Kyrgyzstan
Universities Closed for Elections, Academic Year Starts Late
Institutions of higher education in the southern part of Kyrgyzstan, scene of ethnic violence earlier this year, remained closed in the lead up to the October 18 elections, delaying the start of the academic year until after the poll.
Although primary and secondary schools in the south started as scheduled on September 1, they faced a severe shortage of teachers in addition to low enrollments with many families having fled the area during the ethnic clashes. Universities have essentially been closed since the violent outbreaks in June, with a few opening briefly in late June to allow students to take final examinations.
Education Minister Kanat Sadykov said in a radio interview in August that the postponement of the academic year in the tertiary sector was intended to prevent students from being “manipulated or mobilized” by political groups during the election campaign. Many universities in the southern part of the country were damaged or destroyed during the summer unrest that killed almost 400 people and caused tens of thousands to flee the country.
According to an Education Ministry spokeswoman, at least 14 universities will stay closed indefinitely owing to “irregularities in the license obtaining process.” They include the People’s Friendship University in the southern city of Jalalabad, which was gutted by fire in May.
– University World News [1]
October 3, 2010
Russia
Government Contemplating Bologna-style Reforms
The Russian government is looking into system-wide structural reforms to its higher education infrastructure through the adoption of a new federal law. The reforms would be in line with the two-tier system of bachelors and masters programs that have been widely adopted across Europe under the Bologna reforms.
Under the proposed plans, the government would significantly increase the number of colleges and institutes in the country to undertake the lion’s share of vocational and undergraduate teaching, with graduate-level instruction and research being conducted at universities. The number of universities would be decreased in a drive to raise the prestige of Russian higher education, with a planned focus on the development of national research universities as well as federal universities.
Russia saw a rapid increase in the number of universities after the collapse of the Soviet Union, a fact that many stakeholders blame for a reduction in the prestige of Russian higher education. The expanded system has also produced a surplus of graduates, many of whom are experiencing serious employment difficulties. Russian officials believe the reforms would make the Russian higher education system more efficient while also allowing students to apply to leading European universities.
Minister of Education Andrei Fursenko said recently that, “only 15%-20% of graduates of Russian universities are able to find a job in today’s job market. The transition to a two-tier system would help to solve this problem.”
– University World News [2]
September 11, 2010
Regional Inequalities in Educational Provision Explored at OECD Conference
At the OECD Institutional Management in Higher Education conference held in Paris in September, speakers explored the issue of access in today’s Russian higher education system. Tatiana Gounko, assistant professor at the University of Victoria [3] in Canada, described how post-Soviet era changes have strained the Russian higher education system.
At the conference, “Higher Education in a World Changed Utterly: Doing more with less,” Gounko explained that during the Soviet era, education was managed at the national level with the same textbooks, the same curriculum for all at every level of education and no tuition fees were required for university studies, allowing for a level playing field. Today, each Russian republic, even each district, has responsibility over educational content and funding, meaning that students in poorer districts do not have the same educational opportunities as those in richer ones, according to Gounko.
Some reforms aimed at reducing the inequalities have been implemented in recent years, including the introduction of a national standardized university entrance examination in 2009, an innovation designed to reduce corruption in admissions. In April this year, the government reformed its student loan program, which is now entirely based on results of the exams. Critics such as Gounko, however, argue that this favors those who need access to the loans least, as they are based on merit, not need. In addition, the wealthy typically have access to the best secondary schooling, and higher education costs are also rising. According to the OECD, the cost of high quality university education in Moscow is now more than US$10,000 per year.
– University World News [4]
September 15, 2010
4 U.S. Universities to Help Build University-Industry Partnerships in Russia
A new project to help Russian universities commercialize their research by promoting ties between Russian academe and industry was launched in September. In the initial development stage, Russian universities will work with teams from four American institutions in developing plans and approaches to collaborating with industry.
The project for Enhancing University Research and Entrepreneurial Capacity [5] (EURECA) will bring together several of Russia’s newly designated “national research universities” to work with the U.S. teams from the universities of Maryland [6], Purdue [7], California [8] (LA), and Washington [9]. A consortium of foundations from the United States and Russia is backing the project. The U.S. organizations in the consortium are the American Councils for International Education [10] and the National Council for Eurasian and East European Research [11], while the Russian partner is the New Eurasia Foundation [12]. They will operate under the overall guidance of the U.S.-Russia Foundation [13].
While technology transfer and university-industry economic partnerships are a new and potentially controversial development for Russia’s academic culture, Russia last year adopted its own version of America’s Bayh-Dole Act, giving its universities the right to own and commercialize the findings arising from their research. However, there are concerns that corruption and issues related to protecting academic intellectual property could scare away potential business partners.
The Eureca program began with a 10-day program in October that included intensive training, site visits to the American institutions, and a Washington D.C. reception for American and Russian academic, political, and business leaders. Lobachevsky State University [14] of Nizhni Novgorod and the St. Petersburg State University of Information Technology, Mechanics, and Optics [15] were selected as the two Eureca hubs in Russia.
Over the next two years, teams from the American universities will train their counterparts on the two campuses in things like evaluating the commercial potential of inventions and tapping into the expertise of their business schools and their local business and finance executives. The Russians, in turn, will train academics at other Russian universities.
The program is being introduced as part of a raft of measures designed to increase support for universities and bolster the nation’s “knowledge economy” so the country can be less reliant on its oil and other natural resources. Under Russia’s president, Dmitiri A. Medvedev, the government is also investing in the creation of a new science and technology business hub in the town of Skolkovo, near Moscow, that aims to be the Silicon Valley of Russia.
– PRWeb [16]
October 12, 2010
Federal Government Launches Program to Attract Leading Scientists to Russian Universities
In April, the Russian government approved the allocation of 3 billion rubles from the 2010 federal budget, with an additional 5 billion rubles allocated in 2011, and another 4 billion rubles in 2012 for the program Measures to Attract Leading Scientists to Russian Educational Institutions.
Program funds will be available through a competitive grant process. “Grant stipends will be offered in amounts of up to 150 million rules for each research project in 2010-2012, with opportunities to extend the research period for 1-2 years,” according to an official government release.
The call for proposals is open, with any Russian higher education institution eligible to apply through a joint proposal with the scientist applicant. Scientists of all nationalities and countries of residence are eligible to apply. Upon approval, the scientist will be expected to form a research team from members of the host university of no fewer than two PhD candidates, three graduate students, and three undergraduate students.
– Russian Ministry of Education and Science [17]
July 26, 2010
Nobel Prize Winners Expose Extent of Russia’s Brain Drain
Two Russian-born physicists were awarded Nobel Prizes in October, and while it was cause for cheer in Russia, the scientists’ overseas residency was not, as it placed a spotlight on the huge brain drain from the country since the collapse of the Soviet Union.
“We need to make an effort so that our talented people do not go abroad,” Russian President Dmitry Medvedev said in a regretful response to the award of the 2010 Nobel Physics Prize to Andre Geim and Konstantin Novoselov, the Interfax news agency reported.
“We do not have a normal system to stimulate our young specialists, talented people, so that they stay to work in this country,” Medvedev said, calling government efforts to improve research facilities a “huge failure.”
Both Geim and Novoselov, who shared the prize for pioneering work on graphene, graduated from the Moscow Physics and Technology University [18] (MFTI) and conducted research in the Moscow region. However, Geim, who is 51, has not worked in Russia since the early 1990s and is now a Dutch national.
Hundreds of young scientists, especially working in applied fields that require expensive experiments, have left Russia and continue to leave in order to continue scientific work. Novoselov, the youngest Russian national to ever win the Nobel Prize, also holds a British passport.
Medvedev said that Russia now offered “decent grants” to scientists but that it has lapsed in maintaining the quality of its research facilities. “Our laboratory research base unfortunately is quite seriously outdated,” he said. “We have not developed it in recent years, or if we have, only in major scientific centers such as Moscow and Saint Petersburg state universities.”
– Physorg [19]
October 5, 2010
Tajikistan
Suspicion of Foreign Religious Schools Extends to Respected and Historic Egyptian University
Tajik authorities announced recently that Tajik citizens should only enter foreign religious schools through government quotas or at least with the knowledge of the country’s education officials – stating that graduates of foreign religious schools could pose a threat to their homeland.
Tajik students studying at Cairo’s Al-Azhar University say they are concerned about Dushanbe’s request that the prominent Islamic school send back anyone studying outside official government quotas. The students have reportedly appealed to Tajikistan’s Embassy in Cairo and the university administration to allow some 50 Tajik students to complete their studies at Al-Azhar. The students entered the university privately and now fear the Al-Azhar might send them home, as required by the authorities in Dushanbe.
Education authorities and Tajik diplomats abroad – most notably the country’s ambassador to Pakistan – have repeatedly warned that some young men from Tajikistan have ended up in unregistered and underground madrasahs with extremist agendas. Shortly before the start of the new school year, President Emomali Rahmon called on parents to bring their children back from foreign madrasahs.
– RFE/RL [20]
October 7, 2010