On March 15, 2012, a meeting was held between students of the President’s program for management retraining and Ben Greenwood, Assistant to Consul General of Great Britain. The meeting was attended by Management of the Saint Petersburg University of Management and Economics and Staff of the Institute of Retraining and Advanced Training. Words of welcome were said by Viktoriya Leonidovna Marich, Development and International Cooperation Pro-Rector, who emphasized efficiently developing partnership between Saint Petersburg University of Management and Economics and UK ambassadorial services.

Ben Greenwood’s address was primarily concentrated on development of relations between the two countries in economy and commerce, because in Consulate General he is responsible for this line.

According to Mr Greenwood, positive aspects of bilateral interaction between Russia and Great Britain are as follows: increase in commodity turnover, joint projects in business, power engineering, sports, projects for reconstruction and modernization of railway stations, and mutual consultations.

The lecture was given by Dr. Savvas Papangiannidis, Head of MA Programs in E-Business and Information Systems at Newcastle University (Great Britain).
Dr. Papangiannidis defined “electronic business” as follows: e-business is introduction of information technologies and Internet into a company’s internal and external business processes, which allows development of brand new and efficient interactive media.
The concept of electronic business is closely related to the following notions:

E-learning – electronic learning
E-commerce – electronic commerce (on-line sales, web-money, etc.)
E-government – electronic government (provision of information and rendering of services to population).

Today you can hardly find an area that has not been affected by Internet technologies. Most companies readily adapt to new conditions: introduce various on-line services and technologies, actively use social networks (emergence of Facebook, without any doubt, was an innovation in business) to promote their goods and services. Some firms and even industries (such as Kodak camera manufacturer who declared bankruptcy in January this year) withdraw the market.

The seminar was convened by Consulate General of Germany in Saint Petersburg, German Foundation for International Legal Cooperation, Graduate School of Journalism and Mass Communication and North West Branch of Russian Legal Academy, Ministry of Justice, Russia.

The seminar was conducted as part of the Week of Germany in Saint Petersburg, arousing great public interest. This event is topical because relations between Russia and Germany have become closer recently; trade now develops at high rates; Russia is one of the most important foreign trade partners of Germany.

Seminar participants made special mention of the report made by Michael Schiele, a liaison officer of border services, federal enforcement, Germany Embassy of Federal Republic of Germany (Moscow).

Seminar participants exd phone numbers and e-mail to continue communication and strengthen friendly international mutual relations. Information they have received will be intensively used in training and studies on Private International Law, Civil and Commercial Law in Foreign Countries, etc.

Presentation was made by Vladimir Aleksandrovich Gusev, Director of the Russian Museum, Fellow of the Russian Academy of Arts, Honored Art Worker of Russia, and Professor Emeritus at SPbUME.

The virtual office is an information and education class and multimedia cinema, whose media collection includes interactive programs, motion pictures, printed matters on collections of the Russian Museum, history of Russian art, life and creative work of painters, history of palaces and parks that are part of the museum complex.

SPbUME students can concern themselves at the information and education class with subjects, such as history and culture of Saint Petersburg, world culture and art, organization of tour activities, religious studies, etc., independently get acquainted with masterpieces of the Russian art, and watch films and materials they may be interested in.

A.Yu. Rumiantseva, Head of the Youth Scientific Initiative Center, Head of the Chair of Finances and Credit, and M.Yu. Kuznetsova, Senior Specialist of the International Cooperation and Academic Mobility Department, had a meeting with CityU representatives in the City of Trenchin: David B. Griffin, Instructional Work Dean , Andrea Stropkowa, Post-institution and International Program Manager, and Bozhena Gaydosova, Manager. This meeting focused on academic curricula under MA program, MBA and special features of distance teaching/learning of students, list of handbooks for subjects to be studied and procedure of testing SPbUME students for knowledge of English, and validation of SPbUME teachers by CityU representatives. Agreement was reached on the subjects to be studied by students in April 2012 under the following programs.

MBA 520 “Managing with Technology”, weekend mode, dates of a course: March 31 - April 27;

MBA 500 “Essentials of Business Management”, mixed mode, on-line course May 5 - May 31, and a seminar in Prague May 11 to May 13;

MBA 501 “Business Communications and Research Methods, on-line mode, dates of a course: April 2 - June 10.

In addition, description was obtained for courses to be studied by students in April 2012.

International Association of Universities was established in 1950, combines higher professional education institutions from 150 countries and collaborates with various international, regional and national agencies.

The Association aims to protect general cultural values and legal principles in higher education, create a flexible legal basis regulating relations between educational institutions throughout the world, represent and protect interests of universities in the world arena.

The Association is the largest sui generis forum, where you can find regular discussion of progress, problems and prospects of higher education, as well as ex of professional experience. In practice, the Association holds topical conferences and symposia on a regular basis to study problems and trends in development of higher education in cooperation with international organizations.

The first conference, which SPbUME is invited to attend, will be held in Puerto Rico from November 27 to November 30, 2012. The topic of the conference is Higher Education and Global Program: native ways to the future.

Welcoming address was made by V.L. Marich, SPbUME International Contacts and Development Pro-Rector, who introduced Julie Brooks, Manager of MA programs at the School of Management, University of St. Andrews, with whom SPbUME representatives had a meeting during their visit to universities of Scotland in November, 2011. Julie Brooks demonstrated a remarkable film about the City of Saint Andrews that was made by MA management program graduates of creative organizations and devoted to the history of University, main cities of Scotland, the sights of the City of Saint Andrews (at 1.5 hours the City of Glasgow), Scottish traditions , and main sports.