the Ministry of Education, we have raised wages twice. In addition, these teachers can receive additional 400 manats. But for this they need to get scores from students too. In addition, only students with good academic performance can appraise a teacher. A teacher receives these points only on condition that at least 20 per cent of his students receive grades 4 and 5. The main objective of these measures is to encourage teachers to contact with students and desire to promote their growth.

- That's to say it's a kind of vicious circle, where the teacher depends on a student's grade and the student on the teacher's appraisal...

- Absolutely.

- At the beginning of the interview, you spoke about the glorious history of your university, its traditions. At a conference in South Korea last year, I felt a sense of pride when a participant from Vietnam said that he studied in AZI. What's the situation with foreign students today? Is there an interest from abroad?

- As you know, AZI was one of the top ten universities of the Soviet Union, and in training foreign students it was in the top three. This was due mainly to the oil and gas industry. Today, in our university there are about 400 students from 19 countries. Traditionally, there are students from Vietnam, Kazakhstan, Turkmenistan, and now also from Europe, particularly Greece. There is a great interest in us in Bangladesh, Nepal and India. More than 200 foreigners have turned to us in connection with the next academic year. Why? Because we decided to teach 14 specialities in English. In total, we have 32 specialities and 14 of them are taught in English and 15 - in Russian.

The head of state announced a post-oil era. We should already be prepared for that, attract income from education into the country and bring currency. Competition is high. The whole world is ready to accept students.

Our sole weakness is related to dormitories. Most likely, with the support of the Ministry of Education and the country's leadership we'll create a campus for our university in one of the surrounding areas. The Ministry of Education continues its successful work in this direction. I'm sure that if these projects complement each other, the number of foreign students in our university will be over 1,000 people in the next three years. And in the coming years, our goal will be to bring this figure up to 2,000. This will improve the image of both the university and the country as a whole.

- Speaking of the post-oil period. Your university is mentioned more in connection with the oil industry. What contribution can your university make to the post-oil economy?

- Yes, today we are already trying to establish contacts with companies representing the non-oil sector and to conclude contracts with them. We want our students to experience daily production practice from the second year. That's to say studying on the first shift, the student goes to work on the second shift. Naturally, it will be on a voluntary basis.

What do we want? To ensure that a student gets the theme of the graduation work immediately after he completes his education in the second year. Students still learn about the subject of their graduation work only 2-3 months before graduation. What else can he do if not seek devious ways? Starting this year, we present the themes of graduation works to second- and third-year students. Students are instructed to prepare a presentation for each subject, and it becomes part of the graduation work. And in the subsequent years all the coursework is defined by the theme of the graduation work. The student is already focused on it, collects material throughout the study and defends it at graduation.

What happens then? In the third year we offer them a job. For example, for energy engineers it could be a job in Azerenerji, Azerisiq, the Baku metro, companies such as Azerfon, Azercell and others. We have already concluded agreements with many of these companies or are in the conclusion stage. These students visit companies on a specific schedule, at the end of the month some of them are recruited, and they start to get a symbolic salary for a certain working time. Thus, a student gains experience and collects material for his thesis. At the same time, the company is able to select the required staff. That's to say we build education in accordance with the requirements of industry. I see no other future for us as a university.

- University is the second place after the selection committee that identifies knowledge received at school. Do students justify the high points?

- Yes. We are closely watching all students. Among the 117 students who entered our university with high points, 70 per cent receive scholarships of high achievers or record-setters. That is to say they justify the points gained at the entrance exams. We take care of trained students. It also happens that for one reason or another a student fails to gain high points at the entrance exams. But here at the university, his potential opens up.

To date, the average score of students coming to our university in the first group is 435 points, and in this indicator, we rank third in the country. Ahead of us is only the Higher Oil School with 676 points, which is followed by Caucasus University with 462 points. So we can't complain. However, how do we use the material we receive and where are we leading it? Can we create conditions and a transparent environment to identify students' knowledge? This is what we should ask ourselves.

- And what will the answer be if you ask?

- Today, we conduct exams only in writing, which has its own specifics. To ensure transparency, the answers are immediately scanned and put into the storage tank of the Ministry of Education in order to avoid possible changes. The teacher does not know whose job he checks. A student knows that in the future his written reply may be presented to the company where he works. After all, the result of a written exam is a document, and this increases responsibility.

But I'd like to see our students take exams both in writing and orally in the future so that the teacher could identify the very best ones in the process of communication, although our teachers are not ready for this today.

- What's the reason?

- The reason is that teachers can't resist outside interference. We, as a university, can. Today, we have 12 teachers who conduct written and oral exams. They believe in themselves and promised that they wouldn't pay attention to any requests or orders. However, five teachers asked us to exempt them from this responsibility. They say that there are relatives and neighbours whose pressure they can't resist. And this despite the fact that these teachers themselves are very honest and open people.

- So, it turns out society must change its attitude to these issues?

- Of course. When our society gets rid of guardianship and patronage, the quality of education will rise.