The Student’s Day celebrated on January 25 appeared in Russia back in the 19th century when Nicholas I decided to celebrate the decision to open the Moscow University on January 25, 1755 as the Student’s Day. In 2006 Tatiana’s Day was proclaimed the Day of Russian Students and a national holiday, even though it remained a business day – perhaps because the business days of students do not resemble holidays. Many experts of the education market admit that the ubiquitous brain drain has come down from the academic realm to the level of studentship. It has become fashionable to earn degrees abroad or to get a double diploma.
Recruiters from France, Germany and Austria and, in recent years, also from China and South Korea are a common phenomenon in almost all large national universities. They offer Russian undergraduates to complete their education abroad, usually free of charge in exchange for later contractual employment in the same countries and international acclaim of their diplomas.
Student recruitment is so widespread that, according to the Ministry of Education and Science, up to 17% of Russian students and up to 40% of foreigners studying in Russia prefer to finish their education abroad. This creates a global challenge: one of the most profitable sectors of the future economy – export of education – is on the brink of extinction in this country. Roughly speaking, both young Russian and foreign citizens, upon making use of our national intellectual resources, prefer to apply their knowledge and energy beyond Russia’s confines.
Since 1999, when UNESCO managed to unify the standards of educational services via Bologna, different nations – South Korea, Japan, Finland, the Arab nations of Qatar, UAE and Saudi Arabia – have begun transformation into a new students’ Mecca. For now they are still behind the traditional leaders such as US and EU by the number of foreign students. However, the West’s main trump – an active immigration policy among the students – now benefits the Orient. While the US and EU get roughly 1 million “half-qualified” BA graduates and undergraduates from among the foreigners, the Oriental nations now get as many as 350,000, whereas as early as in 2000 this figure was close to zero.
The know-how of the novice states in the international education market is liberalization of the internal labor market for foreign students, when the money earned in the country providing education is used to pay for tuition and boarding. Against the background of growing education prices in Russia this is an additional attraction for Russian students. EU nations are not very far behind as their trumps are also effective: free tuition including English for foreigners, affordable hostels, work permits from the second year. A residence permit for employment after graduation is also provided. And even the unshakeable US and UK are slowly reducing education prices for foreign students the third year in a row. Russia is the only nation that is not eager to budge: tuition fees keep rising or have been frozen; there is no mitigation of the visa regime; work for foreign students is banned in principle. As a result Russia has rolled down from the third rank in the world in the days of the USSR with its 10-percent share of the world market by the export of educational services to the ninth position with only 1% of the world market. Moreover it balances on the brink of being evicted not only from the top 10, but also from the club of nations offering quality education services.
“The issue is being now brought to a head,” believes Gulnara Krasnova, provost of the Russian University of Peoples’ Friendship in charge of international innovation activity. “The brain drain in this country comes down to the level of students, both domestic and foreign. Unless Russia is able to turn its 1% of the world education market into 5% by 2020, we’ll simply be crowded from this sector.”
The grapple for the right to educate foreigners becomes such a powerful factor of economic growth that two groups are now taking shape in the world market of education services: ‘the old guard’, US and EU, which timely lobbied the introduction of new standards of tertiary education for the sake of reciprocal recognition of diplomas among the nations who originally introduced those standards – form the first group. The second group is ‘the young tigers’ – Arab nations, Brazil, China and India.
Under these circumstances Russia plans to translate most educational programs for foreigners into English in accordance with the Strategy of Exporting Russian Education Services that has been developed but not yet endorsed. In a number of leading universities the practice of double diplomas is also introduced, when after earning the Bachelor’s degree students study one year at home and one year abroad, obtaining two international diplomas. This will reduce the brain drain as foreign students will be able to get double diplomas without leaving Russia as the country of their education.
Frankly speaking, it will hardly be possible to get rid of the brain drain as such, as Russian students often use the system of double diplomas as a launching pad for searching jobs abroad, while foreigners are surprised at the fact that they study one year free of charge abroad and have to pay for their tuition in Russia.
Taking several complex measures at one time may help in overcoming the negative trend, according to experts of the education market. These should include liberalization of the visa regime, work permits for foreign students, and translation of more tutorials and syllabi into English. These measures are part of the Strategy of Exporting Russian Educational Services yet to be enacted as a law. However, the passing of this law is repeatedly postponed, whereas competition for young minds keeps stiffening. One of the outcomes is that Tatiana’s Day is no longer celebrated by Russians studying abroad. Even those with double diplomas often do not come back home.
Vladimir Emelyanenko
