Mongolia highly values the level of Russian education, shows great interest in the culture of our country. There has been an increase in the number of quota places to study at Russian universities. Offline and online events organized by Rossotrudnichestvo allow the university representatives to get acquainted with school students and take part in the selection of the most talented applicants.
Acting Head of the Rossotrudnichestvo representative office in Mongolia, Acting Director of the Russian House in Ulaanbaatar Valeria Kilpyakova talks about how Mongolian young people apply to Russian universities, what majors they choose, and about many other interesting things.
8,000
Mongolian students are studying at Russian universities
≈70,000
Mongolian citizens obtained a higher education in Russia
About motivation to apply to Russian universities
The prestige of Russian higher education, despite some decline in the beginning of the post-Socialist period, is maintained at a rather high level.
Firstly, Mongolia still has the socialist-era infrastructure technologically based on Soviet/Russian standards – the Ulanbaatar railway, the Erdenet mining and processing plant, the CHP system. Maintenance and periodic update of these technologically complex facilities requires relevant specialists that can be trained only in Russia.
Secondly, academic and educational relations established in the course of socialist years, in particular, through the system of joint research expeditions, also could not disappear completely. The need to continue research objectively created an environment for the reproduction of new personnel by sending Mongolian young people to Russian universities. The factor of influence of the older generation of Mongolians on their young compatriots' mindsets plays an important part.
About quotas
The number of quotas increases from year to year, and competition is low so far. Due to the pandemic, competition at Russian universities reduced to two applicants per place. This is due in no small part to poor knowledge of the Russian language because of the insufficient number of Russian language classes on the school curriculum: two hours per week in 7-8th grades, three hours in 9th grades, and senior – 12th grades have no Russian language on the curriculum at all.
Educational quotas for Mongolian citizens
600 places - in 2022-2023
550 - in 2021-2022
450 - in 2017-2018
158 citizens of Mongolia obtained Russian language course attainment certificates in Ulaanbaatar, 2022
About popular majors
Russia's higher education system traditionally has a high-quality school of training specialists for various sectors of the economy, so active career guidance counseling for school and university students, including Mongolian ones, is always relevant. Now our task is to turn young people's attention to regional universities of Russia, not only Moscow or Saint Petersburg universities. We offer excellent higher education in Krasnoyarsk, Novosibirsk, Ulan-Ude, and other territories located near to Mongolia.
Such fields of study as medicine, law, international relations, economics are especially popular among Mongolian students. The number of those wishing to pursue a degree in Psychology is on the increase. IT and engineering majors also become popular.
In the coming years, Mongolia may need, in relation to construction of the Soyuz Vostok pipeline, professionals specializing in Electric Power Engineering and Electrical Engineering; Oil and Gas Engineering; Automation of Technological Processes and Production. Tomsk Polytechnic University has already announced its readiness to start admitting and teaching students from Mongolia in the following academic year.
Today more than 300 citizens of Mongolia have a TPU degree. The cluster which is being developed now – the Russian House in Ulaanbaatar – the Soyuz Vostok pipeline – TPU does the work for the long run. The personnel for the pipeline the section of which will cross Mongolia may be needed very soon, and Mongolian young people are very likely to get a prestigious and sought-after profession.
25.08.2022
