(Leonid Kalachev)
So, do you hear me alright? Uh, I would like to start with,
um, thanking the organizers of this series. They're really great; fascinating. As you've heard,
I was educated, brought up in Russia. And even for myself,
I've found something entertaining, I certainly can tell you that, factually, this lecture
was absolutely correct and very interesting, So I would like to thank all the participants. Robert, Ona, Clint, and Rafaelm, and Linda,
for moderation and facilitation. Let me,
um, start... with the following. You can imagine that the topic
of education is absolutely huge. It could have been not one lecture
but many lectures or books written. But I want to tell you that an
absolutely fascinating thing happened. I, uh, visited many universities
all over the world; many countries, and, um, almost wherever I went,
the first thing that jumps on you is the newspaper or TV report,
or something like that, where, um, people are kind of politicians;
scientists, media peopl
e crying, "our local educational system is in crisis!
We need the reform." I, uh, actually thought, "why is it
I'm so lucky that I only go to countries that are on the brink of collapse?"
Or this is like perpetually going crisis. No one understands themselves,
and say, "well, crisis is going on." or crises indeed come and go,
and, uh, just when it is realized, you know, to solve the problem, you need to first of all see
whether it's there or not. Uh, then I was just indeed lucky, and this cris
is
happened in the right place at the right time. And, thinking about it, I...
started to realize that, uh, in many cases, what is so special about education system.
Usually, in every country, an educational system is very inertial. You see, it is human to solve
particular problems of the society, and when either political, economical,
or other conditions change, your educational system is lagging behind,
it's not enough time to adjust. And that's exactly when leaders in the country,
in the c
ommunity, may say, "Well, you know what, there is a discrepancy,
we need to take care of it." And that's what looks from the outside as a crisis. But then, unless you realize that it's there,
it cannot be resolved. So crisis is good. Here are a couple of examples
from different years and different countries. I will be talking here about
all of our sister universities, I've been... I mean, we have, certainly, many more,
but this is for example, A new campus of university of health
in Kankaanpää
in Finland. I visited there at the beginning of 90s. And what was so special
about Finland before 90s, the economic ties between Finland
and Soviet Union were very tight. And, um, Russia provided
a huge market for Finnish goods. And then, with the break of the Soviet Union,
overnight this market has disappeared. And this really put the educational system
in Finland in big crisis, many people emmigrated. And, um, eventually, some hard decisions
had to be made and they were made. And now, 20 yea
rs later maybe you know, Finnish educational system
is considered to be one of the best in the world. Nokia started producing cellphones
in the 90s like crazy. They couldn't actually make
enough graduates to fill all the positions. But, you probably know that
Nokia now is in trouble. So probably now, the crisis is coming. Another... actually we'll do it like that... Another sister university, Toya in Tokoyo,
this handsome campus in downtown Tokoyo, I was there in 1997 and actually, literally,
wh
en I jump off the plane, the first thing was the English language
newspaper Japan Times, and, "educational system is in crisis,
we need reform." [chuckles] I started figuring out, I mean,
I was there for a year on exchange. Uh, I asked the professors,
"what's so special? I mean, why crisis? Seemingly everything is, uh, booming." And they say, "you know what,
it's a demographic situation." In 1997, they already knew how many children
were born who will become students in 15 years. In Japan, um,
the funding for education
works as follows. Money follows the students essentially. So imagine, uh, in '97,
you already know that in about 15, 20 years, the world be 40% fewer students
entering the universities. So what does it mean? This means that
only 60% of the universities will survive. Unless the crisis is realized; someone takes matters into their own hands
and introduces some reforms. And this is exactly what Toya University did.
It was a really hard time. It was very interesting to s
ee how
the president of the university completely restructured departments;
kind of combined them. They certainly did not fire any people,
but they really did a lot of work, like introducing, first among private universities,
courses in English. To attract students from southeastern Asia. They open exactly 1997 by an electronics
research center, of which I am a member, and we just continued this collaboration
for another five years. Um, it was really a very interesting time. And, you know, sinc
e '97,
it's exactly like 50 years ago. Many things have happened, but certainly Toya University is one of those
universities that prospers. So there was someone who took leadership and really had to make,
really, these hard decisions. Oh, more recent examples,
this is an Ireland University College Cork, and the crisis there is ongoing,
and I can go on forever, I just will read a small sentence
from Irish Times, December 11th, 2012. "The growing crisis in our university system
threatens Irelan
d's future development. Rather than tackling it,
the government is denying it exists." You can imagine what has happened. Certainly, Ireland became the victim of
its own economic success. They overextended a little bit, and, uh, now in debt, some hard decisions
have to be made again. This not a lecture about
American educational system, but it's interesting. The president of Purdue University
published an open letter in January of this year, And just to... [chuckles]
for the fun of it, let m
e give you a couple of
futuristic predictions from this open letter You can, by the way, google it. Just type
'president of Purdue University, open letter,' It maybe pops up. And this prediction is taken from
the American Interest magazine and it says, "in 50 years, half of roughly 4500 colleges and
universities now operating in the United States will have ceased to exist. Tens of thousands of professors
will lose their jobs, the bachelor's degree
will become increasingly irrelevant, and 10 ye
ars from now,
Harvard will enroll 10 million students. I will say, unless someone realizes that
there is a problem here and starts, kind of, just trying to solve it,
addressing it. So this is Moscow State University, also sister university of the University of Montana,
I will talk a lot about it. Today, certainly you can imagine,
I have my parents living in Russia so I go there quite often. And literally, for the past twenty years,
each time when I go, there is a feeling of perpetual crisis,
ne
ver ending. So actually, things started to improve recently,
and I will later comment why, but my main kind of concern was:
If these problem's are clear that they exist, why Finland just took, I don't know,
10 years to refurbish its educational system and, um, came out of crisis fine. Why in Russia, with a lot of resources, oil,
everything,somehow this does not quite work. So, I would like to address
exactly these questions today and kind of connect it;
draw parallels with the, maybe... like,
not so much the United States,
but Montana and the University of Montana. Is there a place for the University of Montana
in the future? Actually, there is. So... I will concentrate here. So, just imagine history of Russia, you've heard the previous lectures, is full of
events, famous people, famous scientists, we can talk about this during
the questions session, but, today I only concentrate
on this completely short period from the collapse of the Soviet Union
in 1991 to today. And I would
like to make a disclaimer: it is especially important
because of being videotaped, everything I say is my own opinion. [laughter] I'm not representing either University of Montana,
I mean I kind of am, but the opinions are mine, and I want to share this opinion. I want to start this discussion,
I want you thinking about it. You see, education is very interesting topic,
everyone has an opinion. Because we were all either on the receiving end
at some point or on the giving end. Everyone was a stu
dent
either at school or through university. Here, certainly, there are a lot of professors. I wouldn't say that my opinion
is necessarily right or true, but at least it is a good time and place
to start a discussion. So, I will start with a couple of basic facts. Population in Russia right now
is about 143 million people. In fact, there was a declining trend,
until about two years ago, when population hit 142 million
then started rising again. Population of age 14 and below is 14.9. Number of
schools: 53500,
and as of last year, 13.4 million children
were enrolled in this schools. Total number of universities and institutions
of higher education as of July of last year is 2704. And of those, 1778 state-supported, All the rest are for-profit or private. And the total number of students, also,
as of last year, about 7 million. All the matters related to education are somehow handled by
the Russia Ministry of Education and Signs. And here, I did not bring absolute numbers, because con
verting rubles into dollars
is kind of tricky. I would say that, out of a total budget,
4.8% goes to education. During the past several years,
1 1/4 million citizens of Russia immigrated, And for comparison, after Boleshevik Revolution
in 1917, 2 million people immigrated. So, you can compare the numbers.
And of those 200000, the ones who hold advanced degrees. So let me now talk little bit
|about educational system. It kind of resembles educational system of
any Western country. And it looks v
ery similar to the system that was
in place before the fall of the Soviet Union but the content is a bit different,
and I will comment on that. But-- So essentially after kindergarten, which, kindergarteners you can find almost everywhere,
kids enter general education. There are three stages:
primary, basic and secondary. And same probably as the United States, the first four years,
one teacher in class teaches all the subjects , then there is a subject differention
starting from grade five t
o move from basic to secondary after ninth year, students must take four exams,
they are state-administered becase, you can imagine in the past years,
since the collapse of the Soviet Union. During the Soviet Union everything was regulated. There was the same, for example,
math book for all the schools across the country. Now it's not true anymore. So, in fact, every school district
can chose their books and what happens is, someone had to make sure
that the educational standards are the same
. So the standards are published
and then you can use whatever book you want, but then the knowledge is tested by state exams. So kids need to take two compulsory exams,
it's Russian language and mathematics, and two by their choice. And then they move on to
a secondary general education stage. And there, at the end of this stage, they have to take really serious exams
they're called... Unified State Exam. It's a translation of
yediniy gosudarstvenniy ekzamen. The structure of this exam is very
similar to
SAT or ACT with one huge difference. There are about 10 such exams
specifically tuned for every subject. And the subjects include-- And these are all topics that are being now taught
in school, in high school. By the way, the last two years are kind of
reminiscent of American high school. Russian language, math, four foreign languages:
English, French, German and Spanish, physics, chemistry, biology, geography, literature, history, social science,
and computer science. You may mak
e a choice. So the test consists of three parts. A, B and C. First one is very easy, like multiple choice,
then the last part C is really hard. For example in math, students must do proofs. In, for example, Russian language,
they need to write composition. And actually, all this composition is
being checked by someone there. So next, after the school, or actually
during the school, this is a small deviation, so depending on abilities, someone, for example,
doesn't pass the state exam what does o
ne do? Well, kids can divert and go study
to become qualified workers but they may not pass exams
in the 9th grade, one diversion, and after the 11th grade,
the second diversion. They also may want to continue
with their higher education in non university-related intuitions
to become nurses or technicians. And then, certainly,
they also can choose two paths. So, before, in the former Soviet Union,
only one path was available. You could become a specialist, which is like
a mixture of bachelor a
nd master degree. But recently, Russia joined
the Bologna Process. You know, European countries
agreed to introduce unified standards of higher education qualifications. And there, so what is the difference
is actually between specialist and having, like,
a Bachelor and Master in Russian. bakkalavrin, magista. Specialists, you enter the university and
both degrees you get from the same university, but if you want to choose
either Master or Bachelor, you can take Master courses
in one and then
Bachelor in the other which, I mean, the order is wrong.
Bachelor in the one and Master in the other. So there is a way to actually
jump between universities, which was not possible
in the former Soviet Union. So next... It's standard next step those who want to continue, like with PhD,
it's called candidat nauk in Russian, they need to also pass some entrance exams
of... to start this post-doctor studies and also-- here is kind of interesting,
there is one extra degree for advanced scientist
s so called doktor nauk, and there is no analogy
either in the United States or in Britain but there is analogy in Germany.
So there is doctor A, doctor B. So this is the degree that people get
when they're, like, more than fifty years old, just they have a big scientific group, so it's just to reestablish
their standing in the scientific community. So, let me say a couple of words about Moscow State University
and St. Petersburg State University. I've shown you this numbers about budgets.
So here is an interesting number. You probably remember,
there are 1700 plus state-supported universities. 20% of education budget of the country
goes to support just two. It's direct, kind of, deposit.
Government just write the check. And the idea actually is not... that um... strange, because you know there was
a turmoil transition period, I will talk about it more. But the country must guarantee that
competency in some very special areas related to, for example, military,
to industry, to sci
ence, to medicine, must be somehow preserved. The only way to do it is to really
pay directly to these universities and preserve both educational
|and research groups. No other way around it. So, how does one enter
Moscow State University? I think this will be interesting to hear
there are some similarities but also subtle differences between, like, entrance in the universities
in the United States and in Russia. For every department, like in Moscow University, they decide which ones
of these
unified state exams need to be taken by the student to enter. Because, same as after the 9th grade, after 11th grade the compulsory exams,
along the Russian and mathematics, but then students take all of the
other subject exams dependent on which part they want to pursue
in their future profession. So usually, one has to take at least
four, five, six such state exams, so they gather their grades,
bring them to the university, and also, each department
administers it's own exams. One, two or t
hree,
depending on the department. Then all the scores are then summed up, and they decide depending on how many
students applied, what is the cut-off value. Unlike the United States,
where everything is really, like, private, personal, no one knows what grade point average is
of the student, so forth, all these grades are posted
in the open on the web. Anyone, you don't need to have any password, here's the department.
You go there, here is the names. You know who's above you, who is below y
ou.
Cut-off value is established. Everyone knows who is in who is out, essentially. More than that, no extra-curricular activities,
no... nothing like an essay is needed. They tried, really, very hard to fight corruption. You see, how do you assess the essay? Whether the student, him or herself?
Or does this really reflect real person behind it? In this sense, just look at it, by the way,
in terms of athletics also. If you want to really--
your athletics to be counted, you go to a special insti
tute that does it. But, for example, Moscow State University now,
no one cares. So it is this cut-off. And you can imagine some departments
may be very, very, very popular. So the best students
from all over the country come and they bring the highest grades ever right? So, to accommodate the students
who are very good, but didn't make it to the very high cut,
they now admit in addition to, by the way, at Moscow University,
education is free. The number of this free space is limited, but that
's where the competition is going on,
for these free spots, and if their scores are still high
but below the cut-off, the student has a choice. Actually, he or she can continue,
but they have to pay. And there... As of last year, the, I think,
price was $10000, about, per year. No matter what department you were in. So, because their scores are so high,
they think it's, kind of, a good subsidy, that if someone didn't make it,
it probably was not their fault, but popularity of the department. But
because additional resources are needed
to teach these additional students, that is how the additional amount justified. And another interesting thing,
if you think, not about Moscow State University, but other institutions of higher education,
they're um... mostly STEM subjects. This is science, technology,
engineering, and math, they are free. But, if you want to study liberal arts, like law,
economics, you almost for sure have to pay. But there are some very interesting departments.
For
example, in Moscow State University, there is a
Department of Government Administration. So you can imagine, if you get there,
which is practically impossible, you need to go to work in the government.
Um... So... The system actually as I describe it, So...
The system, actually, as I describe it, especially if you look at these books
schematically, looks very logical; very nice, so why is the crisis? And um... The appearance of the crisis
is really easy to understand if we see that... I mean
, in 1917 there was
a very hard transition from Capitalism-- I mean early Capitalism, to Socialism.
Now imagine there is like [laughs]... uh... rolled back from Socialist to Capitalism.
In the Soviet Union everything was planned. So there were huge needs from
heavy industry, military industry, and every place in every university
also was planned. This-- Everything was free, from Kindergarten,
through school, through university. But if the state pays, state decides who to admit, what will be t
aught,
and where these people will go to work. There's interesting system
because not only every graduate was guaranteed work after graduation,
but they were obliged to work at at a particular position, particular place for
three years to kind of pay back for the education. The industry was so huge that also every single
graduate was somehow allocated. Um... Because of the needs of heavy industry,
STEM areas of education were very strong, you know, research groups
in the former Soviet Union;
Soviet Union math, physics
were of extremely high level. But social political sciences were not.
Actually, no new ideas were needed. They needed to justify why, like,
this socialist state will never change. [chuckles] Then, and you cannot, maybe, even believe it, even half a year before the collapse,
no one felt that something was going to happen. That is what may worry us about where
there are this sign, there a sign, but truly it seems that life is going on
without any change. But then, same
as with Finland,
overnight this whole thing disintegrated and immediately the educational system,
for several years, operated as before. Produced a lot of engineers, a lot of scientists
that were not needed anymore. Not only they were not guaranteed employment, but, actually, there were no places to work
because of a crisis in economics, and because many industries
were just shut down. So, um, one may think... Engineers were all produced. Who was needed for the new kind of companies,
new ind
ustries? There were no lawyers, no economists,
accountants, and so forth. But here is the problem. Who will teach these lawyers
when even the laws were not written? So it's a very, very big problem.
So here is where this transition process started. And, in fact, it went very, very, very slowly.
And controversially, because for about 15 out of these 20 years,
there was no clear direction. So, "where is Russia going to go?" The feeling was that,
"well, we changed the political system, Sociali
st to Capitalist,
and everything will immediately blossom. It didn't happen, you can imagine.
There were two Chechan wars. There was this privatisation of industry that
left many citizens really disgruntled. So only recently they started gradually
to figure out where Russia wants to go. And as I said, this is a topic
for a different discussion. But the main reason for this crisis
was exactly this discontent between the needs of the new society
and old educational system. Well... 4.8% of th
e budget of the country
for education is not that much. The needs of people for education were huge,
but there was not ever enough resources. In fact, for all this 20 years, one of the least prestigious jobs was--
or kind of occupations, was a teacher. Miniscule salaries. even professors at universities,
they didn't make much, except for two universities:
Moscow State and St. Petersburg State. Then, here are the problems. A lot of entrepreneurs appeared who thought, "Well, education is a commodi
ty!
If there is a need let us provide it." So a lot of new institutions and universities
were opened, many of them for profit, and they didn't care much about either
quality for admission or quality for education. As long as you pay, "well here is diploma!"
You pay at the beginning, you pay at the end; you pay every step of the way, uh...
Then the question is, I mean, how do you attract people?
How do you trick them into believing that they're getting a good education?
So here is the big que
stion about rebranding. Recently, a minister of education
that is responsible for accreditation, looked through all the universities
that this state supported, and they came up with at least 126
that are not efficient. These are three of those. Now look at the names. Moscow State University
of Technology Adminstration, Moscow State University
of Design and Technology, Moscow State University of Environmental
Engineering and there is, like, a list of 126... During the Soviet time,
there was e
xactly one Moscow State University. If you say Moscow State University
everyone knows what you are talking about. But this was like a sneaky marketing way
to try to deceive students, especially the one who came—
the ones who came from outside Moscow who didn't know which university was that... And because of that, now,
when we talk about Moscow State University we use 'Lamanosov Moscow State University,'
intentionally. This name, by the way,
was attached to the university for a long time. Univ
ersity was named after one
of the prominent Russian scientists, of the 18th century.
But no one used this name before, because there was one Moscow State University.
Now there are many. And, in fact, it's interesting,
because it made me also think about this rebranding stuff. What is so special about
each particular university and it's culture? Why we cannot just take a two year college
somewhere in the Midwest and then call it
Harvard University of the West. I mean, is it fair-- maybe it is
.
By the way, I am not saying it cannot be done, but one has to realize that for this to be indeed
Harvard University of the West, investments must be comparable
to those of Harvard and I want to explain why. The bigger question is this:
What distinguishes one university from the other? Why, I mean, someone goes to
University of Montana versus somewhere else? And, in fact, Russian history gives very, kind of, interesting answer to this question. So if you think whether location matters, for e
xample, Moscow State University
located in Moscow who cares one or the other? Whether buildings, so new buildings,
old buildings, you know, in Jubilee they build something that reminds you of, like,
old Great Britain right? No, it doesn't, because during the World War II,
Great-- or Tragic War, as it's called in Russia, Moscow State University was not in Moscow.
First it was moved to Ashgabat, then to Sverdlovsk for several years,
and still, it remained Moscow State University. No one had an
y doubts.
It does not become Ashgabat State University. Whether people matter.
So say, "Well, people make up the university." Not quite, because 100 years ago
all the people were different; it was still Moscow State University. Uh, this is not a type of lecture. I mean, if you were students I would say,
"how do you think what it is?" I am not going to ask this question. [chuckles] So, university, one from the other
is distinguished by traditions. How faculty are hired,
how educational programs
are being developed, what is, overall, the culture of the university. Then, one may ask,
"Who stands behind this tradition?" "Who is responsible for keeping it?"
And, well obviously, administrators. Here we go back to Russian history. You know, during transition from
Capitalism to Socialism in 1917, you can imagine all the administrators
were changed due to political reasons. but there was nowhere to get new professors. Professors are the same. [chuckles] So they were the same
before revolution
and after revolution. The same happened, by the way, during the second transition
from Socialism to Capitalism. Immediately, all the administration was changed. The University, still it stayed,
Moscow State University. Still, high quality of education. Because professors are the ones
who stay with a university the longest, they bring in the colleagues, they mentor them, they really show the example
of what real education is about. So, um... Administrators are extremely important.
They must be th
ere. They must identify, as I told you, the crisis,
the problems, the goals. To make sure that goals they put forward
are ambitious but reachable and correspond to the goals of the society. If, somehow, there is miscontent,
misunderstanding of what the real goal is, then university will not survive. Talking about ten years, fifty years into the future. So um... let us move on. Another important question, I would like to
make this remark about the meaning of education because more and more I see
, on the internet,
on TV, ads of these for profit institutions. Not only in America, all over the world,
certainly in Russia. That, um, say, "Well, you take all these online courses,
it's very nice. You'll, in the comfort of your own home,
cheaply, get this great education. We'll give you a certificate;
it's as good as attending the real university." I think it is a little bit deceiving because
when they say that with this diploma you make so much more
money over your lifetime I think the order
of events is somehow mixed.
The diploma, certificate, degree... This is just a result of your hard work. The ones who worked hard,
struggled through material, eventually made it, they make more money
because they work better. And certificate is a secondary indication
of what has happened. But this is not how this is
perceived or presented in the media. Then, another question immediately rises. These massive online offerings, courses. Huge number of for profits
but some non-profit, uh, universi
ties as well, try to jump this wagon of online offerings.
And you've heard the quote at the beginning, "in ten years ten million students
will be enrolled," and so forth. Um... Here is the question that I also
briefly addressed at the beginning. In this new world, whether there is still place for
traditional education or will it die? Whether there is a place, in this new world,
for the University of Montana? And here is the time and place to say
"yes, there is a place." Because those who try
to promote
these massive online courses, they completely misunderstand
the character of contemporary education. See, even twenty years ago, before computers,
remembering; memorizing something was really important
because information was scarce, did not know how to get it.
You need to carry a lot of stuff in your head. Now, you can google everything.
And the problem, no, it is... [inaudible] in my classes when I tell students, 'google it,'
they say, "well, we feel it's like cheating." Try googl
ing.
For every word you get one million entries! If you spend one second per entry,
this will be half of your life. So, it's... The new world is overflowing with information. You need to navigate through it.
You need to be able to find information, absorb it, analyze it,
and make conclusions, make decisions, fast. And that is exactly what online courses
may or may not provide. See, I've been... There's only a few universities
I showed you at the beginning that I've visited, I've been to many mor
e. And I'm telling you, the University of Montana does not provide expertise in every possible,
kind of, area of knowledge, but in the areas where we have expertise,
we give education that is absolutely on the level of the best universities
in the United States; in the world. However, one may ask, why then
students want to go to Harvards and Stanfords? And the answer to this question
may surprise you a little bit. At least, if you think back.
I don't know whether it looks, um... Kind of convinci
ng or not,
but from my viewpoint, many go there to establish horizontal connections that will carry them through
for the rest of their lives. Many of them,
they do not go there for the education. It's like advertised marketed gathering place for active, ambitious people
where businessmen come. And not only educators, but politicians.
Many are looking for spouses, and this is kind of a good meeting place.
But if you think about real education, special as that, not just America or Montana,
but th
e whole world will need. These are not, necessarily, the ones who will be
produced by these massive online courses. So what, in fact, is needed is-- and that's why I think,
for University of Montana, there is a place, if we concentrate really on high quality education that emphasizes things
that you cannot get on the internet What are they?
How to solve open ended problem. How to think.
How to work in groups. How to communicate.
This is what University of Montana must be about if it wants to su
rvive in the near—
I mean, in the far future. In the near future we'll survive. Um... And um... See, there are so many things to say,
I can go and go. At some point probably, I need to stop
and maybe it is good to start a discussion. I am not over yet though [laughs] One of the very important skills
that students must learn is a skill how to learn.
Learn to learn. Recently, I read this book of Thomas Friedman,
The World is Flat. Which exactly address these questions of... You know, how to surviv
e in this competition economic, political, in the current world where you compete
not with your next door neighbor. See, it was kind of sad once in The Missoulian.
They published a letter from some kids I think from Polson, that said,
"Well we work hard we have great work ethic, but we cannot perform well on SAT
because our teachers are not that good. What are we to do?" And indeed I would say,
"yes let us just award good work ethic." Except the problem is they are not competing
with kids from
Missoula. They're competing with kids from
China, India; Russia. Why I would end next to this book snapshot, a photograph of Konstantin Oshansky,
the founder of Scientific Pedagogy in Russia? The fact that students need learn how to learn was first introduced by Oshansky 150 years ago. So all these new ideas are either very
well-forgotten or not noticed ideas from the past. Also, one would ask, what type of educated people
are needed by the contemporary society to survive in this global competit
ion? I talked to a lot of business people.
In America; in Russia; elsewhere... Wherever I go! I like to talk. And here is what all of them said. They do not care, truly, what the topic of
their major is, or whatever dissertation. They need students, employees that are smart
in a general sense. Never ever in the new environment,
in changing technology, you will ever get a task that is the same that
they taught you at school are at the university. They're are all new.
You need to be able to adjus
t fast. They must be honest.
And they must be active. This is absolutely not possible to check online. No matter how you try. So, in a sense, if the University of Montana
can put in place some educational activities
that will work as filters to identify these people this is how we can produce the best
employers; the best workers for the future world. Crisis is not yet over. Neither in Russia, nor in Ireland,
nor in many other places. But, I think I started with,
that crisis, in fact, is good, be
cause institutions really need to regroup,
to readjust; to kind of find the right goals. And, why I decided to talk about crisis here, now we're in the middle of crisis.
This university, they have to cut budgets. I have a strong feeling that crisis is good
because this is time not to climb but to invest. We now, if the goal is foot forward,
I'm not saying we need to use our own money, but we need to convince the legislature
of the state of Montana. We can bring the best people
from the United St
ates; from all over the world at comparatively small prices,
that will be happy to come and work here. And actually guarantee that we put together
a high quality education system and make it one of the best
universities in the area. I mean maybe, like, the whole Northwest.
But the realization must be there that there must be first a plan,
then there are several routes to achieve it. The short, straightforward one,
the longer one. We can-- oops. We can chose the optimal one. But, I would say it
is something
that needs to be certainly considered. Also, I would like to say a couple of words
about the role of education both for individuals and the society. It's very interesting that,
if you think of it for every person, I mean, if you do not care what happens globally,
why education is important. Not only because your life will become
more fulfilling, more interesting, but because it may serve as a social lifter—
a social elevator. Can certainly bring you
more money over the lifetime.
But, even more than that,
In this post-industrial society, just think what are the main jobs;
what are the main opportunities there? Material world is finite.
How many hamburgers can we eat? How many cars you can drive at the same time?
How many houses you own? Well, it could be big, but still finite. But what are the type of goods
that may be produced and consumed infinitely? It's up to you
how much you want to produce and consume. There's cultural and intellectual ones. The important part here
is that
we just need to make sure that we do not lower the quality of the schools
to the level of an uneducated population. But, on the contrary, try to rise the level
of education to the level of the best pieces of art, theatre, and literature,
and so forth... And for the society, I would say, um... There, for me from my view point,
the role for the society is that it is something that guarantees that
society eventually survives. I can talk much, much longer. But I would prefer to stop here
an
d actually start a discussion. (applause) (female proctor)
Okay, do we have some questions? Okay, Chris. (Chris) Leonid, from what you said
about applications to Russian universities, it struck me that one applies
not to the university but to a department. (Kalachev)
Yes, to department; you cannot switch. (Chris):
Presumably, the model there is that young people going to the university
are put into a particular category and that's it. Or can they switch around? (Leonid)
Well, later they can swit
ch around. But, uh, it is easy to understand
why they need to apply to particular departments. For example, if you're um... Kind of want to do
natural sciences versus humanities, there you have to pass
this unified state exam of a different type. For example, it could be
literature, social science, geography, versus physics, mathematics, chemistry. And its absolutely not possible for one person
to pass all, I don't know, 10 or 12 exams. They at most go and take six. And because of specializatio
n
within the departments, they try not mix. Yes, you apply for the department;
later actually, you can switch. But you need to reapply, pass new exams. They will not take you
unless you bring in the scores. Yes? (male audience member)
Um, one of the things that I think the University of Montana
does really well is, um, encourage students from other countries
to come here. Is there much exchange between students
at the Russian college and universities? Do they come to America to study? (Leonid)
T
hey do, so... Well, when exchanges are involved, you can imagine they must occur
on the basis of reciprocity. Let me start with the exchanges
that are now quite active. For example, with the university College Cork. For some reason, there are many more students that want to go from here to
Cork than from Cork here. I mean, I don't know, I'm not going into details. But there is always a headache to kind of
make sure that, financially, there is equilibrium. So we came up with a new model. So-call
ed dual delivery courses.
Where we offer some courses that are taught at the University of Montana
and at the same time online for students at Cork. They take it and, hopefully, the formula is that for five students
that take our courses from Cork online, one real-life student goes there on exchange. What I'm saying is that, with Russia, uh,
there is exchange, but their financial issues is a problem. In our department recently we, for example,
we relocated half of one of TA to bring a good stude
nt here to study. We had one such student,
a graduate student, last semester. But this is more or less the extent of it,
at least in Mathematical Sciences department. But opportunities are there as long as
we realize them and work towards them. (male audience member, Russian)
Well, I have observation of Russian system for 40 years or more, and I know it contributed to
the international education of a lot of people. (Leonid)
Yes (male audience member)
Asia, Africa used to come. Does this traditio
n continue now? Are students from Africa, Asia
coming to Russia to study? (Leonid)
Um... So this is absolutely a separate aspect
of education I was mostly talking about So this is absolutely
a separate aspect of education. I was mostly talking about STEM subjects; only
touched on political, social science, humanities. But political influence, kind of,
education of elites of different countries to make sure that they accept your culture,
yeah this was big. This is big in the United States.
This
was big in the Soviet Union. Um, now, it's not big in Russia.
No one cares. So, you see, before 1991,
there was a goal, like, Socialism everywhere. Like, now for America,
Capitalism, market democracy everywhere. But now Russia doesn't have any such goal,
they just want to survive. And, as I told you, for 20 years
there was no goal at all. Now, at least, they are settling down,
finding their place in the world. Finding what educational system
should correspond to it. So I would say they look at
educating foreign students as a burden. But, the nice thing is that if any American
wants to enter Moscow State University, they can do it for free. Go take all these exams.
Here is the cut-off. You are in. [chuckling] (female proctor)
Leonid. We in my department tend to have a Russian Fulbright student
who comes every year. We've had it for the past four or five years. This year we weren't able to get one
because there was so much demand for them and there aren't so many of them
who want to tra
vel. (Leonid)
Yes. (proctor): But it's really been a joy
to have them in our department. (Leonid)
Yeah, good to hear that. (proctor)
Yeah. Anybody? More questions? (female audience member) What's the ratio of male to female students in Russian universities? (Leonid)
Um... it depends on the department So, in physics department I think
for every female there are five males. In economics exactly opposite.
So it's not university wide. It's very department related
and connected, so... In humanities m
ore women;
in science and engineering more men. Yes? (male audience member)
Leonid, is Russia developing a system of private universities akin to ours? Separate from these
non-profit institutions that are show— Or these for profit universities
that are showing up? (Leonid) Um... you see,
now even state-supported universities can charge tuition, as I told you. And sometimes it is explicit tuition;
sometimes it is hidden tuition. For example, if they write exams,
like we have finals here, they al
so have finals at the end of each semester. If you do not pass, you do not have, like, F,
but you are allowed to take it another time. But you need to pay. You can take it as many times as you want
and each time, you pay. So there are several really high quality
private universities yes, but um... Like Independent University of Moscow,
for example. Uh... but their financial structure is tricky. You see, they, I would say much more,
exist using some supportive donors because to get really good ed
ucation,
in fact, it's very expensive. And the students usually do not have
this amount of money, so they need to rely on some external support. But-- So these are not for profit,
but they're private, and they exist. (male audience member #2):
You gave a very good explanation of the benefits of an education
in a university environment, as opposed to sitting home
and doing it on a computer. But my question is:
do young people see those advantages? (Leonid)
No. But... you see, that's exactly the p
oint. Why aren't they seeing these advantages? We're bombarded with
so much information every day... So, I've heard another lecture,
I think at the University of Montana. It was interesting. It was mentioned that every two days
the amount of information produced is equal to the amount of [inaudible]
produced from the beginning of time until 2004. So the most valuable resource
that people have is their time. Try to Google something without
some advertisement popping onto you. And here, I mean, h
ow do you
get through to the students early enough to explain that education is needed,
it's not too late, right? Uh, it is certainly a big problem. I would say I have some ideas, you see... It's a topic for another lecture.
How to reach these kids. But, as of now, I think its not being done enough. See, I think prestige of the university is important. Cheaper, more expensive
is important. But we need to emphasize, really, the quality. The values of quality education
in a kind of a different fo
rmat. And why no one is doing it?
I have no idea, truly. Because it's a joy, you see,
to see how the world works. Let me explain it like this.
Every day we have to make moral choices. How do you make moral choice without thinking? Either religion or philosophy. How do you make sure that
when you make the moral choice you can, kind of, follow through with it? You need education. You can have a good idea, but if you don't know what to do with it, where you are going? So education gives you this po
wer. Somehow, I have no idea why,
we do not reach to the kids and explain that. (male audience member)
I have a question. Are there technical schools in Russia
and are they private or stated financed? (Leonid)
Yes. So there are technical schools. Very famous one: Phsyical Technical Institute in Moscow
is one of those. This is on the level of MIT. Frankly, everyone who wants to go there,
graduates to work in the United States, they immediately give them a Visa. And this is state-supported. Runni
ng a technical university
is a very expensive proposition. Unfortunately, most of their private of for-profit universities, they are related to law, economics, liberal arts, and so forth. Uh, and um... I don't know, its like
hard to say why this has happened, because maybe criteria of
what is good education, for example in liberal arts, is harder to establish. In technical it's easy. You go to work;
you either can do it or you can't, right? But it's not so easy in liberal arts maybe. (female aud
ience member) I'd be interested
to know what the graduation rate is. (Leonid)
Graduation rate is very high. Because, you see,
if you pass all these entrance exams, tests; unified state exams,
you're practically ready. And I would say,
it's maybe 95% at the minimum to 98%. Well certainly, there are people who are sick,
there are people who change their mind, but usually they don't,
because you really have to work hard to enter. And then you do not just throw it away. No. Not anymore.
You have to
look for job. But, see, the state thinks of it as follows: We need to have a pool of these able people
that, if needed, they're available. They may not be needed in Russia,
they may be needed in United States. Yeah, here they are. Yes? (female audience member)
I just had a much easier question. What's the percent of students
who actually then go to the technical schools who go to the universities? Out of all of the population. (Leonid)
Um I would say, no more than 10%. (female audience member #
2)
Okay, so you take the top 10%. (Leonid)
Right. Yes. You see, let me explain maybe a couple more things about
Moscow State University. Over the years how do you know
that the kids are ready? Right? For example, in America,
how do you know that someone is ready to play on a football team?
There is a whole series of, how do you say, Well, this ones faster,
and we move him to the next school, and then this one throws better,
and we, kind of, give him a scholarship uh... In Russia, at least in the
soviet time,
there was a system that tried to identify talented kids very early;
at a very early age. When I worked at Moscow State University
for two years, actually I was one of those who went to small villages
or small cities and we conducted exams. Physics, mathematics.
And we knew that teachers there, in that village, they may not be really that good.
But, these were not written exams but oral. We were looking at how kids could think.
So if we see a talented kid, we immediately give him
f
ull scholarship and move him to special-- to a school affiliated with Moscow State University that taught specifically physics and mathematics. And they started in the eighth grade. They were studying for four years
and, immediately without any exams, entered the university.
So, the system must be in place that can identify, same as talented athletes,
talented kind of students that will be need for technical specialties. I can give you, if you don't mind,
one more example. You see, why these cr
itical skills are needed. You know, there was this Chernobyl
catastrophe in Russia a while ago. And imagine, a similar catastrophe actually happened in Fukushima recently, in Japan. And here is this predictive fumes coming out,
going towards Western Europe, and the question is this. Does one build a [inaudible],
a cap over this reactor? Or will it blow up?
Will it hold? Or will it blow up?
Will it hold? Imagine, in all the world,
America, Russia, wherever... Are there scientists
who say, "Yes. I
take responsibility. I will put together a model.
I do computation. I tell you, very easy, yes or no." There was a group, a commission of Maslov. Any money is available here,
gathered 14 people, and they were able to put together model. You can actually read about it.
They wrote a book about it. Scientific book. Now they can use it in Fukushima.
It's not a lost cause. And they said that these are the characteristics;
if you put it together it will not blow up. And it didn't. I hope in America t
here is such group or people
who can take responsibility if needed. But I'm sure, frankly, nowhere,
any other country, except for maybe Britain, France, Germany, United, States and Russia. No one else has such level of scientists. Humankind as a whole needs
these groups to survive. (female audience member #3):
In the United States, we have a lot of non-traditional students.
People that decide that they've done something for ten years
and they want to go back and do something else. How much does
that happen in Russia? (Leonid)
Uh... it does happen, but only a little. [chuckles] Because there are some specialties
that you can easily change, others are almost impossible. Like if one wants to be ballerina.
You really have to start very early. Even if person loves to be ballerina.
But they missed this opportunity. So yes, this happened.
And I know several such people, but... It is easy becomes more and more easy
but still very rare let's say. (male audience member):
Yeah, I've got a questi
on. Historically, a lot of big social changes
start in universities. You said that there was no inkling
of this social paradigm that was going to tumble in Russia. And so, was there any sort of
student movement going on there? And then I've got a second question, too,
that I'd like to throw in. Just... You'd talked about preparing students
to fulfill needs that businesses have and typically businesses solve problems
where they can make a profit. And one really important function that I see
educa
tional institutions as doing is providing society with pure science. Global warming's a prime example. There's profit to be lost by dealing with that,
not profit to be made... You know, in the scientific community it's been accepted fact forever. And... business doesn't want to deal with it. If we continue to create people who
simply do what those businesses want, you know, that may not be what's best
for the world, but... So two separate things. One going back; one looking forward. (Leonid)
Oka
y. One looking back. Uh, no. There was not much about
student movement that effected the changes. Certainly, students did participate in everything
as soon as these changes started to happen, but I think it was much more related to
deep economic discrepancies within the system. Wrong balance between, like,
money that came in from, for example, oil and had to be paid for militarization and so forth. So, the answer to your first question is no. Um, the answer to the second question is um... Thank
you very much by the way,
everyone had great questions. Uh, it's um... That was a long kind of question
and a long answer. Because... How do we know that
we teach students correctly? You know, in math it's kind of easy.
You set up the problem and it has the answer, sometimes it doesn't though. But in social sciences, even in literature,
when they teach... Similarly, everyone is entitled to an opinion. Why opinion of the student is less important
Than the opinion of the professor, right? But, if
you think about the set-up of the education what we're trying to teach our kids,
you see, we try to prepare them for the real world Which could be brutal. Huge competition. And in fact, in a test they make a choice. And just they get B instead of A, or F.
In real life, the consequences are much harsher. So in fact, one way to look at um... How we can prepare the students correctly,
kind of, for the real world, is think of many questions they need to address. As, kind of, ones that will have con
sequences. What will happen if you not just have an opinion
but you have to act on your opinion. So, in this sense, whether this is a business
or this is, like, a socially important thing, this is how we need to teach our students. So, yeah, global warming is something
if I not just say, "well, this is how I think." Do what you think,
see what the consequences are. And if, each time, when
a student or professor have to make a choice, in every, kind of, action, every situation,
and they bet a dol
lar, I am telling you, professors will always be
on the money and students will be the losers. And that is the difference. (male audience member #2)
I've had some contact with dentists coming from training in Russia
and coming to the United States and I look at their ethical, and their...
how they practice. And basically, I come away
and I've heard them saying that, "'Well, we do it this way until we're caught." Meaning that it's just substandard and not something that we would be proud of
here
in the United States. How with the high level of pride
to get into the schools in Russia and then they come out with this kind of ethics... would you comment on that?
And this might be just a narrow window, But my opinion is that
the ethical delivery system is substandard. (Leonid)
Yes. And I want to say a couple of words about it. There are two professions that are historically, starting from Soviet times, are underpaid, underappreciated,
and overall not respected. The ones related to education
,
another, related to medicine. These were, during the Soviet Union, two professions, completely state supported,
on the minimal possible budget. So, these sub- kind of -ethical standards is a result of neglect by the society
In terms of school education and basic medicine. That's what we now see. So if you compare ethical American doctor
and his salary and an ethical Russian and his salary there,
you will be really surprised. It's people are working for free. Certainly they... promise to help p
eople, provide care as much as they can. But, you know,
sometimes medical pills are not available. It's the whole system doesn't work.
It's not just the people. So you're right. (woman):
I was just, um, thinking about how philanthropy plays such an important part,
in at least higher education in the United States, and I'm wondering if now,
in these years since '91, whether philanthropy has become
an important source of support (Leonid) Um, thank you very much,
that's a very interesting question.
The answer is no. But, and here is the interesting thing. You know there is a Nobel Prize,
for example, right? For... everyone knows what it is. And there is Nobel Prize
in physics, chemistry, literature... Recently, a couple of Russian oligarchs, one name I can remember is Milner,
and also, um... Several billionaires from America,
from Facebook, from Yahoo, established a new type of medal or award
for achievements in physics, They really want to make science exciting,
and in medicine. One awar
d is three times more than, um,
Nobel Prize. They just have a committee, call people, everyone who got this award recently that last one was given out like a month ago,
Three million dollars. They thought it's a hoax. No, it isn't. So everyone is used to giving
fellowships to sports and so forth, we need to make sure that science,
medicine; achievement of an intellectual type is important and exciting. And talking about philanthropy, the person who started it is a Russian oligarch. Millionaire.
Russian oligarch. Billionaire.
So... (proctor)
More questions? Okay. (female audience member #4)
I'd be interested in hearing more about your ideas for making University of Montana
the best in the Northwest. Maybe concentrate on the ideas
you would bring from Russian schools. (Leonid) Thank you very much
for that question, but this is so big. Uh... You know what, um, I really prefer not to
speak about, in detail, on the spot. Let me explain. Because this is what I was just talking about. If you
say something you need to act on that. We already, right now, do everything possible
to make University of Montana the best. The question is how to get the word out. Um... So, in the time of budget cuts, I would prefer to kind of...
have a special separate meeting about this. [laughter] So... No, we're being video recorded.
See, ideas have nothing-- No, let me explain... ideas have nothing
if they're not backed by financial commitments. Yeah, anyone can have great ideas. But there is, kind of, g
ood idea, then there is understanding by the society
that it's a good idea, then there is financial backing,
and then plan to get the result. Finally, the result. So we're now trying to come up with the ideas of how to survive the budget cuts. It's a very interesting discussion. We just had a departmental meeting today, and several mathematicians are here,
they were present. So, some of these ideas
may seem crazy but they will work. I also better not to say anything on the camera, because they'r
e very non-traditional! So, we really love the University of Montana, we want it to succeed and prosper
and we work hard in this direction, so I'm sure we'll prevail. (female audience member #5)
The report that you mentioned from Purdue, was that from the new president? (Leonid)
Yes, yes. It's not a report it's an open letter. Open letter of University of Purdue president, right. (female audience member #5) And was he recruited specifically to turn things around? (Leonid)
To do something, yes he
was--- (female audience member #5)
his reputation... (Leonid)
Right, so not only he introduces criticism, but he also has a plan.
One, two, three, four what needs to be done. Actually, that's what we're already doing.
This is the good news. At the University of Montana. (female audience member #5):
Are there still any students that come from the former Soviet Republics to Russia; Moscow? (Leonid)
Yes, there are. Um, I would say... At Moscow State University they admit
at least 50 Ukrainians eve
ry year. Yes, there are not so much ties
with Africa, Asia, and so forth... But they are certainly very tied to relationships
with the countries of the former Soviet Union. Uh... a lot of students come from Central Asia... Yes. The answer is yes. (proctor)
Any more questions? Well, um, maybe I could give you
a couple of directions. When we leave here and go out into the lobby, turn left go all the way down to the end of the hall,
then turn left again, and you'll find yourself in
the area where w
e're having the refreshments, and where we'll be able to talk
a little bit further with professor Kalachev So, thank you very much, it was wonderful. (Leonid)
Thank you very much! (applause)
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