Kyrgyzstan

Colleges Training Kyrgyz to Work Overseas to Ease Unemployment at Home

Government officials are actively encouraging vocational colleges to train young people for job prospects abroad in a bid to ease the burden of high levels of unemployment at home. Kyrgyz colleges are now training students to work as tradesmen in Russia and other countries with labor shortages. Some are warning, however, that the policy could come at a high demographic cost to Kyrgyzstan in the long term.

Faced with soaring unemployment, the government has decided it can no longer afford to continue providing assistance, and so has entered into contracts with other countries to provide skilled workers. Earlier this year, for example, Kyrgyzstan’s State Committee for Migration signed an agreement with a local vocational school to train young people for a month in preparation for work in South Korea.

More than 100,000 young people reach working age every year, but relatively few find employment that pays a living wage, so many go abroad to work as seasonal migrants, mainly in Russia, but also in Kazakstan and countries further afield. According to official statistics, there are about 350,000 Kyrgyzstan nationals working in Russia and Kazakstan, while unofficial estimates put the number closer to two million. Turkey, China, the United Arab Emirates and South Korea are other popular destinations.

The remittances migrants send home have become one of the biggest contributors to the Kyrgyz economy. During the first nine months of 2007, migrants from Russia alone are believed to have sent back more than US$700 million. The State Migration Committee is now looking at job markets in other countries to soak up more of the surplus labor. Following negotiations last year, South Korea granted Kyrgyzstan a quota of 2,000 places for workers. The committee has also held talks with Poland and Italy with a view to persuading these countries to admit students from Kyrgyzstan for seasonal work.

Many warn that the policy will end up costing the country dearly. With increasing numbers of people of child-rearing age traveling abroad, there may be demographic consequences in the following decades, and the export of skilled labor may well pave the way for a prolonged economic crisis, due to a shortage of skilled workers.

– The Institute for War and Peace Reporting
February 21, 2008

Russia

Vanderbilt Study Suggests Academic Corruption Continues to Rise

Confirming the widely held belief that academic corruption in the countries of the former Soviet Union has increased since the end of the Cold War, a new study by two Vanderbilt professors states that corruption is among the most serious new problems in economic development today.

Published in the February issue of Comparative Education Review, the study states that one of the most pressing problems for students is that a devalued degree adversely affects their earning power. Devaluation of degrees has serious international policy implications, degrades the entire social system of those countries and decreases the likelihood that those graduates will be able to improve their economic standing, the researchers said.

With relation to the international transfer of academic credit, especially under the mobility initiatives of the Bologna Process , universities in countries of the former Soviet Union might be edged out of such programs because universities with strong international reputations are unlikely to want to have their degrees perceived as equivalent to those coming from a university system with a reputation for corruption, the authors said in the report.

The study surveyed universities in Serbia, Croatia, Bulgaria, Moldova, Kazakhstan and the Kyrgyz Republic using the Transparency International Corruption Perception Index for 2005.

– Vanderbilt News Release
February 18, 2008

Russian Universities to Recruit Indian Students Bound for the US

Russian universities and business schools are hoping that a new marketing campaign will help them compete with U.S. institutions for internationally mobile Indian students. The campaign begins with an April youth festival in New Delhi where university officials will showcase education in Russia, under the planning of Russia’s Federal Agency of Education.

According to a report in Thaindian news, Russia has, in recent years, become a popular overseas education destination, particularly for Indian students interested in studying medicine. While previously language was a barrier, many Russian universities are now offering courses in English, especially in fields such as medicine, and in collaboration with a growing number of Western university partners. Other factors, such as comparatively low tuition fees and fewer qualifying exams, are also helping to make Russia a competitive international education destination. According to the news report, Indian students account for nearly 10 percent of the almost 100,000 foreign students in Russia.

The new campaign will look to attract students to Russia’s new breed of “world class” business schools, buoyed by a booming economy, such as Moscow Business School and St. Petersburg Business School.

– Thaindian
February 19, 2008

European University Resumes Classes Following Pre-Election Closure

After being ordered to close following a failed fire inspection, and just weeks before Russia’s March 2 presidential elections, European University has been allowed to re-open.

The university had been planning a vote-monitoring program, with support from the European Commission, leading many to believe that the closure was politically motivated. To make up for lost time the university will extend the semester a few days this spring.

– St. Petersburg Times
March 25, 2008