Franz Kok, a researcher at the Paris Lodron University of Salzburg, was awarded the honorary doctorate of BSU

The Academic Council of Batumi Shota Rustaveli State University granted the title of Honorary Doctor to the Doctor of Political Science, researcher of Paris Lodron University of Salzburg Franz Kok. Dr. Franz Kok has made a great contribution to the internationalization of BSU and the implementation of international projects. Researcher Franz Kok is the head of the political science program at the University of Salzburg, the executive director of PoSIG -the joint master's program in Political Science in Salzburg, Tirana, Ljubljana, Skopje, Sarajevo and others - and the consortium; Coordinator of International Relations, Student Counseling and Erasmus+ Office of the University of Salzburg's Department of Political Science, leads the Salzburg Eco-Energy Exchange Association.

Dr. Franz Kok's field of scientific research is comparative politics. Dr. Franz Kok is the author of 12 scientific papers (monographs).

With the support of scientist-researcher Franz Kok, the cooperation between Paris Lodron University of  Salzburg and Shota Rustaveli State University in Batumi started in 2015. On the researcher’s initiative, it was planned to include BSU in the K-107 consortium of "Erasmus+", which provided for the purposeful organization of mobility of students and teachers of International Relations, European Studies and Political Sciences and financing with the "Erasmus+" grant.

Since 2016, with the support and initiative of Dr. Franz Kok of Political Science, Shota Rustaveli State University of Batumi has been involved with Salzburg, Tirana, Ljubljana, Skopje, Sarajevo, etc. in the process of implementation of the joint master's program in political sciences - PoSIG, where the function of the Social and Political Sciences Department of BSU was to participate in the internationalization process planned within the framework of the program and to facilitate it. To date, academic and invited specialists of BSU participate in PoSIG's annual seminars for professors and teachers. The seminars are mainly conducted in three directions:

1. Trainings on the development and implementation of joint master's educational programs in the field of Political Sciences and quality assurance of teaching;
2. With the target of deepening internationalization, meeting of contact groups, generating ideas, forming an informal consortium for the development of joint research and other international projects (TEMPUS, Capacity Building, Erasmus +, Horizon 2020). In this format, the professors and teachers of the Department of Social and Political Sciences of BSU, TSU, JIPA, Salzburg, Warsaw (Poland), Tirana (Albania), Ivan Franko University of Lviv (Ukraine), Yerevan presented more than one project both to the European Commissioner and Austrian Partner Program for Education and Research Development;
3. International scientific conference current issues in the field of Political Sciences of the European region.