The temperature was near zero in Ekaterinburg, some 1500km east of Moscow, however the late September solar shone brightly on the Ural Federal College (UrFU) constructing on Mira Avenue, with its imposing classical façade, and the close by pupil halls of residence, and it felt as if the educational yr had simply began.
At 70 Komsomolskaya Avenue, I met the newly elected pupil union rep for residence no 8, in control of 26 volunteers tasked with enhancing the lives of its 1,200 college students. ‘It’s an honour to be chosen,’ he stated. The five-year-old constructing is made up of two-bedroom residences (every bed room holds two or three beds) with a shared kitchen and toilet; every flooring has communal sitting areas, school rooms and a laundry. The décor is obvious however useful and in good situation. Hire is 1,000 roubles a month ($16). Some 10% Russia’s college students reside in halls like this.
The scholars’ union (UrFU’s solely pupil consultant physique) spends its time not setting the world to rights, however enhancing campus life. Round 30 college students employed by the college and 600 pupil volunteers organise leisure actions, evening life, sports activities occasions, workshops, performs, talks, and festivities initially of the educational yr and on commencement day — ‘greater than 600 occasions a yr’, boasted union chairman Oybek Partov, whose workplace is offered by the college.
College students’ union leaders are on college salaries. It is a everlasting battle of curiosity. They suppress their very own dissatisfaction and even attempt to stress protest teams, like when college students who have not received locations in halls of residence get collectively and arrange a protest camp close to the college
Dmitriy Trynov
Ekaterinburg has round 90,000 college students at 50 greater training establishments. Greater than a 3rd (some 36,000) — together with 4,600 overseas college students from over 115 international locations — attend UrFU, the place admissions improve yearly; in 2021 it enrolled extra college students than every other (…)
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(2) Tatiana Kastouéva-Jean, ‘Enseignement supérieur en Russie: remark redonner de l’ambition à un secteur en détresse?’ (Greater training in Russia: restoring ambition to a sector in misery) in IFRI, Les universités russes sont-elles competitives?, 2013.
(3) Carole Sigman, ‘Contourner la compétition par la compétition: les universités russes et les olympiades’ (Overcoming competitors by means of competitors: Russian universities and the ‘Olympiads’) in Revue française de sociologie, vol 62, no 1, 2021.