Now at the Faculty of Engineering: Collaborative MSc degree with the Azerbaijan Technical University

The Faculty of Engineering recently signed a dual-diploma agreement with AzTU, Azerbaijan Technical University in Baku, capital of Azerbaijan. AzTU is Azerbaijan's leading university in the field of technology, and engineering in particular. The dual-diploma will focus on nano-electronics, and participating students will receive a degree from each of the two universities.

Composing the program took about a year and a half after being initiated by the former dean of the faculty, Prof. Ze'ev Zalevsky (currently the university's vice president for industry relations), and the head of the faculty administration, Dr. Yossi Talyosef, who visited AzTU and were impressed by the students and the study programs. Dr. Talyosef spearheaded the collaboration together with Bar-Ilan's International School. Composing the syllabus was led by Prof. Adam Teman. "The main challenge was to create a syllabus that meets the requirements of both parties. We tried to take courses that are relevant to the program from each of the institutions, adapt them to the students' terms in their host countries during the degree, and adjust the credit points so they would align with both universities' requirements," explains Prof. Teman. "Azerbaijan follows the European academic credit system, called ECTS. In accordance with this standard, a graduate degree requires a total of 120 ECTS, of which 30 are for thesis research. The credit system at Bar-Ilan is different; one credit is equivalent to 2-3 ECTS. Another challenge we encountered is that some of the lecturers there, including the head of the electrical engineering department, don't speak English, and we needed to use a translator."

To bridge these gaps, a delegation from Azerbaijan visited Bar-Ilan twice over the past year, and joint work yielded solutions to all the challenges. The mutual agreement was signed in November at a festive event headed by the university's rector, Prof. Amnon Albeck. Prof. Teman adds an interesting tidbit: most of the work on the agreement was done with Elşən Qurbanov, head of international programs at AzTU. "While working together, we discovered that Elşən is Jewish, his wife and daughter live in Israel, and he has a soft spot in his heart for Bar-Ilan University, because his daughter is a student here."