BP presents new laboratories to Qafqaz University
By Aynur Jafarova
British BP has presented eleven world class laboratories to Qafqaz University, a private university based in Azerbaijan's capital Baku, BP reported on December 9.
BP said it is the company's commitment to supporting the development of the country's national experts and workforce potential through training, partnerships and sponsorship of educational initiatives.
The laboratories are designed for the university's mechanical engineering department established by BP in 2011.
The new facilities specialize in such areas as aerodynamics and fluid mechanics, thermal sciences and heat transfer, internal combustion engines and automotive, materials-metallographic, upgrade of materials, mechanical vibrations and noise control, mechanisms and machine dynamics, automatic control, design and rapid prototyping, machine tools and non-destructive testing.
BP's Regional President for Azerbaijan, Georgia and Turkey Gordon Birrell said his company sees a need to support national capability development, in particular in the oil and gas related disciplines.
"We have been working closely with SOCAR and the Ministry of Education to support their efforts to develop world class local experts and workforce who will be involved in our future giant projects and operations in the Caspian," he said.
Birrell believes these laboratories are designed to help the students of the university receive international standard education within the country.
BP said this follows the company's five-year successful partnership with Qafqaz University which started by signing a Memorandum of Understanding (MoU) in 2009.
BP's partnership with Qafqaz University is aimed at supporting the university in the efforts to broaden its curriculum to cover undergraduate education in chemical, mechanical, petroleum and other engineering disciplines. This is a major educational development project that supports BP's commitment to developing national oil and gas industry experts and workforce through training, partnerships and sponsorship of educational initiatives.
The partnership between them includes BP's support for establishing a chemical engineering department in 2009 followed by opening in 2011, five world class laboratories for this department.
In 2011, BP also established a mechanical engineering department at the university followed by presenting eleven laboratories on December 9.
To date BP has invested over $2.5 million in the projects that have helped Qafqaz University establish two new departments and 16 laboratories including $1.3 million spent for the laboratories presented today.
In addition, BP has also committed to inviting students from the new departments to apply for BP's existing internship programs and take part in recruitment processes on equal basis with others, inviting BP experts to contribute to university's engineering programmes through sharing their knowledge and experience in regular seminars and conferences, as well as providing access to BP's relevant laboratories to increase students' exposure to the industry.
BP opened an office in Baku back in 1992. The company operates within a number of legal entities in Azerbaijan, reflecting its evolution in the country and the region since 1992. The principal legal entity is BP Exploration (Caspian Sea) Ltd.
Qafqaz University was founded in 1993. The education system and programs of Turkish and Western universities are taken as a model in preparing its curriculums. The main goal of the university is to provide students with higher education that meets international standards and play an active role in fostering excellence, cooperation and interaction with international academic milieu.