One of the newest members of the GALA network is the Russian Presidential Academy for National Economy and Public Administration (RANEPA), and particularly its Liberal Arts College. In September, GALA’s Academic Director, Ian Gadd, and Bath Spa’s new Vice-Provost for Research and Enterprise, John Strachan, visited RANEPA and met with, among others, Andrei Zorin (Academic Director of the College), Sergey Zuev (Dean of School of Public Policy in which the College sits), and Evgeny Mironov (Dean of Liberal Arts College). They also met with current students taking the Liberal Arts programme.

RANEPA is Russian’s largest university, with over 200,000 students across sixty campuses nationwide. The Moscow campus is located to the south-east of Moscow, about thirty minutes by metro from Red Square.

RANEPA’s Liberal Arts College—and the undergraduate programme it offers—is only one of two in Russia. It has been running for just a few years but already its numbers are growing significantly. The feedback from the students was immensely positive: they particularly valued the programme’s breadth and flexibility, its ethos of critical thinking and civic engagement, and its international dimension.

More information about the Liberal Arts programme is available here: http://www.ion.ranepa.ru/en/undergraduate/954/

Ian and John are particular grateful to Alexandra Artamonova, the college administrator, for all her assistance in organising their visit.