On July 1, on the small stage of the Rostov State Musical Theater, a solemn ceremony of the diplomas awarding to the foreign graduates of 2017 was held.

The event was attended by RostSMU professors, government officials in the city of Rostov-on-Don, parents and friends of international graduates.
The  ceremony  was  opened  by  the  dean of  the  Faculty  on  Training  Foreign  Students  and  Postgraduates,
MD. D.P.Khloponin, and then he gave the floor to the Vice-Chancellor on Training Foreign Citizens and International Cooperation, MD. Professor G.Sh.Gafiyatullina, which congratulated foreign graduates on behalf of the administration of the Rostov State Medical University in Russian and English.

In 2017, 53 graduates from 21 countries became graduate doctors and pharmacists at RostSMU.
Six foreign graduates received a diploma with honors:

Maniratanga Jean Thierry (Burundi)	Ha Viet Ngoc (Vietnam)	Sikanyika Alinani (Zambia)	Omonigho Oghene-Mudiakevwe Eunice (Nigeria)	Uzoma Chukwuemeka Chuma (Nigeria)	Beshtawi Raed W.K. (Palestine)

11 graduates were awarded with certificates for active participation in public life and academic success.
32 foreign graduates of the RostSMU have received a certificate of a specialist in the field of the Russian language, which gives them the right to teach at home.

According to the old tradition, graduates were congratulated by University professors and officials.
Warm wishes to the «young foreign colleagues», who were students yesterday, have been addressed by University professors: the Head of the Department of Internal Medicine with the basics of physiotherapy №1, Honored Doctor of Russia, MD. Professor V.P.Terentyev;
Professor of the Department of Neuropathology and Neurosurgery, MD. V.V. Efremov;
Head of the Department of Childhood Diseases №3, Ph.D. Associate Professor V.V. Karpov.
Deputy of the Rostov-on-Don city Council, associate professor of the Department of Internal Medicine with the basics of physiotherapy No.2, Ph.D. S.A.Zatonsky congratulated former students on University Graduation.

V.P.Terentyev bid farewell graduates

V.V.Efremov congratulates young foreign colleagues

V.V.Karpov presents books with individual wishes from the staff of the department to the best students

S.A.Zatonsky sends his congratulations to the graduates

Graduates thanked their professors and mentors, parents, dean’s office employees of the Faculty on Training Foreign Students and Postgraduates, as well as the Preparatory Faculty on Training Foreign Citizens.

Most of the 2017 graduates studied in RostSMU for 6 or 7 years (depending on the chosen specialty), starting from the preparatory department, where they acquired Russian and gradually adapted to the new social and cultural conditions. Employees of the dean’s offices treated the students with care and attention, helped them, accompanied at every stage of their education at the university all the years of study. Step by step, day after day, semester after semester, foreign students, overcoming learning difficulties and mastering medical knowledge, approached an important event in their life — the profession of a doctor and a pharmacist. And now, having become graduates, young foreign specialists of RostSMU will return to their homeland and will stand guard over the health of their compatriots, faithfully serve their people.

«Thank you, RostSMU! Thank you, Russia!» – these are the words in which the foreign graduates of the year 2017 expressed their sincere feelings for the University that became their home and for the great and beloved country of Russia.