On June 1, the Russian House in Colombo organized a large congress on medicine and healthcare in cooperation with the First Moscow State Medical University named after Sechenov.
About 100 potential applicants and their parents gathered at the Russian House in Colombo for the First Moscow State Medical University Open Day. Numerous Sri Lankan graduates of the famous First Medical University also joined the event.
Maria Popova, Head of the Russian House in Colombo, and Pyotr Glybochko, Rector of First Moscow State Medical University, addressed the audience with a welcoming speech. They told about a large-scale joint project developed specifically for future students from Sri Lanka. Taking into account the growing demand of Lankan youth for higher medical education in Russia, a preparatory faculty of the First Moscow State Medical University will be opened on the basis of the representative office in Sri Lanka, within which students will study Russian at A1 and A2 levels in full-time format for 10 months, simultaneously taking an online course in chemistry and biology organized by the university.
At the end of the training, testing will be conducted in all three disciplines. Students will receive special certificates, the results of which will be counted as an entrance exam for admission to the university. An important privilege for holders of such certificates will also be the provision of a university dormitory on equal terms with students studying under the Rossotrudnichestvo quota.
The program of the congress continued with the presentation of First Moscow State Medical University, which was conducted by Vice-rector Andrey Svistunov. During the discussions and the round table, the prospective applicants asked the representatives of the university a lot of questions, showing great interest in both the curriculum and disciplines, as well as the upcoming opening of the preparatory faculty in Colombo.
With the assistance of the Russian House in Colombo and members of the First Moscow State Medical University delegation, meetings were organized with the Minister of Education and the Minister of Health of Sri Lanka. An important outcome of the negotiations was the project to establish a branch of the First Medical University on the basis of the Medical Faculty of Grin University. According to the curriculum, students will study in Sri Lanka for the first three years, followed by studying in Russia.
A delegation from the university arrived in Colombo, headed by the Rector of Moscow State University, Academician of the Russian Academy of Sciences Peter Glybochko and Vice-Rector for Academic Affairs, Academician of the Russian Academy of Sciences Andrey Svistunov. The event was held with the support of former Sri Lankan Ambassador to Russia, one of the first Sri Lankan graduates of First Moscow State Medical University Saman Virasinghe and President of the Association of Graduates of Universities of Socialist Countries, Director of the National Hospital of Sri Lanka Kumar Wickramasinghe.