Where and why graduates go?

In recent years, about a third of each release of the Bachelor program “Mathematics”, the Higher School of Economics has been invitation from the best graduate students of the world. The faculty of mathematics does not make this secret, but, on the contrary, posts on the site congratulations to graduates who received the offfer. For what? Do we not contribute to the brain leak? Do we give a signal to our Russian students that the only successful trajectory we consider to “dump for a hill”? Finally, what efforts do we make in order for our graduates to leave or that they remain? These issues are too important to me to brush them off. These are serious questions that need to be given serious answers.

I will try to give such answers below. They imply the thesis obvious to every educated person: the status and future of Russia are inextricably linked with the presence of leading schools in it in all sectors of “pure” science, including in mathematics. It is the departure of students who have chosen an academic career that I discuss below, since the vast majority of our graduates prefer to foreign universities the master's programs of the Higher School of Economics. All of the following is my personal opinion, separated not even by all my colleagues. But I will write seriously and in any objection or “collision” I will try to see not the inferiority of the interlocutor, but the facet of truth.

Let's start with what exactly we congratulate. “They decided to leave. What is good about that? " No, we congratulate the graduates not on the fact that they decided to leave, but with the fact that leading universities are interested in accepting them. This is an important external, and therefore more objective, assessment of the quality of our educational programs at the output. We still have few graduates, but they received invitations from all universities of the first dozens of QS rating in mathematics [1]. One of the best mathematical graduate students is MIT graduate school. This year, MIT sent four offers to our graduates, three of whom were accepted, and one was rejected in favor of Harvard. In total, eight graduates of the faculty study in graduate school. And one graduate of our graduate school works there.

It is important to note that in this sense we do not distinguish between the leading graduateurs of our country and other countries: if our graduate enters the graduate school of the MSU MSU, we also congratulate him on this, since the Mehmat is also an external faculty that is part of the top 50 object rating QS.

By the way, the presence of an offer means nothing but the possibility of choosing. It has happened more than once or two that our graduate, who received attractive offers from US universities, decided to stay in Moscow and continue to study at the programs of the Faculty of Mathematics. This can be considered as an occasion for pride.

Thus, the best graduates choose between offers from different universities. Why do they so often prefer foreign programs? Is our programs of magistracy and graduate school worse? To begin with, our programs come to no less than foreign ones. Many of those who come only to us are not inferior to those who submit documents to other places.

I also note that our graduate school in mathematics is quite strong. As in the case of undergraduate, there is an external assessment of the output: proposals for the employment of our defending or defending graduate students come from leading universities in the world (MIT, Chicago, Cornell, Ecole Polytechnique among others). But if about the bachelor's program in mathematics, it is safe to say that it is included in the top 10 in the world-this is confirmed by the assessment of the International Expert Council of the faculty, then there is no such confidence about the programs of magistracy and graduate school.

North American universities, as a rule, lag behind us at the level of undergraduate, but catch up at the level of graduate school. This is primarily due to the installation available in the West that the time of graduate school is a critical point when it is necessary to concentrate all efforts to achieve the goal, scientific result, the level of which will depend on the entire further career.

There are still three artificial circumstances. The first is that proposals from American universities come back in January, and until recently we could guarantee something only in the summer or late spring. Now, however, the “tower” has developed the mechanisms of the early invitation to the magistracy and graduate school, and in the short term we expect complete synchronization with the world market.

The second circumstance is more serious, and we cannot do anything with him. According to Russian legislation, in order to enter us in graduate school, we must first finish the magistracy. Thus, a graduate of our undergraduate can go to Harvard's graduate school (we have two graduates entered Harvard immediately after the undergraduate), but cannot enter our graduate school. In this case, Russian legislation contributes to unequal competition from the USA and Canada. The last, third circumstance is perhaps the most sad. This is the state of the Russian labor market in the academic sphere, in particular in the field of fundamental mathematics.

An important question: why should the state allocate budget places, if, having studied at the expense of the state budget, graduates go to raise the intellectual level of other countries? Is this not a sense of money or, even worse, the financing of a “potential enemy”? Maybe it is necessary to demand that the departments return the money spent on their training? It is possible, but it is more useful to create conditions so that they have the opportunity to continue education abroad, and then return themselves.

To go abroad to learn from other leaders of the chosen scientific field is a very natural idea. Mathematics is universal, this is strong. The mathematician, who got acquainted with the best practices of leading foreign mathematical schools and then returned to work in her native school, helps her not to slide into “provincial” and isolation in the same way as, for example, a football player who played for the leading foreign club, and then returned to enrich the national team with new culture and experience. By introducing an obligatory fee for learning for departing, we would push them to associate their departure with long -term plans to “rush” abroad to high salaries, and this would only complicate the choice of the most desirable trajectory for us - to gain experience at the level of graduate school and, possibly, post -class positions, and then return to work in Russia.

Mathematics with experience in different countries that absorbed strong features of various scientific schools have a competitive advantage in the global labor market. They choose where to work, and a priori, an offer from their own country will have an advantage: their relatives and friends live here. If only there will be a real opportunity to do their own business in Russia, then even a less attractive level of wage will not be much affected by the decision of Russians who are in the global labor market.

This is not a utopia - the evidence is, for example, scientists who have received the degree of PhD and experience abroad, and then returned to Russia to work at our faculty of mathematics. But in general, unfortunately, there are either very few proposals from Russia, or they are invisible in the global labor market in the academic region.

Brain leak is a big problem. But this problem is not manifested in the diversification of studies. It manifests itself at the moment when the graduate has already graduated from the graduate school about returning and applying his talent in his country, but it turns out that this talent in the country is not very in demand. Therefore, it is necessary to pay for the training of the best mathematician students, but it is necessary to create jobs for them in academic science and bring these positions to the international market. As this problem will be solved, the young scientists irrevocably left will become smaller.

Finally, what does the faculty do so that the graduates enter prestigious graduate schools? We do not convince anyone to go abroad. In many cases, we convince - successfully or unsuccessfully - to remain in the magistracy with us. In some exceptional cases, we advise the graduate to enter a particular university (possibly foreign), in which leading experts work in the narrow area he chosen.

At the same time, we help those students who have decided to act and turn for help. This assistance is not centralized - it has neither the merit nor the fault of the leadership of the faculty or university. Just teachers are interested in a successful career of students, because this is their reputation. Teachers deal with students and help them in all professional issues. And in this matter, including.

Vladlen Timorin,
Professor and Dean of the Faculty of Mathematics NIU HSE

1. One of the main world ratings of universities in fields of knowledge:
www.topuniversities.com/university-rankings