Vladimir Rodionov: Selecting the Right Strategy for Teaching Russian
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We spoke with Vladimir Rodionov, a participant of the V Russkiy Mir Assembly and Director of the Institute of International Education at Voronezh State University, about how to attract foreign students to Russia.
– Voronezh State University has already held five Russian language festivals for foreign students studying at universities in Russia – Russkoye Slovo [The Russian Word]. So all the foreign students studying in Russia can participate in the festival in Voronezh. We are the permanent hosts of this festival and we, with the support of the Russkiy Mir Foundation intend to hold the sixth festival in April 2012.
– The World Festival of the Russian Language that is now being held in St. Petersburg is the next step up from the Russia-wide competition to the worldwide competition. Of course, here there is a different scale, but I would point out that students from more than 100 countries take part in the Russian festival of the Russian language. If the festival of Russian language is largely a competition, then the Russkiy Mir Assembly of course is a different kind of event. The assembly is intended to help consolidate Russkiy Mir, to bring the diaspora together, to help understand the aims and objectives of the diaspora, to preserve the Russian core. I think that the fundamental concept of the assembly is a wonderful idea.
– There are a lot of foreign students studying in Voronezh. Why are they attracted to your university in particular?
– Yes, we really do have a lot of students – approximately 1000 people from 80-90 countries study at our institute each year. The geographical range is really quite broad – from the United States to the far corners of Africa. Incidentally, we are the only educational institution in Russia to train American cadets from West Point.
This year we are going to celebrate 50 years of teaching foreign students at Voronezh State University. During this time more than 14,000 students from 126 countries have studied with us. We are among the first universities to begin teaching foreign students. I believe that we have been able to select the right strategy, which is based our experience over the years. Step by step we are increasing the appeal of our university – I have been in this position for 22 years and I can see this very well.
– Do problems involving nationality arise? In 2005 a student from Peru was killed in Voronezh, and then some foreign students were beaten up…
– Right now we do have certain problems, but they are largely of a material nature. We have positive environment, good academic programs, and we have been able to overcome the local crisis in interethnic relations that we had in those years. I think that what was done in Voronezh should be studied by other cities in Russia experiencing interethnic problems. We managed to overcome this through joint efforts of the local community, youth, municipal organizations and law-enforcement.
Boris Serov