Vladimir Putin Meets with UrFU Students
The Russian president fielded questions from Russian and international students.
Vladimir Putin met with Ural Federal University students and postgraduates in Yekaterinburg. The university was represented by both Russian residents and foreign nationals. For example, Leila Kozhakova from Kazakhstan, who completed PhD studies at UrFU Institute of Electronics and Information Technology, asked about Russian-Kazakh research cooperation and its prospects. Putin noted the importance of partnership with Kazakhstan. He said that Russia was currently providing training to some 70,000 Kazakh nationals and that many of them were scholarship students. Specialists who graduated from Russian universities will develop Kazakhstan’s industry and science and transfer their knowledge to next generations to enhance the country’s overall competitiveness. As for cooperation, it is crucial to pool Russia’s and Kazakhstan’s efforts. The Russian Foundation for Basic Research and Kazakhstan’s Education and Science Ministry award joint grants to young scientists of the two countries.
Lu Ziajin, a postgraduate from China came to Yekaterinburg to study Russian. Her choice of UrFU relied on testimonials by her fellow countrymen; at present, the university is providing training to more than 1,000 Chinese students. Lu Ziajin works at the Economics and Management Department and teaches Chinese at the Department of Oriental Studies. Her question to the president concerned prospects for young scientists in the modern world. Putin believes that in the globalisation era, researchers from different countries should not be afraid of pooling efforts, because working together is essential for dealing with serious problems and achieving success in research. This requires perseverance in studies in the first place. Russia is open to cooperation; it is interested in talented international students and is ready to offer them quality education in many fields. The country does not support the policy of the United States which is limiting foreigners’ access to certain fields of knowledge. For example, under the U.S. sanctions against Huawei, Chinese students are unable to get education in the USA in certain fields. This, however, is useless in the modern globalised world. “Knowledge and technology will flow to other countries anyway,” the head of state said.
According to statistics, there were more than 260,000 international students at Russian universities in the academic year 2017/2018. Most of them came from the Commonwealth of Independent States; also there were many representatives of China, India and Vietnam.
