Russia Backs Sending Top Students Abroad With a Catch

First time accepted submitter Clark Schultz writes "Vladimir Putin plans to send the country's top domestic students abroad in an effort to prepare engineers, doctors, and scientists with the most modern education. The initiative comes with a catch: Students must return to Mother Russia to work. Though critics say that the students may be tempted to stay abroad after receiving their advanced degrees, Putin is confident they will be properly motivated to keep up their end of the bargain. As one advocate notes, the 'brilliant' practice of educating Russians at top global universities dates back to the times of Peter the Great."

Comments

The actual catch...

[Anonymous Coward]

Just don't come back gay.

Seems reasonable

[mirix]

If they don't want to go back to Russia, they don't have to accept the grants.

I'm not really seeing a problem here?

Re:Seems reasonable

[icebike]

Actually, they have apparently been accepting grants all along, for many years, but never coming back.

The new decree (Do they not pass laws over there?) simply says:

Students who earned bachelor's degrees in Russian universities may enter leading [foreign] universities... and be eligible for financial support from the government.
If these students would like to stay overseas after graduation, they would have to pay a hefty amount to Russia that would include all the money spent on the education plus a fine twice as large as this amount.

Good luck collecting, unless they want to hire a boat load of lawyers in each country students go to. (If they thought US tuition was high, wait till they see US lawyer bills). Maybe they will get the parents to co-sign these grants so they can at least threaten to put the parents in the hot seat if young Doctor Ivan doesn't come back.

With US student loans defaulting at a rate of 10% they are just as likely to learn bad habits here.

On the other hand if you can legally wipe out all or most of your student loans by getting a good paying job in Russia (by virtue of your prestigious foreign doctorate), it just might work.
It all depends on the job and pay opportunities at home, and how much of the government loans will be forgiven. It might be pretty hard to pay back a western sized debt on a Russian sized salary unless most or all of it were forgiven by the Russian Government.

 

Re:Nothing new.

[Aeonym]

But to complete your comparison, you'd also be able to make 4 or 5 times as much money overseas because wages in the US were considerably lower. In the short term, debt forgiveness is appealing--but in the long term it's a bad deal compared to the extra earnings/savings you could accrue.

In Soviet Russia ...

[PPH]

... student loans collect you!

Re:The actual catch is ...

[Roger W Moore]

... the world out there will NOT believe in you when they know you are from Russia

Really? All of my Russian colleagues in physics are incredibly talented and well trained and have great senses of humor too! Based on this experience I'd have zero hesitation in accepting a suitably skilled Russian grad student and I hope this programme causes more of them to apply to my institute. If they have to go back to work in Russia afterwards then that's not a bad thing - science it a global enterprise and it will undoubtedly help Russia build ties with the global community is is good for everyone.

Re:The actual catch is ...

[shutdown -p now]

I'm Russian in "the world out there", and I have no idea what the hell you're talking about. No-one had ever looked down on me because of my national origin.

Have you considered that the problem might actually be with yourself?