Regional
CIS Countries Sign Cooperation Agreement with Norway
A new program for cooperation between higher education institutions in Norway, Eastern Europe, the South Caucasus and Central Asia will be launched this spring. The initiative is aimed at contributing to the renewal and internationalization of higher education in the cooperating countries.
– Norwegian Center for International Cooperation in Higher Education [1]
March 2010
Russia
Major University Closures Ahead
As many as 30 percent of Russia’s universities could face closure through mergers with other institutions this year because of a shortage of students and the implementation of a state plan to consolidate the higher education sector.
Nikolay Bulaev, Head of the Federal Agency for Education [2], said that this year about 100 universities would be merged with “stronger competitors”. But no names have yet been released. Bulaev said the mergers would enhance the quality of higher education, reduce the number of universities engaged in the training of professionals not in demand in the Russian labor market and provide a “rational use of budgetary funds”.
An initiative to close some universities was first announced at a conference at Russia’s Ministry of Education last month. According to state plans, this year universities with no more than 500 students would have to stop further admissions, while institutions with 300 students or less would be closed. The move to close and consolidate universities comes in response to a declining college-age population and also as a means of improving the quality of education through new accreditation and quality assurance measures.
Russia’s Ministry of Federal Education assured concerned academics that the forthcoming consolidation would not affect the elite Russian universities such as Moscow State University [3], Moscow State Technical University [4], St Petersburg State University [5] and some others.
– University World News [6]
March 28, 2010
Government Promises Millions for Elite Research Universities
Russia’s leading research universities will receive up to 90 billion rubles (US$3 billion) to support research and development activities over the next three years, according to a recent announcement from Minister of Education and Science Andrei Fursenko who said the funds would improve the scientific potential of universities and attract foreign scientists, including Russians currently working abroad.
All of the grants will be provided on a competitive basis. Analysts believe most of the money will go to so-called federal Russian universities, such as Southern, Siberian and Far Eastern, as well to 14 research universities. Federal universities were established by the government as autonomous institutions. Each has its own special rights in the field of education and innovation, and financial and economic activities.
– University World News [7]
April 11, 2010
Ukraine
Controversial Admissions Test to be Reformed Under New Government
The new government of Ukraine is unlikely to enact any radical reforms of the national higher education system, however, some changes are likely to be implemented, including the modification of a controversial testing system.
Dmitriy Tabachnik, the new Minister of Education, said the government would tighten admission requirements for national universities, while retaining a controversial system of external (and independent) testing for applicants, which has been used as an alternative to entrance examinations in Ukrainian universities over the past few years but has been unpopular with the heads of several major universities.
The main reason for the introduction of the independent examination was the authorities’ desire to end corruption in the admissions processes. But this aim has been only partially achieved. The new government aims to keep the test and improve upon it by using it as one measure in conjunction with results from secondary school final examinations, and institutional tests and interviews.
In other news, plans are still on the table among local authorities to cut by up to 30 percent the number of higher-education institutions, as is planned in neighboring Russia (see above). According to Sergei Kvit, President of the National University of Kyiv-Mohyla [8], one of Ukraine’s most prestigious institutions, there are currently more than 353 colleges and universities in Ukraine, while the country needs only 30 of them.
– University World News [9]
April 11, 2010