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"During a meeting between representatives of Ural Federal University and the Consulate General of Germany last week, the parties approved an exchange program offering Russian and German students the opportunity to study in one another's countries.<br /><br />The exchange program was initially proposed in June at a meeting between Russian President Vladimir Putin and German Chancellor Angela Merkel. Representatives from the German Consulate and UrFU met again in September to finalize a proposal for the program which emphasizes issues of cooperation between the two countries.<br /><br />At Thursday's meeting, German Foreign Minister Frank-Walter Steinmeir also proposed a program to improve UrFU's competitiveness as an international university. A special German council will evaluate UrFU's educational offerings in political science, economics and global policy, and provide feedback to the university as to how it can improve the programs in order to be included on the Top 100 World Universities list in 2020.<br /><br />\"I fully agree that UrFU [will be included] among the 15 universities that develop a specific program,\" German Consulate General Andreas Klassen said during the meeting. \"It is similar in nature to the program Excellence Initiative, which is realized in Germany. Well that Russia is going down this path.\""^^<http://www.w3.org/2001/XMLSchema#string>
<http://yekaterinburgnews.com/stories/510539017-urfu-german-consulate-establish-student-exchange-program>