Teaching Foreign Students Brings Us 40 Million Dollars a Year – It Could Be 120 Million

The current President of Mongolia – Natsakiin Bag a bandi – graduated from a Ukrainian institution of higher educational, namely, the Odesa Academy of Food Technologies. He studied in this country back in the times when foreigners would receive free education en masse: the number of those who decided to come to Ukraine from far-away countries to get higher education never dropped below 31,000. Those days all contracts were signed in Moscow, with Ukrainian colleges and universities merely fulfilling the contracts shouldering almost a quarter of all the foreigners who wished to study in the Soviet Union. It is little wonder that since 1992, when the Ministry of Education decided to set a lower limit for fees (at least $1000 a year for a preparatory course, $1500 for foundation courses, $2500 for graduate studies, and $300 a month for internships), the ranks of foreign students have thinned greatly. Omelian Sukholytky, Head of the International Cooperation Department at the Ministry of Education, admits that this was a hard time for all. University presidents exerted pressure on fourth– and fifth-year foreign students, demanding that they either pay or forget about their degree. Fortunately, humanism prevailed and the bureaucrats understood that the new rule should only be applied to freshmen. But despite this, the number of foreign students in Ukraine has dwindled by at least 10,000, while in the Russian Federation their number has remained practically unchanged at 70,000 students from beyond the borders of the former Soviet Union still attending courses and completing advanced studies there.

In addition to the relatively low fees, there also are some objective reasons why Ukraine mostly attracts the Chinese and Arabs. Firstly, there is simple ignorance of Ukraine due to its small number of embassies and consulates, again in comparison with Russia. Secondly, many associate this country with the Chornobyl disaster, which undoubtedly scares them off. Thirdly, knowing the Ukrainian language will never be a decisive factor in the career of would-be graduates. And, finally, the red tape for visas. After the events of September 11, Ukraine began to exercise utmost caution in selecting the prospective students. The authorities have not only tightened visa requirements in embassies and security control at airports but also modified the mechanism for receiving invitations. While invitations were formerly processed by the respective service in the Ministry of Education and it was enough to produce a copy of an invitation to have the documents completed, now only the original is valid, which, incidentally, has a multilevel anti-forging system of protection.

Once in Ukraine, foreign students come under the control of a large interdepartmental commission composed of Ministry of Foreign Affairs, Ministry of Internal Affairs, Security Service, Tax Administration, and State Border Security Force representatives. These services also pays close attention to make sure that students do not get employed and that they leave the country within a month after graduation because at that stage they will already be considered potential illegal migrants.

The latter factor is also responsible, in a way, for Ukraine’s poor image. Earlier the US, South Korea, Japan, and now Germany have, on the contrary, been trying to enrich their population with highly- skilled personnel and thus making every effort to offer the exceptionally gifted foreign graduates more favorable conditions of work than in their native countries. The students who study in Ukraine under the so-called state scholarship program, i.e., free of charge, are distressed at being legally barred from employment, as the families they come from are often far from rich. They get the same grant – 53 hryvnias – as our students do, but it is naturally far more difficult for them then for our compatriots to expect help from home. Currently Ukraine hosts 4,000 state scholars, with their number rising by one thousand each year. Mr. Sukholytky admits, however, that the Ukrainian side tries not to use all of the state-paid vacancies. Usually it fills about 60%. As a rule, this list includes foreign ethnic Ukrainians under the Ukrainians Abroad Program and those processed on the request of embassies and national cultural societies. The main idea is that the “most-favored-nation treatment” be granted to those who will then be able to propagate all things Ukrainian – history, language and culture – in their homeland. But it often happens that, after enrolling at a certain department, students ask a few weeks later to be transferred to, say, the department of law, economics or mathematics. Their countries then write an “explanatory note” to our coordination body, i.e., the Ministry of Education, saying that the Ukrainian language is, of course, a good thing but they need good specialists in all fields – and the Ukrainian high school trains precisely this kind of experts. But Ukrainian state scholars cannot choose the medium of instruction: whether they like it or not they have to content themselves with our official language in contrast to fee-paying students who even have the right to study in English.

Most (almost 50%) are inclined to study medicine in this country because they do not think that they will find a cheaper, higher-quality education in the area anywhere else. Ukrainian technical schools are also popular among foreigners. According to the head of the International Cooperation Department, there are a lot of foreign students at the University of Aviation and Space Technologies (former Kharkiv Aviation Institute), the National Aviation University (former Kyiv Institute of Civil Aviation), the Mykolayiv Shipbuilding Institute, and the University of Architecture and Civil Engineering (former Kyiv Civil Engineering Institute). Yet, the undisputed leader is the Kharkiv Pharmaceutical Academy, and this is without mentioning the institutions under the jurisdiction of the Ministry of Culture.

It is only natural that Ukraine should strive to attract as many foreign students as possible because this is, by all means, a political matter. For the number of foreign students can reflect the image of our state on the international arena. Mr. Sukholytky says a sensible rector should understand that, by providing foreigners with comfortable living conditions, he will make a contribution of his own to the building of this image.

Reportedly it is Kyiv’s Taras Shevchenko National University which has furnished its students with the most comfortable living conditions. But The Day’s correspondent managed to visit foreign creative arts students residing at the dormitory of the National Academy of Fine Arts and Architecture. When you step in the door, you cannot help but be intrigued as to how anyone could live there. Flabbergasted, you think you could do with a gas mask to bear the “fragrance” of the corridor, while a trip in the elevator is fraught with claustrophobia and the heaps of garbage could only serve to pervert your idea of good taste. The rooms where foreign (now only Chinese) students live look more attractive. When asked about their living conditions, the students smile in embarrassment. “There are almost always problems with hot water. The washing machine? We bought it ourselves. How else could we do the laundry?” the Chinese ask in bewilderment. “It is also very cold at night, so we very often yearn for home.”

The Chinese are wary of Ukrainian food because it is allegedly contaminated with radiation: they mostly eat foodstuffs bought at supermarkets and Chinese cafes. They do not in fact rub shoulders with the Ukrainians next door, saying they are woken up almost every night by loud music, clamor, and quarrels. For this reason, the students are reluctant to speak about the way they live here and switch to talking about Kyiv and Crimean sights. Ji Yuize is continually perplexed as to why Ukrainian is not spoken in Ukraine. Although at the preparatory he was taught the official language of the country where he came to study, he has practically nobody to speak it with. When he addresses local resident in Ukrainian, they reply in Russian. Now Ji Yuize even does not understand whether any new word he hears is Ukrainian or Russian. On the other hand, he is impressed with the oeuvres of classic Ukrainian painters and the country’s contemporary artists. He says China values the Ukrainian school of art highly.

Experts estimate that teaching foreign students brings the state about 40 million dollars a year at present. Many countries form the lion’s share of their education budget at the expense of foreigners. This is typical, above all, of the US, where foreigners account for 32% of all students. Our Ministry knows only too well what is to be done: the one-way street should be closed. The number of Ukrainian students being sent abroad by the Ministry of Education alone, not to mention exchange-program and private travelers, is several times that of foreigners coming here to study. To this end, the international cooperation department organizes exhibitions of Ukrainian higher education in other countries and forms groups entrusted with promoting Ukrainian education abroad. For Ukraine is prepared to train three times as many students as it does now. But, to do so, it must popularize its education and, naturally, provide comfort for foreigners, so that they do not have to choose between a pleasant education and a high-quality one.