The Azerbaijan State Economic University (ASEU) has now joined the UNCTAD Virtual Institute (Vi), bringing the number of core members and countries represented in the Vi to thirty-three. ASEU has become the first Vi member of 2011 and joins Belarus, Russia and Ukraine as the fourth transition-country core member. The university’s application was presented under the auspices of the Permanent Mission of Azerbaijan in Geneva.
The Vi works with a global network of universities, mainly in developing countries, to enhance their capacities to conduct trade-related teaching and research responding to the needs of policy-makers and other relevant stakeholders in their countries.
Founded in 1930, ASEU is a public university located in Baku, Azerbaijan. ASEU is Azerbaijan’s leading university in the area of economics education and research, offering undergraduate, graduate and Ph.D. programmes on a variety of topics to its more than 16,000 students, including about 1,000 foreign students from fifteen different countries. Since it was established, more than 120,000 highly qualified specialists have graduated from this prestigious university. ASEU offers a higher economic education in four languages (Azerbaijani, English, Russian and Turkish) through its 1,000 professors and teaching staff.
The research conducted by the university relates to global issues (developments in international trade, the international financial system, foreign direct investment (FDI)) and their implications for the country and its integration into the world economy. Recent research projects covered trade issues (the impact of WTO accession, regional integration and co-operation, EU integration and the free-trade area), competitiveness (diversification of the economy toward non-oil sectors, ways of enhancing the country’s competitiveness, the knowledge-based economy, the role of FDI in the development of the economy), and the overall development of the country (employment creation and poverty reduction; the Azerbaijani model of sustainable socio-economic development).
ASEU is one of the pioneers regarding the implementation of the Bologna Process setting up the European Higher Education Area in the South Caucasus region. It actively co-operates with some international educational bodies, such as the Association of European Universities, the Association of Eurasian Universities, the Federation of Islamic Universities, etc.
You can find more information about ASEU and its Vi membership from the following websites: www.aseu.az and vi.unctad.org/news-mainmenu-2/371-azerbjoin [sic]
