The last meeting of the Academic Board of the Azerbaijan State Oil and Industry University (ASOIU) in the 2019/2020 academic year was held on July 17. Rector of ASOIU, Professor Mustafa Babanli noted that the meeting of the Academic Board coincided with a period of military provocation committed by Armenia in the Tovuz region where a group of high-ranking officers and soldiers of the Azerbaijani army became martyr. The memory of the officers who became martyrs were commemorated with a minute of silence by the members of Academic Board. Noting that the recent battles on the Azerbaijani-Armenian border once again demonstrated the strength of the Azerbaijani army, Rector M. Babanli emphasized that the citizens of the country demonstrated high solidarity and patriotism with the state and the army. Rector Babanli strictly condemned the attempts of some forces to impose the patriotic feelings of Azerbaijani youth and noted that such cases highlight the fact of the need for more effective organization of educational work with students in universities as well as at ASOIU.
Then the Rector, Professor Mustafa Babanli introduced the newly appointed Secretary General of the Azerbaijan-French University functioning under ASOIU Elizaveta Budanova to the members of the Academic Board.
Making a report on the results of the 2019/2020 academic year, Rector M.Babanli noted that the suspension of the traditional educational process in all educational institutions of the country from March 3 in the conditions of the quarantine regime announced in connection with the global pandemic also affected on ASOIU's plans. Rector M.Babanli underlined that having an excellent electronic university system and a strong material and technical base at ASOIU, the launch of online teaching in a short period of time with the support of the Ministry of Education, thanks to the development of IT skills of faculty in recent years, has allowed to implement plans for teaching at a high level, while the work on science was not carried out as planned. Giving recommendations on accelerating the work related science, Rector, Professor M.Babanli noted that 3 international scientific conferences planned to be held within the 100th anniversary of ASOIU by the end of the 2020 calendar year will provide great opportunities for progress in this field.
Providing information about the results of the summer exam session of the 2019/2020 academic year, Rector M.Babanli said that this process covered a total of 46,764 exam-students and 28.79% of them received "excellent" grades. He noted that a total of 2,869 young people including 2,364 at the bachelor's level and 505 at the master's level became graduates.
Touching upon the employment issue of graduates, Rector M.Babanli said that this is one of the priorities of ASOIU, and despite the quarantine regime, the university is developing cooperation with enterprises in this field. Noting that 37 government bodies and private companies offered 217 vacancies to the online alumni-career exhibition held at ASOIU on June 11, Rector M.Babanli highlighted that more than hundred students had already attended the interview and more than 10 of them received job offers. Noting that the website career.asoiu.edu.az presented within the framework of the exhibition operate continuously and new job advertisements will be placed here regularly, Rector, M.Babanli underlined that despite the fact that employers are experiencing a sensitive period due to the pandemic they provide ASOIU's graduates with job thanks to the university's reputation and the fact that its graduates are competitive in the labor market,expressed his gratitude to the partner enterprises and organizations for their support.
Noting that ASOIU has made significant progress in the development of international relations over the past period Rector, Professor M.Babanli stressed that Indian specialists will be involved in teaching at the university in an online format on artificial intelligence, databases, and an agreement has been reached to open a branch of ASOIU in Bangladesh.
Rector M.Babanli said that 1,042 people (UFAZ - 80 people, MBA - 116 people, ASOIU - 846 people) were admitted the master's degree program at ASOIU for the 2020/2021 academic year, and more than 953 of them were registered.
Expressing hope that despite the quarantine regime, the entrance exams for the bachelor's degree of higher education institutions of the country will be held soon, M.Babanli said that the expectations on admission to the bachelor's degree at ASOIU to be high will be proved to be correct.
Rector M.Babanli called the teaching staff of ASOIU to ensure the safety of themselves and their relatives by following the rules of the quarantine regime, and wished the members of the Academic Board good health, success in their educational and scientific activities.
