What Makes Getting Higher Education Abroad Appealing?

Whenever I hear the words “higher education”, I think of a great variety of opportunities that students have nowadays. It is quite possible to go to any country of the world and to enroll to any institution of higher education. Not very long ago it used to be only children of the rich and powerful people who could travel abroad to broaden their education. Among the young very few people had a good command of a foreign language. All this created natural obstacles to get higher education abroad. Recently, however, the situation has changed and lots of institutions of higher learning welcome students from all over the world, no matter what their cultural, educational or family background is. The possibility to enlarge their scope and life experience, to improve their language knowledge attracts many young people. However, the differences in higher education are not so crucial to prefer any foreign institution to a Russian one.

Firstly, there is no great difference in organization of higher education. Let’s take, for instance the institutions of higher learning in Russia and those in America. Any of these institutions, in any category, might be either public or private depending on the source of its funding. Some universities have, over time, gained reputations for offering particularly challenging courses, for providing their students with a higher quality education. The factors determining whether an institution is one of the best or of a lower prestige are quality of the teaching faculty; quality of research facilities; amount of funding available for libraries, special programmes, etc.; and the competence and number of applicants for admission, i.e. how selective the institution can be in choosing its students.

As for the quality of higher education, Russian institutes and universities have traditionally been noted for their insightful learning, which allows getting a firm grounding in a subject. Institutions of higher education in the USA are also among those whose popularity does not lessen with the course of time. Both in the USA and Russia institutions of higher education provide wide access to knowledge. Then, what is the point in going abroad and spend hundreds of dollars on what you can get here at home? One can, probably, object to it and say that it gives you a splendid opportunity to master the language. Yes, it is true. But one can get a higher education at home and then broaden it abroad, enrolling in some college and take up an additional course for personal interest. It is both very convenient and rather cheap.

We should not forget that cultural peculiarities of a country also have their impact on the character of education. For example, new challenges and innovations in education abroad tend to be concentrated on the development of man-machine interaction, whereas in our home country the best and the most efficient way of teaching remains teacher-student interaction, because none of the most sophisticated equipment can substitute a personal touch in the process of interaction, let alone that huge rich experience which our teachers are ready to share with us and encourage us to go on in learning.

Thus, in my point of view, Russian students have a unique chance to get proper higher education at home. No doubt, there are some peculiarities of studying abroad. They are worth taking them into account. But, I believe, they are not so essential to have an influence on the quality of education. And this is the most crucial point, as far as the system of higher learning is concerned.

by Tutukina J.

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