Russian universities will offer online classes following the COVID-19 pandemic-induced travel restrictions. The admission process for undergraduate and postgraduate programmes for the current academic year has commenced, and classes are scheduled to start from September/October.
Officials from several universities who participated in a virtual press conference on Friday said that online classes would continue until the travel restrictions are lifted.
Thousands of Indian students, quite a substantial number of them from southern states, travel to Russia for medical, engineering and other programmes every year. Over 100 medical colleges and over 600 technical institutions admit international students.
Natalia Alshuk, Vice Chancellor for International Students Programme and International Relations, Volgograd State Medical University; Timur Akhmetov, Vice Dean, Foreign Students Education, Kazan State Medical University and Sergei Titov, administrator of General Medicine, International Education Programme at Far Eastern Federal University Vladivostok, gave a brief overview of their institutions.
Ms. Alshuk said Volgograd had the largest community of Indian students. In Kazan, of the 1,000 international students, 800 are from India. Course fees vary based on the programme opted for. Though the annual expense on education may range from US $4,000 to $10,000, typically students would pay around $4,000 to $6,000 annually. Students who excel in academics also receive partial fee waivers, and scholarships are offered by the government and private agencies, they said.
Aspiring medical students must learn Russian in the first two-three semesters, which is necessary during their internship. Students must qualify in NEET but given the pandemic situation, the universities have allowed aspirants to apply and then send in their NEET scores to the universities at a later date.
Mr. Akhmetov said the university hoped to return to regular classes by January 1, 2021. The semester will start six weeks late and the curriculum would also accordingly be shifted. Universities use online platforms such as Zoom, Microsoft Teams, Skype and Blackboard for online classes.
Students are also being allowed to work because of the COVID-19 pandemic. “It is allowed to take jobs outside the University. The student visa allows this, but job permission should be obtained from the local authorities,” he said. The students would be allowed to work for three to four hours a day. The rules have been changed because the government understood the impact of the pandemic on families, he added.
Russian Federation’s Consul General Oleg N. Avdeev and director Gennadii A. Rogalev, participated in the event organised by Study Abroad Educational Consultants, the authorised Indian representative for Russian universities in Chennai. Its managing director, C. Ravichandran, said the organisation, in association with the Russian Center of Science and Culture would organise a series of webinars throughout August for students to interact with University officials.
Registration and further details are available at www.studyabroadedu.com
