Orenburg state university

Foreign Students about Alma-Mater

On the 16^th of February a round-table discussion “Foreign students in Orenburg society” was held in OSU. Representatives of 5 Orenburg universities (OSU, Orenburg State Medical University, Orenburg State Pedagogical University, Orenburg State Agrarian University, Orenburg State Arts Institute named after L. and M. Rostropovich) were invited.

Eduard Yasakov, Head of OSU Department for International Cooperation, emphasized that number of foreign students in university is an index for its prestige value. Eduard Vladimirovich informed that 1 119 foreign students from 18 countries are studying at OSU; 1 031 students from this number are students from Kazakhstan. Most representatives of other countries are studying at Faculties for Electrical Power Engineering, Geology and Geography, Applied Biotechnology and Engineering, Transport, Architecture and Construction.

Sergey Semenov, Prorector for Social and Educational Affairs, noticed that this round-table discussion is a great opportunity for ideas exchange and for an attempt to solve existing problems. He reported that Orenburg State University plans to organize a festival of ethnic cultures in the near future. This event will promote the further friendship of different nations that are living in Orenburg.

Venaliy Amelin, Director of Research Institute for the History and Ethnography of the Southern Urals, presented the main paper “Social portrait of the foreign student in Orenburg region”. Studies of OSU Research Institute for the History and Ethnography of the Southern Urals and OSU Sociological Laboratory in cooperation with Autonomous Non-Commercial Organization “Eurasian Nations’ Community” provided the basis for this report. The survey was conducted from January till April 2016; 350 foreigners from all universities (that were present at this meeting) were questioned. The task of scientists was to reveal which difficulties have foreign students, how is the adaptation process going, which opinion about Orenburg and Russia they have.