Five advantages of Russian educational system

1. The Russian national education system is generally regarded to be of a high standard. It is founded upon a solid theoretical base. Leading Russian Universities are primarily scientific research centres. Many of the greatest achievements of 20th century science took place in Russia.

2. In 2002 31 Russian students took part in international mathematics, physics, chemistry, biology, ecology, informatics and geography competitions, 29 of them became International Competition winners. No country in the world has ever achieved such a brilliant result!

3. The Russian Educational System has two types of further education institutions: universities, like Lomonosov Moscow State University, which offer a variety of subjects, and institutions of a smaller size, which concentrate on specific fields. Many new institutions and colleges have appeared in recent years. The level of achievement in these institutions is as high as those in traditional universities, but tuition fees are much lower. There are nearly 400 non–state owned institutions of higher education in Russia and the total number of students is nearly 270 thousand.

4. Russian graduates are considered to be among the top competitors for jobs worldwide. A Classical Russian University Education is considered by many to be an excellent starting point for any career. Bill Gates, the computer king, who has made a fortune of 90 billion dollars has 20 former graduates of Novosibirsk University. According to Bill Gates his staff made him one of the richest people in the world.

5. Tuition fees in Russia are considered to be much lower than anywhere else in the world. Additional costs such as accommodation, textbooks, use of libraries etc., are also low. Take the UK, for example. Accommodation in London will cost a student 360$ a week. In Moscow a student may rent a two-room apartment for 300$ a month, or pay just the same amount for bed–and breakfast accommodation. In London a student has to spend 1000$ a month for textbooks and supplementary literature compared to 100$ in Moscow. The fees in Oxford Westminster College, for example, are usually 25000–30000$ a year and in Plekhanov Academy of Economics in Moscow are only 5000$ per year.

Did you know that…..

There are 1041 institutions of higher education in Russia;

610 institutions are state;

44 % of state institutions’ freshmen pay for their education.

15. Task 5

16. Find what the following figures refer to? Give answers as in the example

31, 29, 400, 270, 25 000 $, 300$, 20, 100$

Example: 31 is the number of students taking part in the international competitions in 2002.

Task 6

Answer the questions to the text

1. Why can we be proud of Russian system of higher education?

2. What are the advantages of Russian system of higher education over the Western ones?

3. Why do you think our specialists are highly competitive in the world market?

4. What problems does our system of higher education have?

Task 7

Find information in the Internet on the following topics and present it in the form of a report:

1. What is the Bologna process?

2. Why has Russia decided to become the part of the Bologna process?

3. What is the main purpose of the Unified State Exams?

4. Why is the Russian system of higher education is among the best in the world?