“It seems paradoxic. The policical situation may be unstable, but in higher education, there's an unprecedented interest from the Russian side to collaboration with Germany,” noted Gregor Berghorn, the ex-head of the “DAAD” (German Academic Exchange Service) in Moscow. “In the last six months we received more applications than ever before”.
The “Die Welt” also supposes that the structure of Russian universities is getting similar to German. German scientific society together with the Russian scientific fund launched a bilateral financing support of physical and mathematical research projects in June 2015. This program aims to develop academic exchange and joint research projects. Currently about 4 000 young researchers and 10 000 students work and study in Germany. Ekaterina Tulgurova, the head of the International Educational Programs Department of ITMO University, supposes that studying in Germany is very popular for several reasons. Along with quality education students can get inexpensive accommodations in comparison with other Western European countries. However they have to be ready for long house hunting because of the lack of dorm rooms.
“Higher education in Germany is free. Moreover, so-called “Top-9” German universities take higher positions in world rankings. It is very attractive both for professors and students. Besides German universities collaborate with business and industrial sector. Thanks to the “DAAD” one can receive extra financial support for research projects,” said Mrs. Tulgurova.
ITMO University also collaborates with Germany through joint research programs. Thus Russian and German researchers signed a cooperation agreement between ITMO University and the Technical University of Freiberg. Apart from that ITMO University is a key partner of the Ravensburg-Weingarten University of Applied Sciences.
Polina Poleschuk
News portal editorial office