The first graduation of the MBA-Agribusiness professional retraining program was held at the TSU Institute of Economics and Management, the Tomsk Region Administration press service told NIA Tomsk.
Zholt Chapo (professor at the Department of Agricultural Economics and Rural Development at the University of Debrecen, Hungary) and Johan van Ofem (professor at the Department of Social Sciences at the University of Wageningen, the Netherlands) came to defend graduation work. After a comprehensive assessment of the TSU program for compliance with the requirements of the association, experts recommended that the AgriMBA program be accredited internationally.
According to the requirements, foreign teachers - specialists in the field of agribusiness from organizations belonging to the AgriMBA association must participate in the implementation of the program. Professors from the University of Wageningen, Belfast, Belgrade and Nitra worked at TSU. In addition, the texts of the final works should be written in English and two external reviews should be submitted to them - from an expert of a Russian organization and from abroad. The defense of the work also took place in English.
The first graduate work of students of AgriMBA was devoted to various aspects of the agricultural sector: from the development of beef cattle breeding and elite seed production of potatoes to land management, the agricultural education system of the region and threat management as a factor in improving the economic security of agricultural regions.
“AgriMBA has many opportunities to learn something new: ideas, technologies, communications. Especially when specialists came from other regions and countries, there was feedback, an exchange of experience. We went to different plants, met people, talked with potato experts from Holland and Germany - this will greatly help our project to develop an elite seed-growing center, which will soon be implemented, ”said Kolpakov, director of the program, one of the students. Denis Kolpakov.
Students who successfully completed the training course will receive a TSU diploma in professional retraining in the field of "Management in Agribusiness" and a diploma from the international MBA Association in Agribusiness AgriMBA.
“Anyone who is going to manage agriculture, even the heads of departments, should definitely take part in this program. I am sure that thanks to her, the level of agrarian education in the Tomsk region will increase, ”said Irina Cherdantseva, head of the department of socio-economic development of the village of Tomsk Region, who also took part in the program.
The final decision on accreditation will be made at a meeting of the Governing Council of AgriMBA, which will be held June 23 in Debrecen. Experts noted the high level of organization of the accreditation procedure, the compliance of the program documentation with the quality requirements, the selection and qualifications of Russian and foreign teachers, modern teaching methods and the availability of teaching materials. Wishes were expressed to switch to the implementation of the program entirely in English and to strengthen the practical competencies of students in organizing and managing business processes. Together, experts rated the TSU program at 303 points out of 315 possible and made a recommendation to accredit the program.
AgriMBA is the highest step in business education, giving managers and specialists the opportunity to improve their knowledge in the field of agribusiness. The program is unique to Siberia. It is implemented jointly with the University of Wageningen (Netherlands), a leading EU research and educational center in the field of agriculture, ecology, economics and management. Successfully operates in Warsaw, Prague, Zagreb, Belgrade, Kiev, Debrecen, Nitra and Ulan Bator. In 2015, TSU became one of the four Russian universities that were given the right to train professionals in agribusiness.
Source: http://www.niatomsk.ru/