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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."
Just don't come back gay.
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?
Sent from my PDP-11
They will be made into nobles. After several generations, there will be a revolution, and cycle will repeat.
The crying shame in the UK is that many graduates cannot find real jobs and end up flipping burgers. If Putin ensures that they have a good chance of getting a job upon return to Russia - many will find that an attractive proposition and be more than willing to return.
It worked for Meiji Japan. They sent off boatloads of students to foreign universities, brought in foreign experts and jumpstarted Japan's industrialization (which was probably the most rapid industrialization in history). In the mid-19th century, Japan was still to a large extent a late Feudal state. By the beginning of the 20th century, it kicked the crap out of the Russians and by WWI was considered a Great Power.
The world's burning. Moped Jesus spotted on I50. Details at 11.
China - I can understand. But for Russians ? I worked with several Russians, all of them very-good-to-brilliant programmers and scientists. They had no trouble in getting recognition for their work and skills. Could you expound a bit on your remark ?
Religous speak to God. Insane are spoken to by God. When all shut up, one can finally hear Shostakovich in peace
Most Universities likely charge higher for international students, so it should actually drive tuition down. International students actually make universities money, local ones... eh, not so much.
Let's ask ourselves: What would Ivan the Terrible do?
Cloudiot: A person who does not see offsite storage as a way to lose control over access to his or her own data.
So... what's the point of this story?
Well, turn it around.
If the US government paid for your education in prestigious foreign universities, and you could have all that debt forgiven by coming home to work, wouldn't you find that attractive?
Sig Battery depleted. Reverting to safe mode.
All the powerful countries played this game. Students from around the world found their way to the US, Soviet Union/Russia, France, UK for total access to top quality education.
They where to return home with expert skills (linked to the host nations brands), a glowing personal account of their academic and new lifelong friendships.
Over time it was hoped the once young students would move up in their nations public or private power structures reflecting fondly recalling their education and years abroad.
This would give exports from US, Soviet Union, France, UK an edge or direct contact via friends, academics during trade negations, loans, weapons sales, imports, shaping the left or right wing of an emerging country.
The real issue is the total leaking of expensive emerging science and engineering technology over time for 'free' to emerging countries.
"Bob" or "Sally" return home with much more than a degree - long term contacts and sensitive technology finds its way out of top US, Soviet Union/Russia, France, UK institutions over time due to 'funding' pressure.
http://www.bloomberg.com/news/2012-04-08/american-universities-infected-by-foreign-spies-detected-by-fbi.html
Peter the Great is the warning from history - don't let your trade become a flood of raw materials out and have overpriced fashionable trinkets as imports. http://russiapedia.rt.com/prominent-russians/the-romanov-dynasty/peter-i/
The Cold War was is littered with efforts like/under, funding
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/American_Committee_on_United_Europe
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Office_of_Policy_Coordination
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/National_Student_Association
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Peoples'_Friendship_University_of_Russia
Modern art was CIA 'weapon'
http://www.independent.co.uk/news/world/modern-art-was-cia-weapon-1578808.html via International Organisations Division (IOD)
Domestic spying is now "Benign Information Gathering"
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.
Most Universities likely charge higher for international students, so it should actually drive tuition down.
The amount of brief cases expands to contain all of the available money.
If I can fill my university seats with high-paying foreigners, why would I not do that more often?
And why would I not jack up resident tuition so as to have more seats available for non-resident foreign students?
An admission is a limited resource. It will tend to get sold to the highest bidder.
This is already happening in some states, even in State funded schools.
Of course independent universities, including many of the most prestigious, aren't subject to state laws requiring a certain percentage of admissions being reserved for in-state students.
Sig Battery depleted. Reverting to safe mode.
[*] Gazetted officers are the civilian equivalent of the commissioned officers. Induction to the service by the President published in The Gazette of the Government of India. I had the right to sign government documents and files in green ink. My batch mates are under secretaries and joint secretaries of the government now. I am a lowly slashdotter with 31 achievements.
sed -e 's/Chuck Norris/Rajnikant/g' joke > fact
Perhaps Putin will find new ways to motivate them.
Have gnu, will travel.
That's what I meant. I work with a guy who is about 70 years old. He had a mathematics degree from one of those universities, and then later also did CS, "just for fun". In spite of his age, the man is brilliant. So... we would be talking about language studies ? Humanities ? Sociology, psychology and so on ?
Religous speak to God. Insane are spoken to by God. When all shut up, one can finally hear Shostakovich in peace
... 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.
I got my undergraduate education in Russia. No complaints. I teach at an ameican university, so I know what american undergraduate education looks like, on average. As far as exports go, this is not surprising: 1) it is easy to get into an american unirversity, as long as you have money, 2) a lot of other countries have even worse systems. We are talking about STEM (as it is fashionably called nowadays) education, so it very well may be that american univerisities provide excellent non-STEM education. As far as the STEM portion of it goes, the high school I went to (long time ago, admittedly, in Russia) taught more mathematics and science than our mathematics majors learn by their junior year. I had classes in chemistry (both organic and inorganc, two semesters each), physics (six semestes, including quantm mechanics and relativity, thermodynamics, electromagnetics, and optics), mathematics (starting with what is called `college geometry' here, calculus (1.5 so to speak), and algebra (including some simple group and graph theory)), biology (from btany to simple genetics). Oh, and six hours of electronics lab on Saturdays. I did not really have much social life (some not much) and have no regrets about it. College more than made up for that. The concept of proof in mathematics was ingrained in the seventh grade and I teach math seniors here who are scared of proofs.
The graduate education in the US IS excellent, however, mostly because we are not afraid to fail those who do not perform. There is a lot of talent in the US and at the graduate level the chance to interact with such a diverse (academically) faculty is invaluable for a graduate student.
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?
Gotta agree, to a large extent, with the AC above. US universities often seem to be a much more serious proposition at the grad level than at the undergrad level, although this can vary quite a bit from university to another, and from one concentration/major to another. US universities' reputations have more to do with their ability to provide a heavy duty grad (i.e. professionalizing) education and with their research output than they do with their undergrad offerings (which is often a hand-holding jog, buffeted by rampant grade inflation (lest someone not get his tenure due to somebody being upset about their grade)). Having spoken to people from Eastern Europe, I get the impression that their schools have less tolerance for sub-par performance and less grade inflation, and come exam time, you are expected to know your stuff exceptionally well.
However, as mentioned elsewhere in this thread, E. European professors tend to be underpaid (something they share with their colleagues in other countries, but it's obviously quite a bit less harsh here), which results in high levels of bribery - you can either really earn your diploma, or you can buy your diploma. Amazingly, even med schools and engineering schools seem to be susceptible to this problem.
I don't think we are talking about Computer Science. There are three universities in Russia (1 in Moscow and 2 in St. Petersburg) that are all better in Computer Science than any university in US.
Hmmmm.
And carrying it further.
I prefer the "u" in honour as it seems to be missing these days.
All of those rankings have one fatal flaw, they put more than 50% weight on citations of articles or books by the staff of those universities published in English Language (No Russian, No Mandarin). If instead of focusing on the teachers, they focus on the students, the picture would be quite different.
I'd hire a student from those three schools over anybody who studied in any university in US, no questions asked. Especially over anyone who went to High School in US.
If programs would be read like poetry, most programmers would be Vogons.