South Africa prioritizes student exchanges with Russia, South African Deputy Minister of Higher Education and Training Kgwaridi Buti Manamela told Sputnik, adding that the African nation's education sector is also focusing on postgraduate student training.
"Well, we're mostly looking at the student exchange, getting South African students to come and study in Russia and hopefully also getting Russian students to come and study in South Africa," Manamela said on the sidelines of the first Ministerial Conference of the Russia-Africa Partnership Forum.
South Africa views the student exchange cooperation with Russia as not only inter-university collaboration, the deputy minister also noted.
"It's not only about student exchange. It's also about people exchange, about learning culture. But it's also about knowledge exchange. And we really are looking forward to that ... But we also are looking at focusing on training for, continuing with the training for postgraduate students, which is one of the things that we have prioritized for the next five years," Manamela explained.
According to the official, specialists in nuclear technology, mining and health areas topped the list of specialists on demand, expressing hope that the South African educational sector would gain consolidation and improvement in those areas.
The first Ministerial Conference of the Russia-Africa Partnership Forum is taking place from November 9-10 in Russia's Sirius Federal Territory.