The continuous increase in oil and gas production, together with the simultaneous growing impact of related activities (such as extraction and transportation) have caused a huge pollution in the Caucasian area. The remediation of such area has now become a National priority in Azerbaijan.
As a consequence, the availability of specialists skilled in the design and application of technologies suitable to tackle the main environmental problems of the country is an urgency, which represents a crucial and necessary step (but also an opportunity) in Azerbaijan’s development. On the other side, the M. Sc. courses on Environmental engineering and Ecology, currently held in Azerbaijan, are mainly oriented towards fundamental aspects and traditional environmental technologies, thus missing to provide the graduates with specific professional skills, necessary for their sudden entrance into the job market.
ITACA project deals with the design and building up of a Training Center, involving EU and local institutions, as well as enterprises active in the field of environmental impact of oil and gas production, to contribute to the strengthening of the relationship between university and industry, by jointly training graduated students to be employed in the field.The Training Centre will design and develop a one year postgraduate third cycle course managed in collaboration between industry and academia.
The current HE system in the Country does not include a third cycle of education different from PhD, while in EU it has been proved successful, especially in the field of ecology and environmental sciences, as well as engineering. The introduction of this new type of course, constituting a bridge between Universities and industries, could contribute to solving the emerging issues in the field of environmental remediation in the Country. An innovative teaching methodology will be applied, based on EU experiences, thus contributing to the modernization of local HE system.