The Faculty of Arts and Humanities at Damascus University opened Tuesday a department for Russian language and literature, to be added to the series of living languages taught in the college.
The Minister of Higher Education, Mohammed Amer al-Mardini, explained that the higher education system is expanding the terms of reference in accordance with the requirements of current social landscape. He pointed out that the analysis of the labor market indicates an urgent need for the Russian language, and that a large number of students have chosen the Russian language in the current academic year, while acceptance rates in this department are very high.
Mardini said he believed that opening this department shows the "strength of the relations between Syria and Russia", which had deepened via the position of the Russian people and their support to Syrian people.
The Dean of Damascus University, Mohammed Hassan Kurdi, said that the College of Arts has completed all necessary preparations for the opening of the department by securing the teachers and the syllabus. Kurdi said the department has also drawn on the expertise of the Higher Institute of Languages at the University, noting that the first phase will depend on Syrian students who studied at Russian universities and institutes, in addition to the Russian community living in Damascus.
The Dean of the Faculty of Arts and Humanities, Khalid Halbouni, said that the opening of new departments for Modern Languages at the college contributes to the revival of cultural intercourse and increases the knowledge of students of humanities, pointing out that the Russian language has a long history in the fields of science and literature and helps with tother languages with the result of greater scientific progress and cognitive prosperity.
For his part, the Russian Ambassador to Damascus, Azamatullah Kolmahmedov, said that the "opening of this department is a cause for optimism about the future of the Syrian-Russian relations and promotes a closeness and friendship between the two countries, especially in these sensitive conditions", adding that this event has a cultural dimension to help disseminate the Russian language and literature in Syria.
Translated and edited by the Syrian Observer
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