On January 21, 2021, an online discussion on "University model of the XXI century" was held at the joint initiative of the Public Council under the Ministry of Education and Azedu Academy. The discussion with the participation of the Minister of Education Emin Amrullayev was attended by members of the Public Council under the Ministry, as well as a number of employees of the Ministry, heads and representatives of 35 higher education institutions of the country. Professor Hamlet Isakhanli, founder of Khazar University and chairman of the Board of Directors and Trustees, spoke at the discussion. In his speech, first of all he stressed the importance of modern universities’ endeavors on clarifying their identity. Which should be first teaching or scientific research; sharing known knowledge or producing new knowledge that is difficult and costly?
Professor Hamlet Isakhanli noted that another component of identity is the question of what specialties the university should concentrate on. In addition to identifying specialities, it is necessary to examine them; to eliminate obsolete ones and open new ones.
Emphasizing an important aspect of higher education, the professor said that the university should be a world university on the one hand; it should reflect the trends of development in the world, and on the other hand should not turn a blind eye to the requirements of the community (country, region).
The professor stressed the importance of keeping up with the digital world of the modern university and the need for a hybrid model that develops distance learning with face-to-face education. He pointed out another problem - the universities mainly want to increase the number of students, and pay little attention to finding and training high-level scientists and teachers. He stressed that the number and composition of students should be proportional to the number of prominent scientists and teachers.
Professor Hamlet Isakhanli finally touched upon the issue of university autonomy; He noted that the government should only approve the admission plan ordered by the scholarship holder (for example, X students at X University of Computer Engineering), and that the university should decide on all admissions of students outside the state scholarship plan. The latter also applies to the opening of new specialties.
A number of websites in the country spread information about the event:
https://ikisahil.az/post/xxi-esrin-universitet-modeli-movzusunda-onlayn-muzakire
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