Interview by Maria Sidelnikova, exclusively to VK
In mid-December, Vladimir Putin, in his message to the Federal Assembly, urged "to ensure mutual recognition of school documents with all the countries of the Commonwealth, as well as to examine the establishment of points of the USE by Russian standards, for example, in the CIS countries, on the basis of the centers of the Russian language". MSU Rector Viktor Sadovnichii told VK about this presidential initiative, as well as about progress on the opening of a branch of the Moscow State University in Yerevan.
- Viktor Antonovich, could you comment on the statement by Vladimir Putin on educating foreign students in Russia, at Russian universities?
- Indeed, we have to do so as much as possible, so that more people come and we should overcome existing barriers. Now there is an agreement, according to which high school graduates from Belarus, Kazakhstan, Tajikistan and Kyrgyzstan have the same rights to enter a university, but of course there are entry obstacles for other countries and especially for prospective post-graduate students. It often happens that a good student graduates from a department and is recommended to go to a post-graduate school, but he already has the status of a foreign citizen and cannot pay. I believe that it is necessary to overcome these obstacles. I believe that our branches play an important role. Perhaps they are not discussed as much, but they play a very significant role. Opening branches is also a direction, but it is necessary to create very high quality branches, because if branches do not provide high quality education in these countries they simply don't establish themselves there. However, if leading universities, there are only a few of them perhaps, are able to create such structures, it is also necessary to support them.
However, the main challenge is to eliminate the admission obstacles. And the school. After all, there is less and less of the Russian language in many countries somehow and taking admission exams at a Russian university and the Unified State Exam, according to our rules, is a separate issue. Therefore, Vladimir Vladimirovich has raised the question about overcoming these obstacles, including the Unified State Exam. I think that we need some intergovernmental decisions. At least, this is an important strategic task. We are united by our economies, borders and culture, while in terms of education it seems we are not as strongly integrated. Of course, there are quotas for countries, but there are very few of them.
- During our last conversation you mentioned that you hoped that the Yerevan branch of Moscow State University would begin its work at the beginning of December, but unfortunately that did not happen. Please tell us what happened and why a decision has not been taken yet?
- A very active discussion is taking place, we have exchanged all possible letters. I had a meeting with the Minister of Education and other members of the state government of Armenia. We have even chosen a head, and the Academic Council has adopted a decision on the opening. But we need guarantees on the state level of financing and the existence of the branch. Since we are taking students, and students are the focus, they should have the opportunity to receive an education under any circumstances. After all, it is a rather difficult task to organise an educational process in accordance with the Moscow University teaching standards of two hundred or five hundred students in another country. I was given appropriate assurances by the president of the republic, and currently in various directions - by the Foreign Ministry, by us - the work on these guarantees, on the state guarantees of the existence of our branch, which I am talking about, is being done.
- You have mentioned funding. Could you tell us what funding is required to open a branch? And could you not reveal the secret of who will become the head of this branch?
- Such branches are usually headed by two people. This is a branch of Moscow University, its institution. Therefore, it will be headed by a professor or scholar of Moscow University, by an economist, I will not mention his name because he has not yet been appointed. An economist, a very experienced man, he used to be a faculty dean. A decent person. Yerevan already knows him, I have introduced him. The funding depends on many circumstances. First of all, the building, utilities, student scholarships in case of students funded by the state budget. And then professors, trips. We live in an already economically-developed world, and it is neccessary to have everything provided, only then will it work successfully. We know the costs, they have been named. Everything depends on the scale, many other conditions - what kind of building it is, who owns it, etc. But the branch will be created, I'm sure of that.
