Why do international students prefer regional universities

On 15 December Head of the Consular division of Peru Embassy in Russia Fernando Tapia Fernandes-Baka visited Samara National Research University. 

Mr. Fernandes-Baka met Peruvian students which are studying at the university and discussed the further development of collaboration with Head of International Office Sergey Tiz.

It should be remembered that the first international student of Samara University (at that time Samara Aerospace University) became Peruvian Fredy Villanueva. Now he is working for the space agency of Peru, CONIDA. In 2017 20 students from Peru are studying at Samara University, six more ones are the listeners of preliminary courses.

The main questions which worry the Peruvian students are connected with the difficulties of entering state-funded places distributed by the Federal Agency Rossotrudnichestvo and cultural centres. Sergey Tiz agreed that there are certain difficulties in the procedure of realization of the so called quotas for education in the Russian Federation. “Currently the number of quotas and directions of training for every country is determined by Rossotrudnichestvo without taking into consideration the real interest of college entrants and relevant agencies. Often peculiarities of national politics in the sphere of education interfere with it. As a result it often happens that a part of quotas remains unclaimed”.

Sergey Tiz made a remark that interaction of the university administration and the Embassy of Peru will allow correcting quotas so that they meet the interests of the university, Peruvian authorities and students. 

One more topic for discussion became FIFA 2018 World Cup, the stage of which must take place in Samara in June 2018. According to the information from the Embassy of Peru more than 23000 fans from this republic must come to Russia in 2018. Mr. Fernandes-Baka marked that great hope in the questions of tourists’ welcome; provision of their comfortable staying in Russia is set on the Peruvian students studying at Russian universities.

International students remained pleased with the results of the meeting.

“We managed to make clear and voice the questions that worry us, - Miguel, student of the Institute of Aeronautical Engineering explained. – Thus, many of us are very interested in continuation of summer practice in big companies as on completion of the education I would like to gain experience in Russia. But for us being international students it is difficult to get to Russian production”. Fernando Tapia Fernandes-Baka discussed with the students the opportunity to undergo practice in large Russian and Peruvian companies.

“Meetings at the level of Embassy are very important, - Sergey Tiz made the point. – They are important for us because as the practice shows almost nothing is known abroad about Samara as the centre of world cosmonautics. Though gradually, with the growth of our university positions in the world rankings, awareness of the university among foreigners is growing”. Sergey Tiz marked as well the positive tendency for Samara being observed in the recent years that more and more international entrants and their parents make their choices in favour of regional universities. Education in capitals is much more expensive and many families prefer stable developed regional centres to large megalopolises.

Leonid Belyakov (YIA “Samara University”)