France and Russia to Sign Agreement on Academic Degrees

The Russian and French Education Ministers are to sign an intergovernmental agreement on May 12 that will bring into force mutual recognition of the two countries' degrees. According to French Consul in St. Petersburg Stefan Visconti, the signing ceremony will be held at St. Petersburg State University.

According to Nikolai Dmitriev, the head of the Russian Education Ministry's Department for International Cooperation, Russia does not have similar agreements with any other countries. He said that the document states 'the Russian degree of candidate of science and the French doctorate are degrees of the same level.'

The ministers will be in St. Petersburg to take part in the opening ceremony of a conference called 'St. Petersburg - Paris dialogue: from Diderot to our times'. The conference is being held to mark the tenth anniversary of the French University College in St. Petersburg.