4 August 2026

Lukashenko presented with the concept for the Academy of Intellectual Technologies: What the university of the future will look like

At a meeting chaired by the President of Belarus on the establishment of the Academy of Intellectual Technologies, the concept of a university of the future was presented in detail, a BELTA correspondent reports.

As Education Minister Andrei Ivanets reported, the full implementation of the academy’s experimental programmes will be possible only by selecting motivated and gifted individuals. Specialists believe that these experimental programmes will not deliver the desired effect with mass enrolment.

“We need to open the doors to college graduates and to those students who are already studying at universities, have distinguished themselves, and want to transfer to this new educational centre. The draft decree includes such a pathway,” the Education Minister stressed. He explained that students wishing to enrol in the centre will need to pass an interview and take an internal examination.

“We are obliged to recruit winners of international and national olympiads directly from school, so as not to allow a period of uncertainty during which they may hesitate between choosing a domestic educational institution and leaving for another university,” Andrei Ivanets stated.

The Education Minister noted that the academy will focus on achieving tangible benefits for the economy. Training will be provided in the natural sciences and engineering technologies. Specialists will be taught to develop promising and modern technologies that can be marketed in Belarus and abroad.

“The emphasis will be on project-based learning. We will provide fundamental education during the first two years. It will be intensive and painstaking study. From the third year, essentially individualised education begins: a specific project, a specific technological task, and an enterprise for which a specialist or an interdisciplinary team will solve tasks,” Andrei Ivanets stressed.

He named addressing staffing issues as one of the educational centre’s important areas of activity: “We must ensure continuity between generations. In a number of fields, our workforce is ageing — we see this both at universities and at the Academy of Sciences. We must reverse this trend and train new scientists, teachers, and chief technologists.”

In developing the new educational centre, the experience of leading universities in Russia and China was studied. “We examined promising areas, how the educational process is organised, and how not only students, but also teachers, graduates, and the real sector of the economy are involved,” Andrei Ivanets said. Consideration was also given to traditional domestic education, characterised by a combination of foundational courses in fundamental disciplines and practical laboratory classes. In this regard, the Education Minister stressed that the Academy of Intellectual Technologies is intended to include not only conventional higher schools, but also scientific and educational laboratories.