Student Attacks Ukraine Education Minister With Bouquet

KIEV, Ukraine -- A Ukrainian woman hit the country's education minister Dmitro Tabachnyk with a flower bouquet to show her objection to a government ban on student protests Thursday.

Tabachnyk was not injured in the incident, which took place during a forum for senior European education officials in the Ukrainian capital Kiev.

The woman, named in media reports as Darya Stepanenko, a student at the country's elite Kyiv-Myhailovska academy, approached Tabachnyk after he had given a speech to a group of European education ministers.

Instead of handing him the flower bouquet, as sometimes happens in Ukraine after top officials make speeches to large audiences, she hurled the flowers in Tabachnyk's face.

Tabachnyk blocked the woman by grabbing her arm, after which she was escorted from the lecture hall by police. He later downplayed the incident.

'She gave me a charming smile ... and then she poked me in the chest with the flowers. I think it was absolutely normal and I'm quite calm about it,' he told reporters.

Tabachnyk is controversial for his support of widespread use of the Russian language, history textbook revisions to describe Ukrainian freedom fighters against the Soviet regime as bandits, and for increasing university fees.

Ukrainian students have many options to study abroad

Many Ukrainians who study abroad come back to do great things in their home country.

When Ukrainians want to study abroad, the biggest hurdle is often securing the necessary funding to cover high tuition and living costs. But there are a few programs – primarily funded by foreign governments – helping bright Ukrainian students not just to pay for a school, but also their living expenses.

Governments and philanthropists behind the programs don’t just do it for charity or stealing the best brains, as some may think. “In any single exchange, we expect it to be a two-way street of learning,” said James Wolfe, press attache at the U.S. embassy in Kyiv. Shortly after World War II, when Senator J. William Fulbright began the American flagship academic exchange, the Fulbright program, “he stated that it might actually be a way to prevent a nuclear war,” said Wolfe.

The U.S. government funds a variety of programs. From high school exchange to post-graduate research, the Educational Advising Center administered by the American Councils for International Education in Kyiv will find the right fit for everyone with a burning desire to study.

Since 1992, over 11,000 students have crossed the ocean for a taste of life abroad, including Andriy Shevchenko, a parliament deputy, and Oleg Riabokon, founder of a top Kyiv law firm, to name just two famous alumni.

Most of the exchange students return and do great things for Ukraine, said Christina Pendzola-Vitovych, country director of the American Councils, which administers the programs in Ukraine.

One program is the Future Leaders Exchange, which has benefited thousands of high school students since it began in 1992.

The program allows ninth and tenth graders to spend a year living with an American host family and study in an American high school. All living and study costs are covered by the U.S. government. In addition, applicants receive a monthly stipend.

“Host families are not getting anything out of the program [in financial terms],” said Pendzola-Vitovich. “What they are getting, though, is an opportunity to learn more about people from other parts of the world.”

For university students, there is a program called Eurasian Undergraduate, better known as UGRAD; and for graduates, there are Edmund Muskie and Fulbright exchanges.

The selection is tough, but the reward is magnificent. After academic, linguistic and psychological tests in Ukraine, winners attend one- to two-year programs at American universities with fees and living expenses covered.

At the end of their stay, they have to come back to Ukraine and continue studying or working without returning to the U.S. for two consecutive years. Fields of study vary from program to program, but the emphasis is placed on areas where Ukraine needs improvement: the economy, human rights and the environment, among others.

“It’s prestigious for universities to be hosting foreign students,” said Pendzola-Vitovych, explaining the motivation behind sponsorships. “They actually put their own money into this as well. It brings up the diversity of their campuses."

The British government’s goodwill program for international students is the Chevening Scholarship. Some 300 applicants compete annually for 6 to 10 scholarships.

Most grants are for postgraduate master’s degree courses lasting up to a year, but the option of a shorter period for study or research is also available.

The programs are targeted at academic high-flyers who have the potential to become Ukraine’s leaders. Interviews and essay tests are carefully structured to weed out professionals without a plan.

“Experience shows not many of [the applicants] know what they want to achieve,” said Natasha Vasylyuk, programs director at British Council, which assesses applicants.

“They want to make a lot of money, but they don’t know how to do it. But this is not right because they have to have a specific plan for the next five years of how they could apply their skills for the benefit of Ukraine.”

Areas of study vary from year to year. Public administration and environmental issues have been high on the list for the last few years.

Law is among popular fields that students want to pursue in the U.K., but their motivation is not always right, Vasylyuk said.

“They come back with a good British education and start working in private firms. It’s not a bad thing, but the idea of this program is to bring the knowledge back to change the country.”

Chevening, unlike Muskie or UGRAD programs, is a self-placement exchange where a candidate have to choose a university on their own.

For a wider range of subjects – from aeronautics to creative arts – there are Erasmus Mundus scholarships. Administered by the European Union, they offer up to 100 master’s and doctorate courses. A successful applicant gets the chance to study in two partner-universities in two different countries.

The Ukrainian government doesn’t send prospective leaders abroad, but there is a private initiative nurturing home talent.

Businessman and philanthropist Victor Pinchuk launched the World Studies program this year, sending 15 undergraduate students to the world’s top universities.

His program partially covers education fees and requires all students to come back and work in Ukraine for five years after their studies.

Opportunities are many, and these programs are all expected to continue well into the future. The U.S. and British governments have robust exchanges with many countries, both rich and poor. “It’s not a question of the country’s economic development,” said Wolfe from the U.S. embassy. It’s a matter of professional and cultural growth, he added.

Jobs squeeze leaves graduates stranded

Unemployment has soared to over 6 million in recent months and many of these are graduates who had previously been in high demand. However, the problem is not only unskilled graduates but also inefficient industry which does not cater for workers with higher education. Labour productivity in Russia is less than 30 per cent than that of the United States, partly because many workers are unsuited to their current jobs.
People want well-paid jobs, but most of the jobs are archaic and unproductive," said Yevgeny Yasin, the school's academic supervisor, who is a former economics minister. "A surplus of education in terms of the number of years people have spent at university leaves workers unmotivated and with low life satisfaction."
The government is already making plans to reform the education system as part of long-running changes, as well as to fight the crisis. A new program for 2012 has been approved by the government, which Education Minister Andrei Fursenko said a "huge amount of money" had been set aside for.
"We do not view them [our proposals] as a component of anti-crisis measures," said Fursenko. "We have been doing anti-crisis measures for five years. The crisis has cast a bright light on these problems."
Approximately half the 43 billion rouble ($1.3 billion) anti-crisis labour package will be set aside for education, supporting both universities and training blue-collar workers.
More money has been set aside to assist the estimated 15 per cent to 30 per cent of students will be unable to afford their fees in the next few years, with universities worrying that their best students might drop out. One university in Vladivostok has offered all Russian students free places next year, with the funds coming from an increased number of paying foreigners, while other universities appear set to offer similar schemes.
"We will enlarge the number of places for students to study for free but these kinds of measures only have small results because most universities don't have a lot of free budget places," said Yaroslav Kuzminov, rector of the Higher School of Economics. "We very regularly change students from paying to free so for us it won't change a lot."
Private universities will be the biggest casualties of more free places, with management and linguistics university LINK already noticing a decline in the number of postgraduate applications.
"It is very dangerous for us because it is possible that the number of graduates will be equal to the number of free places," said Andrei Shuinov, deputy rector of LINK. "Private universities may have no students at all."

City students staying positive

Moscow students may be facing tougher times due to the crisis, but many are determined to stay positive and overcome whatever problems may come.
Karina, 20, a student in the faculty of management and political economy at Moscow State Open University, started to work in a real estate agency before the crisis, and said the problems had hit the real estate sector harder than education. "My boss is suffering in the crisis, that's for sure - and we don't hire anyone anymore," she said. Karina's friend has troubles with education payments, but not because she doesn't have money to pay. She simply works so hard that she can't find time to go to university for that purpose. "Of course the crisis is tough," said Karina, "but the show must go on."
Despite the crisis, some lucky students have found a job recently. Maria, 21, a student in the same faculty, got a job in a bank debts collection agency. "It's not only students struggling to find a job," said Maria, "it's almost everyone's problem. And yes, paying students have more difficulties now. Some of them are trying to switch to a non-paying education. There are rumours at the dormitory that they even have to pay extra money to be switched to a free education."
A lot of non-paying students are from other towns and live here on their own, without parents' support. Natalya, 18, a student at the university's Business and Management faculty, started to work part-time as soon as she entered the university, because she has to rent a flat. She works in a governmental organisation and feels that state-backed enterprises are more secure now than commercial ones, though none of her acquaintances lost their job yet, and some of them found a job recently. The crisis could even be a good opportunity to get rid of people who can't do their job properly, she said.
The university's employment centre offers only temporary jobs, which doesn't suit many graduates looking to build a career. Natalya, 19, from the Linguistics faculty, agrees that students and graduates are having a hard time now trying to find a job. She's working part-time now and plans to go abroad after graduating.
First-year students from Moscow often live with their parents and more of them can study full-time. Vladimir, 19, and Yury, 18, students at the university's radio technology and electronics faculty, said they don't plan to start to looking for a job until next year. "We'll solve the problems when they come up," said Vladimir. "Who knows what will happen with the government next year?"
Zhanna Avanesyan, the dean of the university's Linguistics and Cross-Cultural Communication faculty, which currently has 10 free and 90 paid places, said that one-quarter of students had already expressed doubts they can pay their fees for next year.
"We're working with each student individually," she said. "Some can switch to non-paying courses, while others are going on to evening classes, which is half price."