The Moscow State Institute of Steel and Alloys (MISiS) has a reputation as one of the best universities in Russia and the world. It is ranked in the international university tables and is working, pursuant to a presidential executive order, to join the World’s Top 100 Universities by 2020.
How popular is a Russian engineering education for foreign applicants? What arrangements have been made to provide comfortable conditions in which to live and study? Rector of MISiS, the National University of Science and Technology, Alevtina Chernikova, addresses these and other questions in an interview with RIA Novosti’s Anna Kurskaya.
Have you received foreign applications this year?
Alevtina Chernikova: Yes, of course. Prospective students from foreign countries who want to become engineers and enroll in our university apply every year. This year’s admissions campaign is no exception.
As of today, we have over 500 foreign applicants or almost 30 percent more than last year. There is growing interest in this university both among foreigners and all prospective students in general.
If we compare the admissions data for 2014 and 2013 (disregarding the fact that 2014 is the first year we are enrolling students jointly with the Moscow State Mining University, which we have taken over), we have more than a thousand more applicants than last year. Hopefully we’ll accept good students, who want to receive a high-quality engineering education meeting global standards.
How many foreign students do you have? What countries are they from?
Alevtina Chernikova: We have about 1,500 foreign students from 50 countries: 1,000 in Moscow and 500 at our branches elsewhere. The vast majority of them come from the CIS countries, primarily Kazakhstan and Uzbekistan; they are followed by students from Azerbaijan, Armenia, Belarus, Moldova, etc. We have a branch in Dushanbe, the capital of Tajikistan. The non-CIS countries represented are Vietnam, China, Mongolia, Angola, Congo, Egypt. There are also students from Europe – France, Germany and Italy.
Not long ago, MISiS announced that its strategic goal was to join the list of World’s Top 100 Universities, based on the main international rankings. One of these criteria is the number of foreign students. Do you think outreach is important in this regard?
Alevtina Chernikova: The important thing for us is quality, not quantity. We want to accept motivated students, who have made a conscious choice to pursue an engineering profession.
Of course, we are working in this area both in the Russian Federation and elsewhere. For example, my university is a member of the Time to Study in Russia consortium, which holds academic competitions both in the CIS and farther afield. This year MISiS sponsored competitions in 15 countries worldwide. This certainly promotes its popularity and competitiveness in Russia and abroad.
We are primarily oriented to the CIS countries. Our university is the core institution for the CIS that trains and retrains professionals in the area of metallurgy and materials science. We are building up our capabilities with each passing year. There is every reason to believe that the prestige of the Russian engineering education will only grow. Our graduates are proving this by their successful work in many countries.
What facilities do you have for training foreigners? Do you have a modern campus?
Alevtina Chernikova: This university has all the necessary amenities for getting a good education, including modern interactive study-rooms, scientific and educational centers, world-class research laboratories, curricula that has been coordinated with employers and a highly professional faculty. The entire infrastructure is geared toward training top-notch specialists capable of competing on labor markets at home and abroad.
There is also a focus on creating good living conditions for foreign students, and to help them adapt. After all, it is always stressful to leave one’s family and home and travel to a foreign country.
We have modern and well-equipped dormitories. In 2013, our campus was recognized as the best in Moscow and third best in Russia. Last year, we commissioned the first block of the Commune House for students in the master’s program and post-graduate students. It’s very comfortable. The rooms are singles or doubles.
There is also a Club of International Friendship run by students, which helps to reduce the assimilation period and make it less painful for foreign students.
Do you teach Russian?
Alevtina Chernikova: We know from our experience that foreign applicants have insufficient knowledge of Russian to study in Russia. In 2013, we opened a Center for Studying Russian as a Foreign Language, which we are currently expanding.
What disciplines are particularly popular with your foreign students?
Alevtina Chernikova: These are our traditional disciplines that this university is very strong at: metallurgy, mining, materials science, information science and computer engineering.
Are your graduates competitive internationally? What jobs do they take at home?
Alevtina Chernikova: There is no doubt that our graduates are highly competitive both here in Russia and internationally.
Our foreign students can be divided into three categories. Some are sent to study in Moscow by industrial businesses located in Uzbekistan, Kazakhstan, Angola, Vietnam, Mongolia and other countries, with which we have been cooperating for years.
The second category includes students enrolled under intergovernmental agreements. Both categories return home to take jobs that are waiting for them.
There is also a third category that includes young people who have chosen our university on their own, the majority of whom are our compatriots. Of course, some of them return to their countries, but during the last two or three years, more than 50 of them became Russian nationals and their choice cannot fail to please us.
Do you have to modernize curricula, retrain teachers and invite foreign professors in order to join the list of the World’s Top 100 Universities?
Alevtina Chernikova: MISiS is a successful example of an innovative university. We are leading the field in the area of technological education, and at the same time we are a full-fledged research center. We are seeking to integrate the educational process and research activities as much as possible.
We have a rule: master’s theses and scientific degrees should be based on concrete research or business projects. We do all we can to coordinate our curricula with employers.
MISiS has been introducing advanced educational methods. We were among the first to accredit curricula not only in Russia but also in other countries.
Jointly with employers, we develop uniquely designed curricula along with our own standards, which enable graduates to rapidly adapt to specific business environments.
Of course, these tasks can only be handled by highly qualified faculty members. In recent years, our university has focused on organizing modern scientific and educational centers and research laboratories. We invite world renowned scientists to teach at the university and head research teams. Their research teams include university instructors, master’s students and post-graduate students, something that provides our students with additional competitive advantages.
There is also an emphasis on holding further training courses for instructors. Last year alone, more than 100 MISiS employees took refresher courses at leading Russian and foreign universities. Top professors from other universities come to MISiS, and we send our instructors to their universities. We have maintained long-standing contacts with the leading scientific and educational centers, with which we have student exchanges and dual degree programs.
This certainly enhances the competitiveness of each faculty member, and the university as a whole. The more talented people we employ, the more gifted students will enroll, the more successful the university will be.
What educational institutions do you have student exchange programs with? Is the conferring of a dual degree a regular practice?
Alevtina Chernikova: Yes, this program has been in operation since 1998. Our partner universities are L’Universite de Lorraine, L’ecole superieure d’ingenieurs de Sandettie, and L’ecole des mines in France, the RWTH Aachen University and the Clausthal University of Technology in Germany, and universities in Kazakhstan, Belgium and The Netherlands. Nearly 300 students recently received diplomas from foreign universities along with MISiS diplomas.
In addition, we have been actively promoting one-term exchange programs. In early 2014, we signed an agreement with the French embassy, under which our students can study at French universities free of charge.
Whom would you advise to enroll in Russia’s engineering universities from abroad? For whom would this be the optimal choice?
Alevtina Chernikova: I’d advise this primarily for those who wish to become highly skilled engineers. This is a necessary condition. But in general, the factors determining the choice of a Russian university are the fundamental nature of Russian education, its high quality, and the wide range of educational services. Russia has the potential to assume a leading position in the world academic community. This can happen quite soon.
