Russia will spend more cash to fund training of foreign nationals studying at Russian universities, a top government official told a Moscow forum Monday.
According to first Deputy Prime Minister Dmitry Medvedev, the government would increase the number of scholarships provided to foreign graduate and postgraduate students earning their degrees across Russia.
Medvedev spoke at the 2nd World Forum of Foreign Graduates of Russian and Soviet Higher Education Institutions, held in the Russian capital on October 1-3.
"We plan to keep increasing further the number of government-provided scholarships to foreign citizens. We recognize this as a state priority," the official said.
Each year, added Medvedev, the Russian government allocates funds for more than 7,000 scholarships awarded to foreign students.
Besides providing scholarships, Russian authorities are also making an effort to solve issues related to improving foreign students' living conditions, including assistance with their potential employment during the course of studies.
According to recent data, the number of foreign students in Russia today exceeds 200,000 representing 160 countries. Approximately 80 percent of them come from the member states of the Commonwealth of Independent States (CIS).
They receive training virtually across the whole of Russia - besides Moscow and St. Petersburg, which lead in terms of numbers of foreign students, universities in other cities such as Tomsk, Novosibirsk, Volgograd, Kazan, Voronezh, Yekaterinburg, Khabarovsk, Vladivostok also provide training to foreigners.
Russia's Education Ministry statistics say that 656 institutions of higher education nationwide can offer training to foreigners.
As he addressed the audience at the forum's opening ceremony Monday, Medvedev stressed the benefits of the choice in favor of Soviet and Russian colleges.
"Many of you have [upon graduation] achieved great success in politics, launched successful businesses or created entire schools of science," Medvedev said.
The long list of notable graduates of Russian universities includes many statesmen such as Bulgarian Prime Minister Sergei Stanishev and his Georgian counterpart Zurab Noghaideli, both of whom earned their degrees at the Moscow State University.
By Marina Agarkova
Fact Box
Russia began training foreign students back in the 19th century. By the time the Soviet Union collapsed in 1991, the country had trained over 600,000 students representing 45 nations, Russia's Deputy Education Minister Vladimir Fridlyanov told a press conference at RIA Novosti last Friday.
Today, some 200,000 foreigners study in Russia, 90,000 of them free of charge. Moscow tops the list of applicant requests, with 43 percent of all applications filed from abroad.
The Moscow State University boasts most foreign students - currently their number stands at 5,500.
Belarus, Kazakhstan and Uzbekistan are the top three foreign nations, sending most students to Russian universities. Beyond the borders of the former Soviet Union, African and Latin American countries' shares are the biggest.
