Education, Turkish context

Russian universities call their students from Turkish universities, while promising to create safe conditions for students from Turkey, Interfax said, referring to the press service of the Ministry of Education and Science. It must be thought that this is not an easy attempt to protect young Russians from possible manifestations of aggression in a situation of political conflict, since the department, according to Echo of Moscow , is going to terminate the scientific and technical cooperation agreement that has been in force since 1992.

Of course, there are not many Russian students study in Turkey, and even if the academic exchange ceases to be an exchange and the educational process will continue exclusively Turkish students in Russian universities, the financial loss will be small. If we talk about the moral side of the issue, then we can imagine the disappointment of students who are urgently torn off from, say, work in the library of Istanbul University or the study of the mural of the monastery in the choir - the best, by the way, samples of the Paleologian Renaissance.

Russian universities are gradually getting rid of teachers who worked at foreign universities

Even if you do not focus on the fact that the Byzantine monuments are directly related to Russian culture, you should think about how quickly cultural space is bought for Russians. The traditional course of visual Egyptology for schoolchildren today was outside the limits of geographical reach, the Byzantine past, economic difficulties in the country of that and will block the road to classical Italy with their own eyes. By the way, when Soviet art historians, during perestroika, went to watch the works of Italian masters, about whom they talked about so much and with such love, it turned out that, not knowing the original, they were deceived by themselves and deceived others.

On the other hand, the termination of the training of Russian students in Turkey, the gesture, although a foreign policy, but quite logical in the general context of Russian education. Universities are gradually getting rid of teachers who have ties with foreign colleagues or working at foreign universities. If until recently it was prestigious to invite the professors from abroad and promise to the applicants a double diploma, now this story will most likely be considered nonpatriotic, and therefore criminal.

The state has just spent decent money to enter Russian universities in the international education market (project 5-100). And this year, almost seven times more Russian universities have entered the World University Rankings rating than in the past, and now, it turns out that no one needs these successes.

One of the criteria for assessing the effectiveness of Russian universities is the number of foreign students, today it can also be safely canceled. Like scientific materials in international magazines, Hirsch index - if enemies are around, you can’t believe anyone. Yes, and it becomes dangerous to publish it in foreign magazines, you never know what data can be calculated by the state secret.

It is not necessary to explain to anyone how all this will affect the quality of Russian education and science in low financing, scientific isolation and a lack of qualified specialists. And in Istanbul, meanwhile, at the University of Marmara, training is in English, German, French and other languages.

Tamara Lyalenkova - author and host of the Radio Liberty program "Class hour"