NEWS

Kamal Abdulla: “Young people see and appreciate the image of our university”

19 september, 2018

An event was held at the Azerbaijani University of Languages (AUL) in connection with the 2018-2019 academic year and the “Knowledge Day”. We present the speech of the rector of AUL, an active member of ANAS, Kamal Abdulla.

Dear Colleagues! I congratulate your new academic year and wish you all good health, well-being and happiness. Minister of Education of the Republic of Azerbaijan Mr.Jeyhun Bayramov also asked to convey his greetings to our colleagues on the beginning of the new academic year. I convey his congratulations to you. Let’s this academic year be successful for all of us.

As you know, we have almost completed our preparatory work for the new academic year.

Dear friends, you know well that it is about two years that I am working with you, I am trying to justify the confidence of the President of Azerbaijan, dear Ilham Aliyev. We have achieved many successes. I regard it as the product of all of us sitting here- from the ordinary teacher, from the simple employee to the vice-rector. The work done is not enough. Without looking at what’s happening in the past academic year, it is difficult to identify new development prospects. I will try to revive the most important issues that occur according to my view, in the past academic year. One of the major issues is that our students and teachers visit refugee schools in connection with pedagogical experience and implement a pedagogical experience with refugee pupils and staff. It was a very big pedagogical, even a political event. I think that contact with the collective of refugee schools left an indelible mark on the lives of our pupils, students, future graduates, teachers and those collectives. It is a very important public debt that our teachers have done with dignity. The most important thing is that we did not limit our work with the fact that students go to those schools. Our chairs and deans went to those schools, tried to communicate with children and teachers, and achieved it. We have seen the outcome of the schoolchildren here, and we have heard the words of the school principals and of course, this is the result of our joint work. It was a great civilian work. We witnessed the unequivocally desires, enthusiasm and aspirations of our teachers and students of going there. When we look at video clips, we are sure once again that our work, this project we have created is extremely useful and necessary for the moral development of moral environment in our university. In general, this step was a great service to our state for the further strengthening of the moral climate in Azerbaijan and the establishment of a relationship with refugee schools.

On the eve of May, we started a big project. This project dedicated to the 95th anniversary of our great leader Heydar Aliyev was magnificent. It surrounded great geographical and moral area. We held the 95th anniversary of our great leader in 11 countries and 15 universities. With your participation we started this event at the Azerbaijan University of Languages, where the plenary meeting was held. You have seen the representatives of foreign universities both visually and watched in the video. Then the sections took place at universities in 11 country’s universities. Representatives from our university and our colleagues at local universities commemorated the bright memory of our great leader and his position in world politics, among the leaders of the world. You know, it was the first such conference experience in Azerbaijan. For the first time, the beginning of the conference began from one place, and its sections were scattered across 11 countries. And the nearest direction around the same topic met each other. In this sense, the work we are doing in connection with the 95th anniversary of our great leader is an event that will be written forever in the history of the university. At the last plenary session, the rectors of those universities- Ukraine, Italy, Russia, Georgia, Serbia and other countries- their meetings here also regulate the relationship of our university with other universities, such as intellectual, pedagogical and scientific focus, and reveals the perspectives, at the same time strengthens ties. It was a great event and, I suppose, this event will forever stay in memories of those who carry it out and those who helped them with it.

You know, our university has many centers. I set myself and my colleagues a goal, if we learn the history of other countries’ languages, their cultures here, why not use the same mirror effect in the same country? We have set a goal to work in this direction. We have repeatedly met with the ambassadors of these countries. Representatives of our center are present here. They are very serious and have done a great job. I thank them for that. Not this direction is becoming a trend. An Azerbaijani Studies Center was established in China, Serbia, India, Hungary, Romania and other countries. This is a part of our country’s debt to Azerbaijan, the realization of our citizenship mission. And the most obvious example of this is the opening of our Serbian Center at our university. With a great pride I would like to note that this was a sign of confidence in the Azerbaijan University of Languages by the President the country. Mr. President sent his Serbian counterpart to our university as a guest, and we met with him here, and we awarded him with honorable doctor title. At the same time, the Serbian President himself took part in the opening of the Serbian Center. This meant that the university had taken a very serious political step. One of the most interesting and memorable events in the history of the university was the creation of a new faculty- the Faculty of Improvement of Qualification. As you know, it is not enough for teachers to work on themselves so that they can always develop. They need to go to other environments, other audiences and countries to know in which focus of interest are their subjects. For example, a person teaching English methodology will be able to see how this issue has been put into practice at the Belarusian University of Languages. What is being done in the Linguistic University of Kiev, Moscow or France about the French language methodology, what they want to see and get acquainted with. That’s why we started again a big project. We have created a faculty of refereeing and its first graduates have already returned from a one-month internship at the Minsk University in Belarus. And, alternatively, Ukraine, China and Russia are other countries. It seems to me that we have to build a scheme to send each of our teachers at least for five years to different countries, from one to three months, or to an internship for a semester.

During this period, there were many other things. We have conferences, roundtables and many of our guests and ambassadors have come here. Hungarian ambassador arrived. We exchanged views on the opening of the Azerbaijani Cultural Center in Hungary and shared our thoughts on the continuation of teaching the Hungarian language. Relations with these countries, that is our countries, are increasingly growing. Here, I have to emphasize that our centers are functioning extremely well, disciplined and accurate. There words refer to the Japanese, Korean, Indonesian Centers, the Confucius Institute, the Francophone Center, American Center. Our centers set up their relationships with embassies, universities, and students. But I would rather expect more from our centers. These centers should also be involved in our other projects. In addition to teaching, we need to build a mechanism for serving the masses. Unfortunately, it is not possible to build it as we wish. Some obstacles arise, inexperienced people show themselves, and some other relationships emerge. Therefore, the activity of the center should be established in this direction. Maybe a citizen passing through the street or a citizen working in a completely different sphere wants to learn Chinese. What should he do? Why should he go to useless language courses? We have real professionals. We invite teachers from China, Japan and Korea. Almost ambassador from Indonesia comes and teaches here. I want to say that our centers should activate the works in this direction and fill the gap- we have a gap here. I am expecting a lot from them in this direction.

You are now entering the hall today, and whether you like the changes in the hall or do not, I do not know. This hall seems to have enlarged a little. There were 320 seats in the hall and now 400 people can sit here. We saw that there was no place for people in the events. That’s why we’ve increased the number of seats. The scene has changed, curtains as well.

In general, I would like to give a little detail about reconstruction work. So, we talk about the hall. The hall and its adjacent balconies were repaired. You can see that the balconies are cleaned up to maximum. Air conditioners and technical equipment have been changed in the hall. Reconstruction works have been carried out in auditoriums, corridors and staircases. Changes have been made in water closets. The heating system of the building was repaired. They did not properly install any parts of the heating system when repaired it before. As a result, the building had no heat. We have completely eliminated this problem. With the help of God, the heating system will operate normally this year. Landscaping works were done in the yard, a fire alarm was provided. Many things you notice and not, have been carried out.

Ten restrooms were renovated in the second campus, all the accessories were upgraded, including corridors and staircase cages. Reconstructive works were carried out in auditoriums that were in need, protective frames were made in the auditoriums, and light repair works were carried out in the cafeteria. I have been in that building and in the third building. I went to one room and asked them what they needed.

In the third building, rooms have been expanded by taking partitions between several rooms. Entrance hall, corridor, staircase cabinets, audiences were painted, and audiences were provided with protective frames. 8-ton water tank was set to provide water supply. In addition, the university has received some equipment: computers, curtains, blinds, projectors, magnetic tapes, smart boards.

I want to say a few words about the reception. Taking into account the current situation, inter-university competition, the existence of “beating specialties” among universities, our admission has been normal. Although it is not true to be content with it, it seems to me that we can get out of the situation. 91% of graduates have been admitted to the bachelors’ degree and 70% to master’s degree. Of course, 70% is few for us. We need to work on it.

I would like to point out one more point that the number of students who want to move to our university from other universities is increasing every year. Young people see and appreciate the image of our university.

Dear Colleagues,

We have a very serious, bright potential. I know many of the teachers who are sitting here for many years and I believe them. I believe we’ll still carry on our work, hand in hand in the purity and clearness. I wish all of you health, family happiness, and most importantly, happiness in the new academic year. If we understand each other, we can forgive each other. The Russians have a word that is originated from Latin: “Cognoscere ignoscere”- “Understand- forgive”. The forgiving man is a great man. When dealing with one another, we must forgive and be able to understand one another whenever we continue our relationship. We are a family. Love each other, understand and instill in you an ability of forgiving.