International Students in Russia to be Allowed to Work Their Way through University
International students sometimes drop out of Russian universities because current legislation makes it difficult for them to get a job to pay their tuition and living expenses.
The Federation Council, the upper house of the Russian parliament, is introducing a bill that would allow international students in Russia to undertake paid work on a student visa alone, with no extra documents required, says Federation Council Speaker Valentina Matvienko. She expects the bill, which has already been agreed, to be passed before the end of 2019. Once enacted, the law will enable foreign students in this country to work their way through college.
International students sometimes drop out of Russian universities because current legislation makes it difficult for them to get a job to pay their tuition and living expenses. The Federation Council is now acting to remove this hurdle in an effort to increase the global appeal of Russian higher education.
According to Valentina Matvienko, the bill, drafted by the Federation Council, has already been agreed and is likely to be passed by the lower house, the Duma, at its current session. She says that, once that happens (hopefully, before the year is out), any foreign student, if so minded, will be able to work and study simultaneously, just as Russian students did in the past and are doing now.
Experts have welcomed this measure. Its timeliness and importance are highlighted by Ekaterina Yurovskaya, Head of International Student Support at South Ural State University (SUSU). She explains that one of the first things prospective students look at when choosing a foreign university is whether they can get a local job that would enable them to live comfortably on campus without depending on their parents. This is particularly the case with young people from former Soviet republics, such as Tajikistan, Kyrgyzstan and Uzbekistan, and African countries, who seek not only to support themselves but also to earn money to send to their families back home.
Ekaterina Yurovskaya believes that letting college-goers take up paid jobs related to their major field of study would benefit both them and their universities' home regions. On the one hand, she points out, graduates with such a background should be more marketable, which is a boon to them; on the other, positive work experience gained while at college means that young people are much more likely to find employment locally after taking their degree, which would supply the regional economy with skilled labor.
Last month Russian Prime Minister Dmitry Medvedev called on Russian universities to recruit more international students. He was speaking at a meeting with members of the Council for Increasing the Competitiveness of Russia's Leading Universities (which is also the governing body of Project 5-100). The prime minister noted that the number of foreign nationals studying for bachelor's, specialist's and master's degrees at Russian universities had risen from just under 165,000 in 2012, the year before Project 5-100 was launched, to 280,000 currently. While appreciative of what he termed “a nearly twofold increase” in enrollment numbers, Dmitry Medvedev nevertheless described them as “quite modest so far” and expressed his conviction that Russian universities could do a better job attracting international students.
The Federal Project for Exporting Education calls for increasing international student enrollment at Russian universities to 425,000.
Experts think that the new law will go a long way towards making this goal a reality. Alexey Maleev, Vice Rector for International Programs and Digital Innovation at the Moscow Institute of Physics and Technology (MIPT), says that giving international students in Russia a chance to work their way through school should provide them with a more comfortable university experience, which they would praise to their relatives and friends at home. This should cause more foreign nationals to come to study in Russia, thereby increasing their consumption of this country's educational and other services.
This optimism is shared by Alexander Bedny, Vice Rector for International Affairs at Lobachevsky University. In his view, making it easier for international students to find a job brings us closer to reaching the goals set by the Federal Project for Exporting Education, as it ensures that more foreign nationals enroll at Russia's universities and are recruited into its workforce.