RGTEU under siege

Deputy Minister of Education Alexander Klimov visited the Russian State Trade and Economic University (RGTEU), whose students have continued to strike for the seventh day against the reorganization of the university and its recognition as ineffective.

The protest began on the night of December 18-19, when the leader of the “Left Front” Sergei Udaltsov, the deputy from “A Just Russia” Dmitry Gudkov, and representatives of the Communist Party of the Russian Federation came to the students to support their action. On December 20, the students stopped the strike after the State Duma promised to consider the issue of recognizing the university as ineffective. However, already on the evening of December 20, an order appeared on the website of the Ministry of Education on the merger of RGTEU with the Plekhanov Russian Academy of Economics. The order provides for the joining of the university and all its branches (in total more than 70 thousand students throughout Russia) to the Plekhanov Academy (more than 10 thousand students) within one year. State-funded students are promised to keep their places, and students studying on a commercial basis will not have to raise their fees. Now the original 300 students from the Moscow branch have been joined by 150 students from regional branches, as well as teachers and rectors of regional branches.

In the student union premises there are cookies and tea on the table. Students with signs of lack of sleep meet me at the door: “Excuse me, I haven’t slept for three days - yesterday I passed physical education, there’s a test tomorrow, I can’t answer your questions, talk to him,” one of them apologizes and introduces me to fourth-year student Elvin Seidov . “I entered this university and want to graduate from this university. I don’t want to say anything bad about Plekhanov Academy, but I don’t really understand why we were considered ineffective. Our teachers also teach at Plekhanov,” the student shares his fears. “They say that those who will finish their studies at Plekhanovka will still receive a diploma from RGTEU this year. The employer will tell these graduates: “You graduated from an ineffective university!” He is supported by student Maria, who is most afraid of increasing tuition: “I’m 110 thousand rubles.” I pay a year, and in Plekhanov - 240 thousand rubles. It's expensive. Where will I get this money from?"

University staff also whisper warily in the corridors. “We came here for the annual meeting of the administration,” the directors of the Saratov and Omsk branches share with me. “We don’t know what will happen to us, we hope to find out.” According to the directors, the merger was not discussed with them and they have no idea how it will happen. “We are not boys, we have labor collectives behind us, we have families,” Alexander Malikov, director of the Saratov branch, told PublicPost. “And we don’t even know whether we will work in January.” Together with the directors we go to the hall, where mats are stacked near the stage, on which students sleep at night.

The first to come to meet the students was the rector of the Plekhanov Russian Academy of Economics, Viktor Grishin. “I will carry out the order on unification,” he told the students. “I have a contract with the ministry, and in connection with the contract, I am obliged to carry out orders.” Teachers and students countered by saying that they do not agree with the monitoring criteria, as well as its results, according to which only the Moscow branch of the university, where about 7 thousand students study, was recognized as ineffective - the remaining 26 branches in the regions are effective. “I have never questioned the quality of education at RGTEU,” Grishin threw up his hands. “I believe that the merger of two universities can have a positive effect.” However, he failed to calm the audience.

Soon he was joined by a delegation from the Ministry of Education led by Deputy Minister Alexander Klimov. Klimov did not doubt the objectivity of the monitoring (the Moscow branch of RGTEU was recognized as ineffective according to five out of more than fifty criteria - the weighted average Unified State Examination score of students upon admission, the area of ​​the university per student, the number of foreign students from far abroad, revenue and income for scientific activities per teacher), as well as the inevitability of the merger of RGTEU and the Plekhanov Academy, despite the fact that students and teachers questioned the legitimacy of the ministry’s order. According to them, the order was not registered by the Ministry of Justice and agreed with other ministries. Klimov looked at the order in response: “I’m not a lawyer. But here everything seems right to me.”

“There is a raider takeover of the university and its branches,” said RGTEU teacher Ivan Mironov. “They will be forced to expel most of the students so as not to lose face, otherwise it will be recognized that the examination was falsified.” Mironov's speech was drowned in applause. When Viktor Grishin tried to intervene in the discussion, they shouted out to him from the audience that no one wanted to meet with him. Mironov called on the students to drive Grishin away, since “nobody invited him” (the day before, some of the students invited him - PublicPost). Grishin had to leave the hall amid whistles and clapping. “The people are very indignant, the position is not creative,” the rector of the Plekhanov Academy told PublicPost after he left the hall. “Détente is needed. I was invited by students, but here the focus is different - people are inclined to conflict. There are not many students. About 200 people and hardly they express the opinion of the majority." According to Grishin, the merger will take place after a commission of representatives of the two universities is convened: “The commission will work out the structure of the connection, review the programs, how they can be combined.”

Meanwhile, the situation in the hall became tense. The apotheosis was Ivan Mironov’s proposal for everyone to leave the hall while Klimov began to read out orders for the dismissal of Sergei Baburin from the post of rector and the appointment of Andrei Shklyaev, vice-rector for economics and innovation at the Plekhanov Academy, to the position of acting rector of RGTEU. Sergei Baburin will be paid compensation in the amount of three monthly salaries.

“We believe that there are healthy forces in RGTEU. If we remove from here those who destabilize the situation solely for political purposes, we are ready to interact with the teaching staff and, of course, with students,” Alexander Klimov commented on the merger of universities, clarifying to PublicPost that We are talking about nationalists. “We want a new powerful university.”

“They don’t like that our students here are brought up in the patriotic tradition,” Nikolai Kuryanovich, director of the Irkutsk branch, told PublicPost. “We still consider Sergei Baburin our rector. We will stand to the end and fight for the resignation of Livanov (Minister of Education - approx. ed.). Sergei Baburin is on sick leave, but he supports the students."

“Our rector is on sick leave. His powers are exercised by Vice-Rector Pavel Anatolyevich Shevtsov, so the order of the Ministry of Education has no legal force,” Albert Zaripov, deputy chairman of the student union, said at a student meeting after a meeting with ministry officials. “We need to go on strike for at least another time.” day. We represent the entire student body, we cannot leave." “We must say that we want to defend the university,” said Lena, a student at the Smolensk branch. “Baburin is secondary.” Other student demands include the cancellation of the monitoring results, as well as the performance monitoring itself. Students consider the maximum task to be the abolition of the education reform, since, in their opinion, it leads to the destruction of education.

However, not all students participate in the action. Some, like tourism student Marina, are embarrassed by the rector’s nationalistic views: “I don’t really like Baburin and his beliefs. I don’t consider our university ineffective, but it is being merged with the not-so-weak Plekhanov Academy. Budget-funded places will remain, the price will remain the same.” I looked at rector (of the Plekhanov Academy - editor's note), he is quite adequate."

Students who did not agree with the merger of universities opened Doshirak in the evening and prepared for an overnight stay. Around midnight, the decision was made to barricade ourselves. Students dragged their desks to the entrance. They explained their actions by the desire to prevent the new rector from entering the university, as well as fears that they might be stormed.

The students went to bed in the middle of the night; before that, some were preparing for tests in the assembly hall, others were playing board games and watching movies. They slept on mats in the gym and classrooms.

At 7 am a general rise was announced. Several dozen young people lined up in the corridor. Having chanted: “One for all and all for one!”, the students dispersed to the posts that they had distributed among themselves at night. “I don’t understand what’s going to happen,” says student Alena in the room where the guys are drinking tea. “Should we prevent the new rector from stepping onto the “sacred tile” of RGTEU?” "Or maybe when he comes, just start clapping and chanting: 'Who are you? Goodbye!"?" - a student intervenes in the conversation. “No, that would be rudeness,” Alena objects. “We should behave like decent students, and not rednecks who have just been released from prison.” “Where have you seen prisoners clapping?” - the young man does not calm down. "Movies are full!" — the dispute dissolves in general laughter.

Meanwhile, students are on duty at the entrance, asking for documents from everyone who wants to enter.