Chechnya

Agreement in Place to Rebuild Education System

An aide-memoire was signed March 14 between Vladimir Filipov, minister of education of the Russian Federation, and Koichiro Matsuura, the UNESCO director-general charged with reinforcing cooperation on the restoration of the education system in the Republic of Chechnya.

The aide-memoire reflects the intention of both parties to cooperate on the follow-up of the recommendations and proposals contained in a recent assessment of education in Chechnya, prepared by Russian education officials and their Chechen counterparts, with technical support from UNESCO.

Priority will initially be given to three areas: nutritional and health education of children, psychological and social rehabilitation of children and advice on the creation of an education complex and the establishment of a program to develop national education capacities.

— UNESCO
March 3, 2003

Russia

British Education Increasingly Popular

Over the past two years, the number of Russians pursuing British university degrees has risen sharply, to nearly 1,500.

According to recently released figures from the British Council, universities in Britain have seen a 40 percent increase in the number of Russians attending full-time undergraduate and postgraduate courses, from 1,050 to 1,470.

“The main reason numbers are rising is the demand for practical business skills, an area in which the U.K. excels,” said Paul Norton, assistant director for education promotion at the British Council’s Moscow office.

The figures show that 63 percent of those who studied at the tertiary level in 2001-02 were self-financed. This underlines both the growing strength of the Russian economy and the importance attached to high-quality, internationally recognized degrees, said education officials involved in attracting overseas students.

— The Times Higher Education Supplement
Jan. 31, 2003

Moldova

Russian-Moldovan University Planned

Among other plans discussed March 3 between Russian Deputy Prime Minister Valentina Matvienko and Moldovan education officials were plans to open a joint Russian-Moldovan university in the Moldovan capital of Chisinau.

The officials also agreed to provide reciprocal recognition of education documents and to cooperate in the training and retraining of medical specialists.

— RFE/RL Newsline
March 4, 2003

Turkmenistan

New Niazov Decree Attempts to Prevent Overseas Study

President Saparmurat Niazov is attempting to prevent students from traveling abroad for their education, out of apparent fear that foreign universities may become a hotbed of Turkmen dissent.

A new law preventing students from buying foreign currency was passed Feb. 21, after Turkmen students in Moscow attended a demonstration against Niazov’s rule. The Feb. 19 demonstrations are thought to have provoked Niazov into regarding all Turkmen studying abroad as potential dissenters, and the new exchange restrictions make it all but impossible for them to continue their education.

The only students exempt from the ban will be the privileged few sent abroad by the Education Ministry and those who study in countries that have intergovernmental agreements with Turkmenistan – namely, Belarus, Ukraine and Turkey.

The number of students looking to pursue tertiary education outside Turkmenistan has ballooned in recent years, in parallel with a perceived decline in the standard of domestic education. Other factors that have led hundreds of students to study abroad include the recent Niazov rulings that all teaching be conducted in the Turkmen language and that the term of higher education be reduced to just two years.

— Institute for War and Peace Reporting
March 7, 2003