Russian railway managers study in Portsmouth
Posted on 21. Apr, 2011 by admin in Business, MBA, Uncategorized
Thirty senior Russian Railways managers recently spent a week at the University of Portsmouth Business School for a financial training course. 
It is the second trip the managers have made to Portsmouth as part of their MBA (Masters of Business Administration) degree programme which they are studying at the Moscow State University of Railway Engineering (MIIT). The visit to the Business School is also run in partnership with global accountancy firm PricewaterhouseCoopers.
The partnership between the organisations came about through Language School International and was set up by principal lecturer in the Department of Accounting and Finance, Dr Peter Andrew, after a visit to Moscow in 2009.
Russian Railways (RZD) is the second largest rail network in the world with 85,200km of track and is the country’s largest employer with more than a million staff. It carries more than one billion passengers a year in addition to a billion tonnes of freight over 11 time zones from St. Petersburg in the west to Vladivostok in the east.
RZD is one of Russia’s most profitable companies and is a major contributor to the economy with assets worth more than £55bn. The students at MIIT undertake part of their course in the UK because fluency in English is part of RZD’s corporate policy. Whilst in the UK they also learn about the privatisation of British Rail.
Dr Andrew, said: “MIIT is the largest university specialising in railways and transportation in Russia so we’re very pleased to be working in collaboration with their students. The company was keen to link with Portsmouth Business School because of the high national ranking of our accounting and finance courses. It is an excellent partnership as the students benefit greatly by learning about global finance from a western perspective and improving their English language skills at the same time.”
Portsmouth Business School is actively involved in teaching students and developing courses for industries in Eastern Europe, with relationships in the Czech Republic, Bulgaria and Romania, as well as Russia.
The managers received their certificates in a ceremony at the top of the Spinnaker at the end of their study week.
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