About 100 Russian-speaking youngsters from around the world are visiting Kazan on August 13th - 19th.
The program was launched by Rossotrudnichestvo in 2014. It involves teenagers who have won contests in Russian history and culture. 700 young compatriots visit Moscow, Saint-Petersburg, and Kazan each year. This time Kazan is welcoming 100 people from Armenia, Abkhazia, Greece, Czechia, Hungary, Serbia, Bulgaria, Italy, and Denmark.
Manager of Hello Russia in Kazan Darya Smirnova told us, “One of the points in their itinerary is a visit to a prominent university which could represent Russian education. Kazan University is such university, one of the best in Russia and one which can easily compete with overseas universities. This is one of the most technologically advanced higher education institutions, giving its alumni many opportunities. Several guys who visited in previous years enrolled in Kazan University”.
After visiting institutes, labs, and the History Museum the delegation proceeded to meet with Rector Ilshat Gafurov. He touched on the University’s history and current strategy. As it appears, many of the young guests have heard about KFU before. The Rector opined that this is thanks to international rankings, “We take part in the major rankings, and you can see that they have placed us highly. We continue to grow, increase our research and publications which are issued in English from the start. We move, and we move steadily. You can look at subject rankings – we are in the top-5 in the country in many of them”.
The conversation included feedback from the visitors – they used this opportunity to answer some pertinent questions. One girl asked about quotas for international students. The answer was that the quotas are distributed both by Rossotrudnichestvo and by interested countries. Of course, anyone can also try to enroll by themselves. Many foreign nationals have done one of the above – this year the number is supposed to exceed 5,000 individuals. Of course, the University’s preparatory school is open for those who need to catch up on their Russian.
A guest from Czechia inquired about teaching in Tatar language. The Rector answered that about 950 students currently study in Tatar in one form or another.
Mikhail Varfolomeev, Chairman of the Council of Young Scientists and Head of SAU EcoOil, talked about the Open Labs system and research opportunities.
The meeting was scheduled for one hour but took almost twice that time. The delegation then moved to the KFU Observatory and Planetarium.
As a result of the visit, about half of the youngsters expressed their interest in choosing KFU for their further studies.
15-year-old Lev Goryachev from Denmark commented, “This is a very beautiful and green city; I liked everything very much”.
19-year-old Alexandra Ilyina is a freshman of National and Kapodistrian University of Athens, and she doesn’t exclude the possibility of coming to Russia for employment. She said, “I like Kazan very much. It’s a big developing city. It’s welcoming for foreigners”.
17-year-old Daniel Palumbo from Italy is half-Russian – on his mother's side. He has been to Moscow, but it’s his first time in Kazan. He shared that he was especially impressed by the city’s architecture.
Heads of student groups are also very content with what they have seen so far.