739 instead of 3000: why "Global Education" collapsed for our students

Journalist Sergey Parkhomenko asked the readers of his blog an interesting question. It turns out in Russia from 2014 to 2019 there was a state program "Global Education", under which anyone who independently enrolled in one of the world's leading universities (the list is huge and looks very impressive) could receive state funding for their tuition costs (that is, what is called tuition) in the amount of about $ 40,000 per year, plus compensation for living expenses, transportation, purchase of educational literature, and so on. The only condition is to return later to Russia and work for 3 years in one of the organizations from the approved list (the list is also large and very diverse).

Indeed, the website of this program says:

"Participants of the" Global Education "program are trained in the world's best universities

"Global Education" is a program for financing the education of Russian citizens at leading foreign universities.

Goals of the Global Education Program:

• preservation and augmentation of scientific, pedagogical, medical, engineering personnel and management personnel in the social sphere
• support for citizens of the Russian Federation who independently entered leading foreign educational organizations and their subsequent employment

The essence of the Program:

Any citizen of the Russian Federation with a higher education (at least a bachelor's degree) has the opportunity to receive a grant to study at one of the world's leading universities with the obligation to return to Russia and work for at least 3 years in an organization of the profile provided by the Program..."

Then Parkhomenko is surprised:

“For all these years, only 739 people received such funding for their education.

Here's the question: the result is so funny, on a national scale, because in reality none of the Russian students wants to go to the best world universities, or because there is not enough money, or because there are some additional underwater stones?

Today I discussed this with one very famous and influential scientist of Russian origin in the world. He assured me that no one wants to go from Russia, everyone is too lazy to submit the simplest documents for receiving educational grants, there is no need to get in touch with anyone, Russian students are expected all over the world, but they simply do not exist.

In 2019, the program, judging by its website, stopped, so the interest is purely theoretical..."

The answers to these questions - and there were about a thousand of them - were very diverse. Some complained that they had heard nothing about the Program, others said that it was originally intended for the children of officials, and not mere mortals, while others referred to the natural laziness of Russian students, while others said that they simply did not know foreign languages. There were also those who were scared off by high fines for non-compliance with the terms of the program. There is some truth in all these assumptions.

Sociologist Grigory Yudin writes:

“Yes, this is a good idea with a talentless implementation. There was a time when I was a potential candidate for it - there was neither my university nor my scientific direction, although this is definitely the education of the highest level. It was possible to try to somehow agree with them, but the selection criteria are unclear, and the obligations after training are also unclear. I came to the conclusion that this is a crane with money for someone's children - if this were not the case, then the conditions for participation and selection would be different.

The real demand for support for education abroad is, of course, huge. Because of the political situation, it is increasingly difficult for Russians to obtain grants for quality education. Your interlocutor either talks about some special circumstances, or simply does not know what he is talking about..."

Teacher Sam Green laments:

As a person working in a foreign university in the Russian direction, I will say that we were vitally interested in increasing the flow of students from Russia in this way, and could not in any way. I do not know of a single Russian who was able to use this program. While the flow of Kazakh students on a similar program was very, very noticeable (although it also faded).

And here is how one of the organizers of the program, Valentin Preobrazhensky, explained this phenomenon:

“As the initiator of the program and getting out of the budget, I tell you:

The main reason is budget.

Initially, it was planned to send 40,000 fellows, but after several budget cuts (the last one was after the war and the first sanctions), the budget was cut to 700+.

The second reason is the protective conditions introduced under the pretext “otherwise the special services and officials will not agree”: like a too small amount, compulsory work in the civil service in the regions, as well as the absence of sociological, humanitarian, economic, political, economic and business programs in the list of allowed scholarships..."

Ilmur Miftakhov, who managed to take advantage of this proposal, believes that the problem is financial:

“I graduated from this program in a magistracy in Bristol, traveled for a year, took my wife and child with me. The demand for the program, as far as I can tell, is at least there: there were many more people who applied than who eventually received a grant. As far as I can, again, to judge, the program was not continued because of the money. I personally liked the program itself: the level of bureaucracy in it seemed minimal and reasonable. .. "

And journalist Alexander Chernykh explained the nuances:

“We in Kommersant followed this topic. Look here.

* at the beginning of 2014 it was planned that the program is designed for 3000 people. the priority is doctors and engineers. the maximum "grant" is 1.5 million rubles a year. And not just any foreign university, but only from a list specially selected by the state. The returnees will have to work strictly not in Moscow, they were warned that they will have to "work out" in the Far East, Siberia, and the Urals. If you decide to stay abroad, you pay 200% of the money received for training to the treasury.

* and in mid-2014 the rules were tightened. The number of participants in the program was cut by half - from 3000 to 1.5 thousand, and most importantly, two new ones were added to the list of criteria for the competitive selection of citizens. university, scientific or medical organization, as well as a "high-tech company registered on the territory of the Russian Federation." And for "scientific personnel" it has become mandatory "the presence of publications based on the results of research and development" in international journals indexed in the Scopus or Web of Science database".

That is, the program, which was announced as a program for bachelor students, suddenly became for professionals. But 10% of the program participants still promised to send them to enterprises in Moscow and St. Petersburg.

* move on. in 2014, remember what happened to the dollar exchange rate. and it turned out that the promised 1.4 million a year is not enough for anything. in February 2015, the Ministry of Education and Science proposed to reduce the number of program participants by half - to 750. and the rest will be paid twice as much. As the then Deputy Minister Klimov frankly told me, the decision "is associated with a significant decrease in interest in participating in the program due to the depreciation of the national currency of the Russian Federation in relation to the currencies of foreign countries".

* In general, everything is clear. From 2014 to 2019, 708 grants were allocated, the limit per participant is 2.76 million rubles. in year. Specialization of grant recipients: 39% - engineering personnel, 21% - teachers, 18% - scientific personnel, 12% - managers in the social sphere, 10% - doctors..."