By Yulia Vaneeva
According to Belarus’ First Deputy Education Minister, Alexander Zhuk, the scholarships will allow our country to attract the best students to Belarus: purposeful, talented and motivated. “They’ll help us attract students from the East and Africa, as well as from European states,” notes Mr. Zhuk.
In 2010, Belarus boasted 475 students per 10,000 residents, rivalling levels in developed European countries. Last year, taking into account economic and social needs, 15-50 percent more personnel were trained for the real sector of the economy. “Recently, special attention has been paid to training specialists for innovative and foreign economic activities,” explains Mr. Zhuk.
By 2014, those with higher engineering-technical education from Belarusian state universities will account for 28 percent. Those with degrees in communication, law and economics will drop to 30 percent, matching the structure of professional education in European states.
Mr. Zhuk believes that universities’ efforts to certify their educational and scientific activities will aid the attraction of foreign students. Certificates meeting international ISO:9001 standards were received by 26 universities last year. Moreover, two new universities were set up within the educational system of Belarus: the Border Service Institute of Belarus and Mogilev’s Higher College of the Interior Ministry. At present, Belarus has 55 universities.
