Independent Mathematical Institute. Independent Moscow University ✩ MeowW
At the meeting of the Academic Council of the State University - Higher School of Economics on May 30, the concept was approved curriculum for foreign students "Math in Moscow", which is implemented jointly with the Independent Moscow University and the Moscow Center for Continuing Mathematical Education. Dean of the Faculty of Mathematics Sergei Lando and program director Irina Paramonova tell the story.
- The “Math in Moscow” program, within the framework of which foreign students study mathematics during the semester and get acquainted with Moscow, has been implemented from 2001 to the present day without the participation of HSE. How did it come about? Where did the first students come from?
We liked the idea and began to think about how to organize a similar program in Moscow. We talked with the teachers, compiled a list of courses and sent a detailed proposal to our friends - famous mathematicians working in the USA and Canada, with a request to discuss it at the mathematics departments of their universities. At the same time, they began to work on creating a website for the program. The rector of the Independent Moscow University, Yuliy Sergeevich Ilyashenko, who is also a professor at Cornell University in the USA, devoted the entire autumn semester of 2000 to actively promoting the “Math in Moscow” program in American universities.
As a result, in the spring of 2001, only one student from Cornell University came to us. In the fall semester of 2001, only one student from the University of Toronto (Canada), who came to Moscow for academic year. However, the American Mathematical Society soon became interested in the program, and the US National Science Foundation decided to allocate 10 grants annually to program participants (five for each semester). Thus, in the spring of 2002, 10 more students joined the fall semester class, including two from Berkeley and one from MIT. In the fall of 2002, Harvard, the University of Chicago and the University of Montreal were added to the list of leading universities that send their students to us.
Over the 8 years of the program’s existence, we have had students from almost all leading universities in the United States. A complete list of universities can be found on the website www.mccme.ru/mathinmoscow, as well as full list graduates by semester.
By the way, today there are only three such programs in the world: ours, in Budapest and at the University of Pennsylvania (USA).
- Well-known Russian mathematicians - for example, Academician of the Russian Academy of Sciences Vladimir Arnold - often say that the level of teaching mathematics in foreign schools, primarily in the USA, is much lower than in Russia. People don't tell jokes about this. Is this really true? And what is the situation with mathematics in leading Western universities?
There really is such a problem. And although I myself did not teach in the USA, I analyzed the programs of mathematical courses at various American universities and noticed significant differences from Russian programs, especially in the junior years.
The fundamental difference is that in Russia any mathematical course at any institute cannot be presented without proof. Sometimes, in non-mathematical specialties, some of the most complex technical details of proofs may be omitted. But the main ideological points are always accompanied by evidence. In the USA, in junior years, all mathematical disciplines are mainly studied as a set of computer techniques. In addition, there are some mathematical disciplines, the serious teaching of which in the USA begins only in graduate school, while in Russia they are studied in the first or second year at any technical university.
- Does this mean that the level of your foreign students leaves much to be desired?
Capable and interested students in mathematics are everywhere. It is precisely these students who come to us (for those who just want to come to Russia, it is easier to participate in some language program). All of them received excellent recommendations from their American mathematics teachers, and were among the best at their universities. Of course, there are very strong students and those who are weaker. But the program is small, and we offer courses at three levels - beginner (which only require basic education), intermediate and advanced. As a result, everyone has the opportunity to learn exactly as much as they want and can.
One of our graduates, and not the strongest in his semester, wrote to me that during the semester he was so ahead of all his fellow students that he was already bored at his university, and he wanted to move to some more serious university. One day, the head of the graduate school at an American university approached me with a request to recommend our students to him, since they really liked one of our graduates (also not the strongest in his semester), whom they accepted into their graduate school.
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- The concept approved by the Academic Council names five reasons for joining the “Math in Moscow” program to the State University-Higher School of Economics, including expanding the range of courses and specializations and the opportunity to attract foreign students to longer programs. Explain what courses and specializations will be added to the existing ones and what are the prospects for attracting foreign students for regular training?
The program is currently aimed at students majoring in mathematics or computer science. The general list includes 24 mathematical courses and 5 humanities (history of Russia, history of mathematics, Russian literature and Russian language at two levels). The addition of the State University-Higher School of Economics to the program will allow us to expand the range of both mathematical and, first of all, humanities courses - at HSE this area is represented much more richly than at the Independent Moscow University. We hope that this expansion of the spectrum will benefit the program and increase the number of its potential participants.
As for the regular training of foreign students, as far as I know, the HSE management is seriously concerned about the development of this area. Here our program can serve as a testing ground for testing a whole range of courses and models of interaction with students. It is also expected that the "Math in Moscow" courses will be open to Russian students, which will allow them to acquire the skills to study in English.
Today, however, I would not consider North America as a potential market - there is no reason to believe that Americans or Canadians will go en masse to study in Moscow for bachelors, this is rather exotic for them. Europeans do not pay for education in their countries, and they will not pay in Russia either (in the “Math in Moscow” program there are only a few participants from European countries). But China and Korea can serve as a source of well-trained and motivated students, which, of course, requires a lot of preliminary work. At higher levels - in master's and postgraduate programs, where training is not so massive, you can try to attract students from everywhere, relying on the unique specialists working with us.
- You have extensive experience working with both foreign and Russian students. What is the difference between them in relation to learning mathematics? I mean motivation, ability, starting level, diligence.
Independent Moscow University is a very small university that prepares professional mathematicians. It is very difficult to study there, so all our Russian students are very highly motivated, and in terms of their level mathematical abilities divided into strong and very strong.
The best foreign students are comparable in abilities to Russian ones. But, as I already said, the range of both abilities and motivations among Americans is much wider. The starting level of mathematical preparation depends primarily on the educational system. In general, the basic training of Russian students is more thorough than that of American students. As for diligence, this is a very personal characteristic. But, perhaps, I have almost never seen such diligence as was shown by some (by no means all) program participants with weaker starting preparation than others.
- It is believed that the Russian school in the broad sense of the word has a strong tradition of mathematical education. But has it lost its advantages over the past 15-20 years? What is being done to maintain advantages in general and in particular within the Higher School of Economics?
The secondary school suffered quite serious losses due to the fact that the children of those who left the country in the nineties did not come to study there. I don't think there's been much research on this, but these kids were generally likely to be eager to learn, including math, and well prepared. Their absence - along with many other reasons - has led to a decline in the average level of education.
At the same time, the school is inertial, and good teachers, out of habit, continue to teach well. This is also evident from the students of the Independent Moscow University - there is no need to take one course at a time, but there is no feeling that the fluctuations are fading. Today's graduates are not inferior to the first graduates. Moreover, the reins released in the 1990s Russian education allowed to create throughout the country whole line new schools, and some of them have earned a good reputation during this time, allowing them to compete with the previous leaders, and in some cases, surpass them. The creation of the Faculty of Mathematics at the State University-Higher School of Economics will also, I hope, contribute to the development of the advantages of Russian education.
Interviewed by Boris Startsev
It just so happened that when I entered MAI, I thought a little and decided that I shouldn’t have done that. And, in order to somehow correct the situation, I decided to transfer to the MIPT MIPT. Well, because why not.
Looking ahead, I’ll say that the attempt was unsuccessful, and now I’m waiting for the summer to go and fail again. However, not everything is so bad, because the incentive to develop appeared, and in the process I met a couple good people, telling how it all went. And - most importantly - one of them mentioned in a conversation with me NMU. Curious, I went to Google...
NMU- the place is very interesting. Let's start with the fact that this is a university with classes. In the evening(i.e. it is quite possible to come after classes at the main institute), and it does not require admission . No exams needed, no Unified State Exam needed. You just come to lectures. That's all.
Such freedom is compensated by great complexity: if at the first lectures the number of people was off the charts, and there were not enough seats in the huge audience (I wrote standing up during the first 2-3 lectures or sat somewhere in a corner on the floor / backpack), then by the end of the year there were 15-20 people at most. In the 1st semester it is studied Galois theory, Lobachevsky geometry, discrete groups, bundles, we also had category theory, which, as far as I know, is quite rare in the general course and completely unthinkable in the first semester. In general, the program depends on the teachers; it is quite different every year.
Somewhere I came across an interesting statement that NMU methods are mastered only by HSE students, some students of the 57th school and graduate students of mechanics and mathematics and physical technology... In any case, I went after the first year, with knowledge of mathematical analysis, algebra, calculus of variations, diffuses, tensor analysis and differential geometry, which gave me a certain advantage .
Second: there only math. In the 1st semester there are 3 courses: geometry, algebra, mathematical analysis. In 2, geometry is replaced by (general) topology. In general, the university itself is aimed at producing professional mathematicians, and the mathematics studied there is not applied, but theoretical (fundamental) mathematics. As far as I know, a program of similar complexity can be found only in one other place in the country - on Faculty of Mathematics HSE, which, in fact, is based on NMU and was created. But it is worth noting that at the math department there is much more communication between students, a unique mathematical environment, discussion complex issues, so the level of understanding (and, as a consequence, learning) is higher there.
Also possible candidates: Mechanics and Mathematics, Physics and Technology. I can’t say for sure, because I didn’t study either there or there.
Third: the university is non-state. That is, there is no accreditation, no state diplomas. They have their own diplomas, but, of course, few places will accept them. Just in Harvard, Yes. And in Mathematics Institute named after Steklova. It is clear that the value from all this is more for the mathematician than for the IT specialist, so the only thing an IT specialist should go there for is a good understanding of mathematics. And, of course, for the achievement.
However, there are exams there. Passing them is completely optional, because they will be allowed into lectures and everything else. They provide 3 main advantages: a scholarship (yes, the state university has a scholarship!), the opportunity to use the library and the opportunity to go to foreign studies. language (French primarily, it seems, there is German). Well, again, an achievement. Which you can brag about, for example, to mathematics teachers at a major university, receiving honor and respect.
This stands separately, the word " Independent University"is known to any person in Russia who knows at least something in mathematics, and it is not surprising that MAI teachers also know him. Usually behind the mention NMU Questions follow about what is being studied there and how it is in general. I showed sheets of problems to one of the teachers, he thought about one problem and a couple of months later (during his exam) announced that he had solved it (I got it a little wrong, of course, it’s unlikely that he thought about it seriously, otherwise he would have solved it right away, I think because it is simple). By the way, a little earlier, having discovered a cat drawn (by me) on the blackboard, he offered to become my supervisor. I promised to think about it and I’m still thinking about it.
^difur is not mine
What NMU gives in all seriousness, this is the so-called mathematical intuition. This is when theorems that are not obvious to others are obvious to you, it is easier to solve problems, it is easier to understand and remember the theory... You can understand the NMU program only in fragments and do only a dozen tasks out of a whole huge number, but this will already upend your understanding of mathematics by new level. At least, that’s what I did, but the TFKP program at the Moscow Aviation Institute went much, much easier compared to the Matan program for 2 semesters (by the way, I passed the 5th semester without preparing at all). Moreover, it was not easier for my classmates.
Heller, by the way, also mentions:
I myself sometimes read all sorts of books on applied mathematics in order to have some kind of income from mathematics in the form of cash, and I must say that the study of applied mathematics after starting classes at NMU became something completely elementary and not complicated that you can read in your spare time without straining your brain too much.
I probably won’t talk about teachers, because everything is quite subjective. Let me just say that I admire them. Beautiful people, excellent teachers, excellent mathematicians. By the way, they seriously respect students, which is priceless.
A little about the leaflet system. The idea, in fact, is this: after each lecture, sheets with tasks that need to be completed are given out. At seminars, as a rule, there is no collective solution of problems; instead, students hand in and explain sheets to those taking part, ask questions that are unclear, etc. At the same time, there is no strict distribution, for example, according to algebra once a piece of paper was missed, and another time there was no lecture. By geometry Even before the start of the lectures, a zero sheet appeared to refresh your knowledge (or make sure that you have it). Knowledge, by the way, is not at school level at all (at least not high school), requires a good understanding complex numbers , what's in our modern schools They don’t give much if it’s not a math school. The first tasks are elementary (like " Prove that when multiplying complex numbers, the arguments are added and the modules are multiplied"), the latter are quite non-trivial. Well, here is that same piece of paper, in general:
There is another interesting idea that is often encountered: the material that cannot be presented in lectures is transferred to sheets and offered to be proven independently. It's difficult, yes. But cool.
Besides NMU, the leaf system, as far as I know, is used in Moscow State University And HSE.
Often you come across very scary sheets of paper that you look at and realize that you don’t understand. You don’t understand at all, despite listening to the lecture. However, I didn’t listen.
In fact, worksheets are one of the most important things, solving problems is the only way to master some area of mathematics, and here the problems are not in the “solve 100 integrals” style, but a variety of them, of varying complexity, interesting and really good. The checkers are also quite adequate and do not require unnecessary garbage; you can, for example, bring the theorem to some obvious result and not prove it further, because everything is meaningless and understandable as it is. Or even come up with something that will make it obvious, and this happens, yes. Moreover, simply by solving a couple of problems, you will find that a lot has really become clearer to you, and you now understand the topic, and sometimes even fluently.
The atmosphere there is also wonderful, I actually met words that NMU- not a university, but just a club of interests. For example, you understand that there are hundreds of complete strangers sitting here, and you can safely leave your things here, go somewhere and not be afraid that something will disappear somewhere. This is very cool. There are all sorts of people gathered, we talked, there are people who have already graduated from university, there are schoolchildren, there are students from the Faculty of Mechanics and Mathematics, HSE, Bauman, MIFI, Physics and Technology. Sometimes it’s a rather strange feeling when you discover that you understand something that others do not understand, including those from the Faculty of Mechanics and Mathematics and the tower. It’s not at all clear how this can happen.
There were 3-4 people from MAI, we talked (in addition, somewhere in the middle of the year I called to NMU Mayovites wrote to the group, a couple of people wanted to go, but I still don’t know anything about the fate of their decision), but then they stopped going. It was cool to find out that one of our teachers graduated from MAI (applied mathematics).
In general, there is an opinion that a considerable part of all those who study mathematics are going to go to IT, because mathematics in Russia is somehow not very good, alas.
This year we also got
This post is unlikely to be of interest to most of my readers, but if you have children inclined towards exact sciences, I advise you to read it anyway.
When I was in Moscow, Sasha Belavin dragged me to the Independent Moscow University (NMU). To get there, you need to get to the Smolenskaya Koltsevaya metro station, get out, turn right, walk in the shadow of the Ministry of Foreign Affairs
along Denezhny Lane (isn’t that a good name?),
turn into Sivtsev Vrazhek, then into Bolshoi Vlasyevsky, and - voilá - in the courtyard of a large house there is an inconspicuous Arbat mansion. Three floors with mezzanine.
Sasha told me the history of this university (he also teaches there). Around 1988, at the height of perestroika, when the ban on initiative from below had already weakened, a group of outstanding mathematicians (see my post about Arnold) decided to create a non-state mathematical center. This was the goal. Many strong mathematicians with Jewish surnames at that time were not hired by any decent places, such as Moscow State University or Steklovka. They earned money in various sharashkas, but, despite worldwide recognition, they could not add the worthy title of “professor” to their name. This is how the Independent Moscow University and the Moscow Center for Continuing Mathematical Education (MCCME) arose. After few years original problem decided on its own (those who wanted to did so left, and the fierce anti-Semitism that had previously raged in the Moscow mathematical establishment subsided), but the center remained. People work there not for money (professors’ pay is purely symbolic; in fact, they work on a voluntary basis), but for the sake of a noble idea:
give mathematics education the highest level to the masses. From third graders, to high school students, from undergraduates to graduate students, to doctoral students and beyond. And this idea was brilliantly brought to life. I can safely say that nowhere in the world can such a mathematical education - systematic, comprehensive, deep, inspired - be obtained. Only here.
If you want your child to have a great career in mathematics, this is the place for you. For non-Muscovites, they organize two- to three-month summer recreational math camps.
At first it was assumed that NMU would be ordinary day university, i.e. will recruit students (who will receive exemption from the army) and teach them full-time. It didn’t work out; they weren’t given accreditation. Therefore, classes there begin at 3-4 days, lecturers are formally students/graduate students at other universities. Everyone is accepted into NMU; there are no entrance exams. And they give you a diploma of completion, which in the world has the same weight (if not more) as a Princeton or Harvard diploma. Like this!
Most NMU professors, who previously had to earn a living out of nowhere, now work (in the morning) at the mathematics department of the Higher School of Economics and receive relatively reasonable salaries. The Faculty of Mathematics of the Higher School of Economics is a new mecca for Moscow mathematicians.
More detailed information
Lesson programs for 1st and 2nd year students. 
NMU dining room. 
Activities for kids. 
Olympics for high school students. 
Computers for children. 
Enrollment for children's summer camp. 
Serious guys in the conference room after the seminar. 
Rector. 
At NMU there is a small Russian-French laboratory (named after Poncelet) sponsored by the French Center national de la recherche scientifique. It was here that Alyosha Zamolodchikov came from Montpellier (for a year), and here, suddenly, he died tragically. 
The mansion is quite shabby inside. Mathematicians are not bankers, so what? But there are coffee machines everywhere and they give you coffee for free. To prevent disorganized coffee mathematicians from piling up piles of dirty cups, the following posters hang everywhere: 
MCSME has its own (completely unique) publishing house. 
They published a book in Russian about Felix Berezin, which I published in English several years ago in Singapore. There is a bookstore attached to the publishing house.
Pay attention to Zvonkin's book. This is just a miracle for kids. 
This man standing in line in front of me bought a whole box of books. 
I didn't lag behind him. I filled my backpack with books. Arnold, Tabachnikov and Fuchs, Larkin, etc.
The concentration of such bearded men around NMU is off the charts. 
Almost every second Muscovite under 30 is now studying. After graduating from the university, he enters graduate school, or an MBA course, or goes to receive a second higher or additional professional education. And this is not to mention the boom in master classes and public lectures, where they talk about everything in the world - from nuclear physics to molecular gastronomy.
The thirst for knowledge is satisfied mainly by indie schools. This is a rather desperate generalizing term: it also means the British consortium, where they train the “proletariat of the creative industries”; and the Strelka Institute, where urbanists - creators and visionaries - are nurtured; and the Russian School of Economics - a forge of “white collar” workers; and the Independent Moscow University, full of gifted mathematicians. The chief editor of The Village, Artyom Efimov, looked into how indie schools work and how they can help renew traditional Russian higher education.
Higher education crisis
More than half of Russian universities are state-owned. The rest are licensed and accredited by specialty by the state. Everyone knows that the teaching at Moscow State University or at HSE is better than at other universities. But formally, diplomas from grand universities are equivalent to any other. Only in 2010 did the status of “national research university” appear - it was awarded, in particular, to the same HSE, Baumanka, MGSU, MISIS, MEPhI, MIPT, MAI, MPEI, and the Institute of Oil and Gas. And this is not to mention Moscow State University and St. Petersburg State University, whose special status is even stated in the Law “On Education”.
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A diploma, as a rule, is not decisive in a graduate’s career. For example, only one out of 20 graduates of Moscow universities works in their specialty. The education of each state-funded student (about 40% of them) costs taxpayers approximately 150-200 thousand rubles a year. If, for example, a person with a diploma in art works as a journalist, this money is probably not entirely wasted: after all, good humanitarian training will come in handy in journalistic work. But when, say, a certified civil engineer sells cell phones, this means that either he went to study without fully understanding what and why, or he was taught the wrong thing and not in the way that employers need. In any case, this is a failure of the education system and a waste of budget money. When people enter university, they are not always interested in new knowledge. Getting away from the army and living in a hostel in Moscow are often much more motivating. The thirst for knowledge and the desire to learn a new profession usually awakens later, when one higher education and already have some work experience. Additional professional and second higher education, as a rule, cost money, and this is a completely different story. “In Russia, if there is a choice - to invest in education or in a new car, a person will most likely choose the car,” says Ekaterina Cherkes-zade, director of the Scream School of computer graphics and the Moscow Film School. - And even if he paid for education, |
Russians have universities located students study student share On average in rubles It costs Russian taxpayers to educate every public sector student |
It seems to him that there is no need to strain himself any further. Paid education is discredited by state universities with budget places and unscrupulous private universities that actually sell a diploma without knowledge.”
What is DPO
The fashion for additional education was greatly promoted by the economic crisis: many industries collapsed, and people en masse had to learn new professions. Supply follows demand as private school leaders confirm that education is becoming a fashionable business. For the domestic mentality, this, of course, sounds blasphemous.
Since 2012, additional programs vocational education(DPO), with the exception of specific areas such as civil service, pedagogy or private security activities, are not subject to state accreditation. This means that the school itself, and not on the basis of educational standards imposed by the state, can determine what and how to teach its students. Graduates do not receive a state diploma, but their own school diploma, the value of which is determined solely by reputation educational institution. It is expected that over time there will be a system of accreditation of additional professional education by professional communities.
The state's refusal to regulate the additional education system forces schools to compete with brands, quality and cost of education. Efficiency additional education is determined by how well it meets the requirements of the relevant industry, and the authority of the school in the industry. Accordingly, schools that simply stamped state-issued diplomas, collecting money for it under the guise of tuition fees, in theory, should go down the drain: getting additional professional education “for the sake of a crust” is now, in general, pointless.
Rector of the Russian School of Economics Sergei Guriev recalls that his school “existed quite successfully without accreditation for the first 13 years, and the European University in St. Petersburg even longer.” According to Guriev, “a really serious distorting factor” in the competition for applicants is the army conscription. Vice-Rector for Science of the Independent Moscow University, Mikhail Tsfasman, answering the question about the costs of independence, also first of all recalls the lack of delay.
Creative professions
British graduate School design attracts many applicants with an expensive but prestigious British higher education and a diploma from the University of Hertfordshire. The MARCH School of Architecture, opened this year by the famous architect Evgeny Ass, who left the Moscow Architectural Institute as too stagnant an institution, also offers a master's program developed jointly with the Faculty of Architecture and Spatial Design at London Metropolitan University, and a British academic degree as a result.
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TOTAL STUDENTS |
type of diploma DPO + |
Financing Pay |
A British diploma in itself and even when combined with a portfolio does not guarantee anything to graduates of the Russian “British” who are planning to make a career in the West: there is plenty of “creative proletariat” there. However, Russians also have their own advantage - a fresh look, notes the director of Scream School and the Moscow Film School Ekaterina Cherkes-zade. On the domestic market, a British diploma is, of course, a very prestigious credential.
According to Russian standards, all schools of the British consortium are institutions of additional professional education. Ekaterina Cherkes-zade explains that this status gives the greatest freedom: “Many of the professions that we teach at Scream School are simply not in any registers, so they can only be taught as part of additional education. Moreover, no educational standards will not keep up with the development of computer graphics.” To educational programs remained effective and in demand by the industry, they need to be constantly revised.
However, says Cherkes-zade, in the creative industries no one looks at a diploma - they look at a portfolio. The British consortium puts maximum effort into it.
Freedom and independence
Further education schools often arise as small training workshops at companies that are faced with a shortage of personnel and decide to prepare for themselves the necessary specialists. In this case, everything is simple with educational standards: suitable for the needs of a particular company, this means a good education. Accordingly, this company finances the school, so it does not have to earn money on its own.
An indie school is different in that it serves not a specific company, but the industry as a whole. It should be, as they say, equidistant from all market players. Accordingly, she cannot afford to be financially dependent on any one sponsor, and ideally she should earn money herself.
However, such a school depends on the market and is forced to limit its own creative search to suit its requirements. Thus, the concept of freedom unexpectedly comes into conflict with the concept of independence. Freedom also means the right to make mistakes: for example, to undertake expensive research with an unobvious result. When a school is a commercial enterprise, it can hardly afford this.
Institute of Media, Architecture
and design "Strelka"
Founded in 2009
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TOTAL STUDENTS |
DIPLOMA TYPE Own sample |
FINANCING Donations + paid research + Strelka bar |
For example, the Strelka Institute of Design, Media and Architecture cannot be considered independent in the sense that Britanka is independent. Strelka depends on money mainly from two sponsors - Alexander Mamut and Sergei Adonyev. Education at Strelka is free, and income from the bar and from commercial activities (consulting) is enough to cover only a small part of the expenses. “This is initially a philanthropic project,” Ekaterina Girshina, director of Strelka’s open programs, readily admits.
But Strelka, of course, is freer in choosing what and how to teach: it trains not strong professionals for specific industries, like the Britanka consortium, but creators and visionaries. “We have a mission: to change the landscape - physical and metaphysical,” says Strelka director Varvara Melnikova. - We must prepare people who will become leaders of change, primarily in urbanism. Such people should work in government bodies, in public organizations, in business, in creative fields.”
Business education
From the mid-2000s until very recently, Russia experienced a boom in MBA (Master of Business Administration) programs - business schools providing intensive case-study training for middle and senior managers. From 2004 to 2012, these programs were subject to state accreditation as additional professional education.
Founded in 1991
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Mathematics |
DIPLOMA TYPE Own sample |
FINANCING Sponsors |
price For free |
Vladimir Arnold, Nikolai Konstantinov and other founders of the Independent Moscow University, wonderful scientists and teachers, left the Faculty of Mechanics and Mathematics at Moscow State University more than twenty years ago to teach mathematics without regard to standards and methods that they considered outdated. NMU accepts students without exams, they don’t even require a certificate. There is no class schedule as such either: the class schedule is posted, and the student decides where to go. At the seminars, everyone is given the same tasks and is encouraged to discuss the solution.
More than 200 people enter NMU every year. Of these, four or five survive to graduate. NMU does not charge for tuition and exists solely on donations. The list of his sponsors includes the Dynasty Foundation, Yandex, the Soros Open Society Institute, and even the French Embassy. “NMU has not collapsed in twenty years,” Vice-Rector for Science Mikhail Tsfasman comments on this funding model, “which means it is more stable than democracy in Russia.” At the same time, Tsfasman admits that it would be better for the university to take money from the state, “especially if it was stable funding, not particularly burdened with conditions.”
Where to grow
“I responsibly assert that today independence [for non-state universities] does not bring any formal advantages,” says NES Rector Sergei Guriev. He notes that recently state universities, especially national research universities and federal universities received the same academic and managerial freedom as independent ones. At the same time, public universities have guaranteed (even if chronically insufficient) funding and premises.
“Non-state universities have a clear understanding of what their mission is - why they were created and why society needs them,” Guriev explains the main advantage of indie education and adds: “In principle, this is how young state universities are structured - like the Higher School of Economics, and young faculties in them - like a whole number of faculties of the Academy of National Economy.”
Guriev is confident that in the near future the first indie universities will appear in Russia, created from above, that is, as a result of the transfer of real power over state university board of trustees.
Throughout its history, higher education throughout the world has invariably developed from elite to mass, accessible to the public. Everything else is a struggle for quality and the choice of path: whether education should be state, public or private. In Russia, and above all in Moscow, private and even somewhat public higher schools began to emerge alongside the traditional state ones. They are the ones who satisfy demand as much as possible while the state puzzles over the next reform.
The Independent Moscow University was founded ten years ago in the wake of an attempt to do something with mathematics education.It was clear that the Soviet education system lacked much, and, not having the strength and ability to reform the very inertial existing structures, a group of leading mathematicians of the country and the world gave up on these structures and said that they had to do their own, very small, but at the most worthy level.
And so it happened, the university is terribly small. We have two faculties, the main one is mathematics, and the second is very close to mathematics.
From the very beginning, the university is independent in every sense, including, unfortunately, from money - from state funding for sure.
There was a period in its history when professors paid for the right to teach with us. Ten years ago, when it first appeared, classes were held in the evenings in the building of one of the mathematical schools in Moscow, School 2. They let the university in there for free, but they had to pay for electricity, and the professors chipped in. Now the situation is a little better: we don’t charge anything from professors, and we pay students a stipend, thanks to some international funds.
We are very grateful to these funds, but they don’t give much, and it’s terribly difficult to exist.
Our second benefactor is the city, which at some point gave us a very nice four-story unfinished house in the Arbat alleys. In this building, the Independent coexists with another amazing institution - the Center for Continuing Mathematical Education, our official founder (its creation, in turn, was initiated by the Independent University). They are mainly involved in schools, olympiads, mathematics schools, and teacher training, while we are mainly involved in higher education.
The lack of administrative capabilities has led to the fact that education is evening (since we do not give deferment from the army).
In general, paperwork is difficult, even obtaining a license was difficult; we do not have state accreditation, i.e. our diploma is not of state standard. This diploma is recognized very well in leading universities and research centers around the world; in our country it is recognized de facto in two or three academic institutes that have strong mathematical laboratories.
Students mostly study elsewhere during the day, and most of them study at the Faculty of Mechanics and Mathematics at Moscow State University.
Due to the evening nature and the seemingly optional nature, the dropout rate is very large, and not because we are driving anyone away.
We are very easy to accept: we have entrance exams, but they are optional - in fact, you need them to get a scholarship in the first semester. And so, please, go to lectures and take exams.
True, we take the current exams very strictly, but at the same time we create all the conditions so that a person who has not passed the exam can continue to study.
Despite this, the dropout rate is such that 60 people enter the first year, and after five years only 5 people receive diplomas, i.e. Every year the number of students decreases by approximately half.
In four years you have to pass all the exams; in the fifth year a person writes quite serious scientific work- diploma. Graduate work, as a rule, is published in one of the leading magazines in the world. Then graduate school for those interested, a serious exam for graduate school, and attention is paid not only to the ability to solve difficult problems, but also to the breadth of knowledge - we do not train narrow specialists, there are other graduate schools for them.
We teach children who, already in their third year, begin active scientific work. Since there are very few of them, the main element of learning is personal contact with the teacher, there is the opportunity to tinker a lot with each of them.
The level of the guys we graduate is absolutely amazing; at seminars they think three times faster than I do. In other words, we are reproducing the scientific elite in a very narrow sense; in fact, these are not even university professors, these are the people who should train professors. And they are all actively working scientists of the highest level. This is a major note.
Then again minor. After this, a natural process occurs - two thirds of them settle in Harvard, Princeton, some in Paris. The remaining third teach with us and travel all the time to survive. But this is no longer a university problem, this is a society problem.
What we do is not higher education as such. Rather, it is a niche between doing science and teaching. It’s clear why people come to Independent.
Those who want to become scientists in the field of mathematics come to study. They come to teach because it is always interesting to teach someone who is very bright, and such are the majority of our students, especially among those who remain after the first year.
Our first year is made up of the strongest students of Moscow State University, and only those who manage to finish their studies... And our work is pleasant, free and interesting, and human relations very good.
The university has about 50 professors on staff, none of whom have this place of work. Many of our professors spend six months somewhere and half a year here. As one of our leading mathematicians said, if a scientist’s patriotism is insufficient, he goes to America, but if he is a true patriot, then to Western Europe. But I repeat once again: if, when he comes to Moscow on vacation, he teaches a course three times a week, he is no less useful to the university than a permanent professor, and much more than a person trying to make money in Russia by hook or by crook.
Little by little, Independent is turning into the center of mathematical life in Moscow, at least one of its main centers. We have, for example, a university-wide interdisciplinary seminar “Globus”; fifty Moscow and visiting mathematicians attend its meetings. Starting this year we publish - international Science Magazine, where Russian, formerly Russian, and even foreign scientists are published.
What we managed to do in mathematics, I always want to do in all other theoretical sciences. I would like to build a real multidisciplinary university around the Independent University, whereas now it should be called the University of Mathematics, because it is quite universal in mathematics, but nothing more. But it’s too late to change the name; it’s already well known in world mathematical circles. Trying to attract other disciplines, we talked to theoretical physicists, to linguists, to other scientists who do not need expensive equipment.
Over the past ten years, various sciences have developed their own traditions of survival. Different sciences suffered different losses, for example, our theoretical physics left almost entirely. Those who stayed were either very elderly people, or people who came for three months. That's what the physicists told me, anyway. And yet it's not so bad. I know several strong physicists who often visit Russia (each of them has a permanent place of work “there”), and a couple of good working seminars, where many strong young people go.
Therefore, attempts to expand the university are only partially successful. Recently, we have created a linguistic data center for theoretical linguists, a laboratory for mathematical methods in the natural sciences, and a laboratory for written speech recognition. Even more ideas, of course.
To complete the story about the Independent University, I must honestly say that its scientific reputation, especially in the international mathematical community, is, in my opinion, somewhat exaggerated. It seems to them there that we have an eternal and unshakable paradise. And from the inside I see that his very existence is very fragile, and even Christopher Robin doesn’t know what will happen to him next.
Mikhail Tsfasman
www.strana-oz.ru
Erich Maria Rilke. Brief biography of R.M. Rilke. Paris. "New Poems"
Artania - the distant kingdom, the thirtieth state
The beginning of the policy of dispossession