Moscow ranks 37th best student city – study

Quacquarelli Symonds has released its annual QS Best Student Cities in the World rankings. The study has two requirements for city’s to be included in the rankings, a minimum population of 250,000 and at least two ranked institutions. Five categories were used to rate the cities: university rankings, student mix, quality of living, employer activity and affordability. According to the ranking, Moscow came in at 37th place one step behind Amsterdam but ahead one place of Brussels. Paris took first place.

Students unhappy about president’s visit

One of Russia’s leading journalism schools needs a good clean-up after President Medvedev visited it yesterday, according to a group of students planning to stage a “subbotnik” flash-mob.

It comes after several students were detained or taken away when they tried to unfurl posters with some unauthorized questions, but Saturday’s flashmob organizers claim there is no political subtext behind their action.

“Just some people feel there is a need to clean up at their home,” read a message spread via social networks, Gazeta.ru reported.

The president was going to hold an open discussion with young people about nationalism, but students claimed only people from a special list were allowed in the lecture hall, including members of pro-Kremlin youth movements

Those who got in were advised to put their mobile phones on silent mode and “acclaim [Medvedev’s speech] with applause”, according to Moskovskiye Novosti.

Medvedev’s visit yesterday was announced just on the night before, according to Novaya Gazeta’s reporter who is currently studying journalism at MGU. But students were quick to prepare for the visit - tutors had to remove stickers put up inside the building asking the president about how many transport disasters it would take for him to lose trust in Igor Levitin, the current transport minister.

Several students were not allowed in the building by presidential security guards who claimed all their lectures were cancelled that day.

However, three people unfurled posters asking “Did you consult with the prime minister before coming here?”, “Why you are spending your time on twitter and why is Khodorkovsky spending time in jail?” and “Why did you fire Kudrin?”, Interfax reported. They were swiftly detained and taken to the local police station, but released after a “preventative talk.”

When the crowd occupied all the space around the main stairs, one of the men muttered “come on girls, it’s time to show your boobs”, hoping for some of Medvedev’s supporters to strip again for the president, Novaya Gazeta reported.

And one of the female students waited for the moment when Medvedev appeared after two hours of delay to take her jumper off, but only to unveil a t-shirt with “Who beat up Oleg Kashin?” on it, recalling last year’s highly-publicized case.

Five more people took out posters with a slogan protesting against pressure on the media, Novaya Gazeta reported. Interfax report suggested there were four people.

All were taken away promptly, and some of them later claimed they were threatened with expulsion from the university.

Capital prepares to ring the ‘Final Bell’

Moscow's schools ring the final bell of the school year this Friday. Swarms of final-year students will be celebrating the end of their school careers at hundreds of proms being held around town over the weekend.
More than 60,000 graduates from almost 1,500 schools will be taking part in the celebrations, including 5,280 students who will be attending the Medallist's Ball for the top academic achievers.
Besides the more mundane terrestrial functions, some 8,000 intrepid students from 182 schools will be taking to the waters of the Moscow River using a veritable flotilla of 67 cruise boats making 100 journeys from 28 piers.
"Mayor Yury Luzhkov has already instructed the prefects of the city's administrative districts to organise the ‘Last Bell' celebrations at various local sites, as well as assume control of public catering during the celebrations and proms," RIA Novosti quoted a City Hall representative as saying on Wednesday. "City Hall will also be organising medical facilities for the celebrations and Medallist's Ball."
As part of the measures taken to ensure the graduates' safety, city authorities are restricting the sale of alcoholic beverages.
"Taking into account previous years' experience, we plan to ask the authorities to ban the sale of alcoholic beverages on the territory surrounding educational facilities and areas where celebrations are taking place," said First Deputy Interior Minister Mikhail Sukhodolsky on Monday.
In previous years such restrictions have led to a complete ban on alcohol sales in stores throughout the entire Moscow Central Administrative District.

Russian and Children's Rights

Human rights activists are reporting the extreme violation of children’s rights in Moscow and across Russia. Publicly-owned buildings that house state-run daycare centers, kindergartens and educational facilities are being closed by government officials and businesses, with their tenants evicted. They are subsequently rebuilt as offices and banks, or turned into other commercial ventures. Other state-owned buildings, including union houses and hospitals are also at risk. The process, called “raiding,” is more commonly associated with the armed take-overs of business assets by hired security squads . But children’s centers remain at risk.
“The problem of the seizure and closure of children’s educational institutions remains throughout Russia,” said Sergei Komkov, the president of the All-Russian Education Fund. Komkov, an academic in the Russian Academy of Natural Sciences and a member of the Moscow Writer’s Union, was speaking at a press conference on the dramatic problems faced by day-care centers.
Participants of the conference described methods used to take over properties, from illegally re-zoning the land to literally destroying buildings to make them uninhabitable. Two so-called “raiding plans” are used. Under the first, buildings in prime locations are simply rented to an organization other than the daycare. The new group then demolishes the building and re-develops the land commercially. In the second case, buildings are transferred directly to companies and redesigned into banks and offices.
“When a day care is located in a convenient recreation area, where a large investment project can be built, raiders do everything to demolish it,” Komkov said. “There are very many instances of the direct destruction of day-cares in Moscow.”
Over the past 12 years, some 700 Moscow day-cares have transformed into offices that no longer serve any educational purposes. Meanwhile, the city has a deficit of education centers for children, with some 60 thousand youths who cannot be placed in the existing day-care system. Only 100 new day-cares have been set up to replace those destroyed, and only after a city directive to build new centers passed in 2007.
According to UNESCO, some 2 million 300 thousand school-age children are not receiving an education in Russia. Komkov blamed this in part on the destruction of schools and educational facilities in the country.
Elena Martysheva, the Director of the “Aspects of Education” Center, and an international children’s activist, spoke of the takeover of a children’s center associated with her group in July 2007. In that case, Globex Bank took possession of their building, and would not even let Martysheva in to gather things from her office. The new owners then destroyed the Center’s property. Appeals to the prefecture, the militsiya and the prosecutor general’s office proved fruitless. Law enforcement called the case a “dispute between business entities” and refused to act.
According to Martysheva, the new occupants also gained access to the school’s files and documents, which contained confidential information. By law, only the Center’s employees are allowed to handle such paperwork.
Anatoly Karpov, the Chairman of the Russian Peace Foundation and former world chess champion, commented on Martysheva’s case. He explained that during a change of ownership, a building’s new owners may only enter the premises with a court-order on hand and the militsiya present. Globex did not have either.
Karpov went on to explain what happened next as deliberate acts to make the building uninhabitable. Globex then used the new damage as a pretext to file paperwork saying it was impossible to keep the building for its intended educational use. The children’s center was subsequently demolished.