Study Abroad News from Russia / 03.12.2005

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Dec 15, 2005, 1:50:06 PM12/15/05

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SEMINAR "AN ACADEMIC YEAR ABROAD IN STATE SCHOOLS"

On December 7 at 5:00 p.m. "Otkrytyi Mir" is holding a seminar for
schoolchildren and their parents "Academic year abroad in state
schools". The agency's employees will tell about educational programs
in state schools with lodging in families of USA, Germany, France,
Switzerland, Sweden, Netherlands, China and other countries.
The program is for students from 15 to 18 years old. Additional
information can be got through tel. 290-0540, 290-1951, 792-5125 and
via e-mail: st...@open-world.ru .

NEWS

--- Where to study hotel management in the Great Britain?

An article about educational institutions of the UK appeared on the
Parta site saying that there are programs on hotel management in them.
Specialists for the industry of hospitality are trained by both local
colleges - senior service personnel and universities - managers. The
author of the article refers to a ranking of universities in united
specialties "Hotel management, leisure arrangement, health industry,
tourism" made by the Times. Out of 20 educational institutions
presented in the list only four of them teach indeed hotel management,
at that in one of them a two-year professional program is offered on
which the author didn't dwell on. As a result, the article shows three
universities: Brighton, Sheffield Hallam and Strathclyde (Scotland).
Besides, the article gives the description of curriculum in specialty
"hotel management": what is studied on 1-3 years of studies and during
a 1-year master's degree.

http://www.parta.org/wa/news_ea/spool/news/1156.htm

Comments:
http://eduabroad.ru/journal/28.11.2005/1/comments

--- The British Council closes the language courses in St. Petersburg.
Confrontation with Russian tax authorities goes on?

The British Council because of financial difficulties has to close the
training center in St. Petersburg on a basis of which the English
language courses were being held. Its decision the BC explains with
having a necessity to move in new premises, but there is no possibility
to pay rent of big area capable to house both the BC office and the
training center.

Till the training center will be closed - April 6, 2006 - the language
classes will continue. Now the BC office of St. Petersburg is choosing
a new location where different cultural and educational activities will
be taking place.

A range of events preceded the closure of the English language courses.
We remind you that last year Russian authorities cast a doubt on
legality of the British Council representative offices functioning in
the regions of Russia, as their legal status was not clearly defined.
But mainly there were financial claims to the British Council. On May
21, 2004 Russian tax police conducted a search [1] in most BC
departments.

Federal service on economic and tax crimes of Ministry of Internal
Affairs accused the British Council of making "too much money" on the
English language courses and for all that not paying taxes. Tax
officers demanded all financial documentation on activity in Russia.
However the UK embassy in Moscow had refused to give the documents
required stating that in accordance to diplomatic conventions the
British Council had immunity and was not under the jurisdiction of tax
authorities.

In August of this year there was some information [2] that some BC
departments still didn't have registration in local tax institutions,
and that the BC was expecting checkups again.

After a month the situation was a kind of settled. As Anthony Breton,
UK ambassador in Russia, stated [3] then, "almost all was paid" to tax
institutions. Besides, it was expected that in a short time an
agreement would be concluded with Russian authorities about a status of
the British Council in Russia.

And here is a new turn. As "Kommersant" (Komersant) writes [4], the
decision to close the courses in St. Petersburg coincided with
suspension of criminal case investigation of illegal business
undertaking brought by the City Office of Public Prosecutor. The
investigation believes that BC is a commercial organization, per se, at
that doesn't pay taxes and offers the language courses passing over
Russian laws on educational activity.

At that, as mentions "Kommersant" (Komersant), shortly before
institution of proceedings the representatives of BC department in St.
Petersburg registered their organization in fiscal accounting and paid
off the tax debt. However the criminal case in illegal business
undertaking was brought anyway as BC representatives refused to get a
license for teaching activity giving reason that the educational center
doesn't give out a Russian standard certificate.

The investigation of this case at present is "suspended". According to
BC press attache in St. Petersburg Stanislav Smirnov, the decision to
close courses in no way is related to the criminal case. "According to
our data, now in Ministry of Internal Affairs the issue of criminal
prosecution dismissal is proceeding, and during the week we should
receive a corresponding notification. To move we have decided long ago,
as far back as two years ago. So it's just a mere coincidence," -
explained the press attache in his interview to "Kommersant"
(Komersant).

Comments:
http://eduabroad.ru/journal/29.11.2005/1/comments

Links:
[1] - http://eduabroad.ru/journal/journal/09.06.2004/2
[2] - http://eduabroad.ru/journal/journal/31.08.2005/3
[3] - http://eduabroad.ru/journal/journal/27.09.2005/2
[4] - http://www.kommersant.ru/region/spb/page.htm?Id_doc=630648

--- German educational institutions ranking: not new but still relevant

According to Campus-Germany.de, making rankings of educational
institutions is quite a new thing for Germany. First publications of
lists of best German universities appeared in mass media near 10 years
ago. The largest and up till now methodically differentiated ranking
was composed in 2002 by the Center of Higher Educational institutions
(CHE) and the Schtern magazine. Another authoritative ranking that is
worth to pay attention to is prepared by the Alexander Humboldt Fund in
2003. It's a scientific ranking that reflects attractiveness of German
educational institutions for foreign scientists. Since the Fund's
scholars and the prize winners are able to choose an educational
institution on their own, their number in a university allows to make
certain conclusions about effectiveness of scientific researches and
the degree of attraction for foreign scientists to scientific work in
this educational institution.

http://www.campus-germany.de/russian/1.347.720.html

Comments:
http://eduabroad.ru/journal/29.11.2005/3/comments

--- Action in St. Petersburg: have some coffee and win 2 weeks of
English in Malta

The "Insight-Lingva" representative office in St. Petersburg together
with a network of coffee houses "Republic of Coffee" holds "Feel
yourself at Malta!" action with an instant all-prize lottery. To become
a participant you need to visit one of four participating coffee houses
and to order some coffee, cocktail or a cake from the special Maltese
menu. The check is enclosed with a coupon with a protective coat,
having removed which you can learn what your price is. The main price
is a two-week trip to Malta to study English in European Centre School
[1] in Saint-Juliance. A free airplane ticket is presented to the
winner by Air Malta. Drawing of the main prize will be held in
appointed days: December 19 and so on, if nobody is lucky this day,
then on December 29, January 11 and 25. Among other prizes there are
some souvenirs from the Maltese Tourism Department, pens and t-shirts
from "Insight-Lingva", and cakes and espressos from the coffee house.

http://insight-lingua.ru/index/id/1518

Comments:
http://eduabroad.ru/journal/30.11.2005/1/comments

Links:
[1] - http://www.ecenglish.com/

--- The number of Russian students in USA reduced by 8.3% last academic

We continue [1] publishing the data of annual statistic report on
international academic mobility prepared by the Institute of
International Education (IIE, USA). According to the report, Russia
made it to number 22 in the quantity of students in US universities. In
academic years 2004-2005 5,073 Russians studied in USA, which is by
8.3% less than in 2003-2004. Among European countries in the number of
students Russia is left behind by Germany (number 9), the UK (number
11) and France (number 17).

In total last academic year in USA there were 565,039 foreign students
- by 1.3% less then in the previous one. The forth year in a row India
has been bearing the palm of supremacy in the number of students in US
- 80,466 people. China comes second - 62,523 students, with South
Korea, Japan and Canada to follow. According to the data of US Ministry
of Trade, foreign students bring yearly near 13.3 milliard dollars into
the country's economy.

As for the most popular disciplines which students study from abroad,
in academic years 2004-2005 there were 17.7% foreigners being studied
in business and management programs, which is by 8% less than last
year. The share of foreign students studying engineering hasn't changed
virtually - 16.5%. The third by popularity field of study among
foreigners is mathematics and computer sciences, 9% of students study
them. However, working out this field in detail it turns out that in
2004-2005 the interest to computer and informational sciences
significantly dropped - more than by 30%. At that in the field of
mathematic sciences there is an increase in the number of students by
18.4% comparing to last year.

Top 5 of the universities with the bigger number of students is the
following: University of Southern California (Los Angeles, 6,846
foreign students), University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign
(Champaign, 5,560), University of Texas at Austin (Austin, 5,333),
Columbia University (New York, 5,278) and New York University (New
York, 5,140).

http://opendoors.iienetwork.org/?p=69689

Comments:
http://eduabroad.ru/journal/30.11.2005/2/comments

Links:
[1] - http://eduabroad.ru/journal/journal/15.11.2005/2

--- Across Europe

Moskovskie Novosti newspaper published a small article "Holidaying and
studying simultaneously" - about programs of learning the foreign
language on holidays and vacation. In sight the author had the UK,
France, Spain, and Malta. Besides a brief description of peculiarities
of holiday programs and a couple of schools, the author dwells on
short-term intensive courses of the foreign language for business
people in a certain school, for the sake of which, in fact, was the
article written.

http://www.mn.ru/issue.php?2005-46-56

Comments:
http://eduabroad.ru/journal/02.12.2005/1/comments

--- To Berlin!

In December's issue of Kariera magazine the edition's correspondent,
and now a student of Humboldt University in Berlin, dwells upon how he
could have managed from Moscow State University to get into one of the
best and oldest institutions in Germany for a master's program, what
issues he had to solve to come to the country - lodging search,
insurance, internet. His first report about the first month of studying
in Berlin the student completes with a brief description of German
educational system. To be continued.

http://www.kariera.idr.ru/items/?item=675

Comments:
http://eduabroad.ru/journal/03.12.2005/1/comments

COLUMNISTS

--- Government hopes to turn the flow round
/by Alexey Volkov/
A campaign under the name "New Zealand Now", actually launched yet in
August on the threshold of general elections, has picked up speed in
November. It's turned to New Zealanders who left the country and
currently live abroad, mainly in neighboring Australia (355,000) and
the UK (58,000)...

To read further:
http://eduabroad.ru/volkov/33/comments

EVENTS

December 2, 9: seminars on Work & Travel USA program ("Otkrytyi Mir")

http://eduabroad.ru/journal/24.11.2005/2

December 7: consultation with a DIFC representative (ABC Studying)

http://eduabroad.ru/journal/25.10.2005/3

December 7: lecture on entering British universities (British Council)

http://eduabroad.ru/journal/14.11.2005/2

December 7: seminar "Academic year abroad in state schools" ("Otkrytyi
Mir")

http://eduabroad.ru/journal/17.11.2005/1

December 14: seminar on Istituto Marangoni programs ("Otkrytyi Mir")

http://eduabroad.ru/journal/28.11.2005/2