Synthesis of science and practice
During the past academic year, the "Metadynea" company continued the implementation of its educational program. This project was developed and implemented by specialists of the "Metadynea" strategy department and the "Metafrax" Engineering and Technology Center (ETC) on the basis of the National Research University "Higher School of Economics". The project manager is Levon Garslyan, Deputy General Director for Strategic Development and Evaluation of Investment Projects of "Metadynea" LLC, the co-heads are Liliya Kulya, Senior Strategy Analyst and Andrey Dorokhov, Strategy Analyst of "Metadynea" LLC.
- The idea of our project is that students could work together with practitioners to work out the entire cycle of creating a project concept - from the process base to market and investment analysis. Therefore, we chose the format of a research project seminar to create an applied course in conditions as close as possible to real ones, - explained Levon Garslyan.
This year's program consisted of two author's courses "Assessment of the impact of COVID-19 and the economic crisis on the industry" and "Investment strategy of the enterprise". Their feature was problem-solving for issues that enterprises face today and development of skills for interaction with different specialists.
- I am sure that the possibility of joint work for practitioners and students is extremely relevant. Elective activities at the courses unite our team, help to deepen the knowledge about the material and develop new ideas. Students, in turn, are involved in the process of solving real issues, taken, among other things, from the practice of the "Metafrax" group of companies and other enterprises, - said Levon Garslyan.
The successful defence of five final qualifying and more than fifteen term papers became the result of the courses. Colleagues from "Metadynea" LLC shared their impressions about the most striking works of students.
- In particular, the final work of 4th-year students of the "Economics" course - Yulia Lutovinova, Ivan Smolko and Evgeny Shapovalov was dedicated to the effectiveness of joint ventures in the mining industry. The authors analyzed 75 fields around the world over the past 5 years and showed that the fields developed jointly have a larger size and lower marginality. At the same time, joint development leads to a reduction in risks for companies. The work was distinguished by a deep analysis of the existing theoretical literature in terms of prospects and barriers of the development of joint ventures, legal and managerial aspects as well as advanced statistical analysis of data, - noted Andrey Dorokhov.
- Another participant of the "Metadynea" educational program, Anna Kazachkova, a 3rd-year student of the "Economics" course, in her work "COVID-19 and the stock market in the chemical industry" considered how the work and economy of the industry's largest companies in the Russian Federation and the world have changed during the COVID-19 pandemic and assessed the impact of the crisis and the actions of companies on the market value of their financial instruments. In the search for interrelation, Anna has done an enormous job by collecting and analyzing data from January of 2019 to March of 2021 for companies from different segments of the chemical business and end-user industries, - shared Liliya Kulya.
The implementation of the "Metadynea" educational program together with the "Metafrax" ETC will continue in the next academic year as well.
- We are already planning to launch two updated courses that take into account the developing market trends. We are especially motivated to continue working on the program by the good occupancy rate of courses and activity among the students, - concluded Levon Garslyan.
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"Metafrax Group" has been systematically supporting educational projects for many years. Moreover, this applies not only to the field of chemistry and targeted training of personnel for its own production facilities. In addition to systematic interaction as part of agreements with universities, top managers of the companies give lectures to future lawyers, managers and economists, participate in organisation of scientific forums and speak at conferences. Both universities and "Metafrax Group" enterprises benefit from professional communication. Students get familiar with the best practical experience and practitioners always stay up to date with current scientific trends.