it with us the syrian government forces are launching their biggest of the sweep against protesters in the northwest of the country blocking their escape to turkey meanwhile russia urges that the un security council to bring both sides to the negotiating table. licensed to kill israeli special forces get green the way to shoot at palestinian pro independence protesters the un is expected to vote on palestinian statehood later this month something that is real

strong opposed. to seeking solutions russia and ukraine agreed to talk as kiev pushes for discounted gas supplies and able to cope with the current pricing levels the deal that is in place now to strike in two thousand and nine and ended a european gas crisis. sits down with education expert alan goodman to discuss how well russian universities compete with their foreign counterparts. hello again to welcome to spotlight. on r.t. . today my guest in the studio is alan goodman russia is trying hard to modernize its education system and bring it up to international

standards but some experts believe this will be hard the traditions of russian higher education they advocate russia its own way so what about an outsider's view of where an average russian student stands against foreign counterparts here is the president and c.e.o. of the institute of international education alan good. given the russian specialists are valued around the world the russian higher education isn't popular with foreign students only three percent of students who go to study abroad choose a russian university this has become a serious concern for russia educators they want a bigger share in the international education programs. universities are educating their students in accordance with the european higher education accords based tries to standardize the quality of education throughout europe for some russians that's not enough and the debate is underway on the future of higher education within the

country. working to show thank you which thank you very much for being with us thank you well first of all i want to ask you to comment on what president obama said recently that the us president he said that that education and innovation will be the currency of the twenty first century and therefore i quote we will expand exchange programs and increase. scholarships like the one that brought my father to america and perhaps that's what about him said could you explain this please what you know i understand about his farther back but what does he mean saying that currency in the twenty first century it's how all of our societies fuel you know vision it's how we better educate our people and that's how we prepare them for not only global citizenship but work in a global marketplace education today can do all of that for all of our people say

you are sure that that really means it when he says that this probably will be today there's nothing more important for america than the dollar but he says tomorrow it will be education is that true well the way sometimes you get dollars or rubles is to get better educated and the more education you have the more chances you are to prepare to earn more for your family and more for your country so i think president obama really means what he's what he's saying and he really believes in exchanges he is one of the few american presidents that studied abroad well you said that the more the more educated you are the more money may well not always and you know and you know this is true but you want to say together with a barrier that in the twenty first century this will be a rare exception and what an educated person will be able to make big bucks is that true well this century is one where we're all living in

a knowledge economy we're all living on a global marketplace and we're working today to create the jobs of the future i'm we're preparing students to have the jobs of the future and the only way to do that us are education and more you have the better. you sex of state clinton once urged graduates to become and i quote the special envoy is all of your ideas as a citizen a master's using your personal and prefer. personal lives to forge global partnerships do you believe that really student change may do war for and the standing between people of different countries different nations then any other diplomacy with a traditional official policy i do i do and i think you need both the will and the way secretary clinton was talking about the world becomes representatives of your society representatives of your ideas and exchanges the way in which we share that

with other people but also learn from them so i think you have to have young people ready and willing to study abroad ready and willing to have that experience and then you have to have exchanges increasing so that they can do that well let's listen to the young people who decided that education abroad was essential to their future life and career sports life even at the me there were reports from moscow state university. andrey is aspiring to become a pro in the i.p.o. from russia which for me and the market economy twenty years ago initial public offerings are stupid why do anything to improve he's on this thing you know the country went to new york who to do once and i just stock exchange but was able to communicate with. professionals down there so help me a terror and violence my knowledge i get ideas from ikea this. is one of the thousand students who take advantage of the moscow state university exchange

programs every year some of them will eventually be rewarded with a very special kind of diploma a double one. double diploma means you started in two universities in two different countries in europe dictations acknowledged in both these countries means more opportunities for those who receive it the women you're still from park again university staff believe a mood in the google ised world makes growing and grows for a geisha on the troops. view shared by sponsor a u.s. student who is doing a degree in russian studies and came to my school to some on the ground experience obviously for the study around the world i think because a lot more respect for somebody because you can be educated at a college and not really actually be educated if you can understand somebody else's point of view they're going abroad and starting a different country very different universities really give you that opportunity

spence's frankly gouri was born in the you with the son and grew up in the who was saying can you really boast of a global educational experience and is able to come this systems in there is parts of the planet and i'd say is this the educational system is very individual you pick your course and you put your glasses as far as jorma goes i think it's more traditional i enjoy russian system or because this war on miller to me i'm close to my heart while standing in moscow grigori known to the school in the ration project and is now considering taking part something he would never have been able to do it never travelled in spite of his education. hugh said recently in one of the interviews pursuing an education in a foreign country allows a young person to develop the skills necessary to become an effective and

productive global citizen and question. does that mean the studying abroad makes a person more competitive on the labor market than a person that there is occasionally here locally in his own country that makes a person more competitive but also more compassionate and more confident. we're going abroad you learn a lot about self-reliance you learn about your ability to adapt to a new environment and you learn to work with people from. any different walks of life and cultures and that's what the global market places today labor forces are multicultural they're multinational you can only learn that in a classroom you have to get out of the classroom and go to another culture and work and study in that environment as well. traditionally people go people like myself who got good education all wrong i'm a trained journalist they they started a career and that was their trade for the rest of their lives and i guess this was

pretty much the same for everybody. my generations and generations and my father and grandfather and someone today it is changing and people people are telling me there is no way that he will or will not be able to survive this way that we'll to be successful you should undergo training every additional training every other couple five years six years and change change your trade change your profession find something else in order to be successful is it true and is it true that in the twenty first century people have to spend more money more time and training them before there's no rule that education starts when you're twenty one or twenty two or when you get your first degree or second degree so we really believe education is a lifelong process your field is journalism you have had to learn many different media

you had to learn about many different revolutions had to learn about many different places even if you focused only on russia because russia is affected by things all over the world so you can still practice the same profession but you have to educate yourself and every day we generation we did learn a lot but we learnt a lot while working well when we started journalism as junior guy somewhere in a paper really read your station and then we learn from our colleagues will learn from. but we never thought ok i'll quit for here and i'll go to china to learn something new and then i'll come back and get a better job is this the way people should do it today yes i think it is a new paradigm and some new school of thought. there's nothing wrong with the old school of thought of continuing to get degrees and continue to be educated but however you do it i think you need to have the international part of it whether you're a journalist or an engineer or a doctor i don't know how traditionally you are you so but did that does it make

you happy or does it make you sad that people people are not becoming super professional in what they do but rather always look around maybe there's something better something some someplace where i can earn more some people are becoming super professionals but there are getting a global perspective and i think that's ok other people yes you're right they'll change their job their career their direction many times during the course of their life and one of the good things about the education systems your country and my country has is it can be there for them. well it's more fun of course changing your way of life will every once in a while but but that i think that doesn't really move progress. forward because in order in order to find something new to to to develop something you should you should stay and do what you're doing for years and years and years

before you start being a locomotive in the run trade this is true but you can't really today because super professional the super expert if you're confined to only one country and only one discipline knowledge it's multi-disciplinary now the best professionals the best experts next people that will win nobel prizes probably are multidisciplinary probably have lived and worked in circle countries. are adjusting to the global economy and that's what really being a super professional was all about you the c.e.o. of the institute of international education tell me do you think new technologies can allow people to get international education be educated in foreign universities without leaving their home i mean can i see technology replaced actually going to lecture is seminars mixing with kids and living in canberra and so on you know i

think you have to have that initial experience for you you have to know how you react to a different food different people a different place and and then you can use ip and distance learning to continue the relationship to widen the relationship but but if you personally don't know how you're going to react in another situation you can't learn that just on camera says alan bergman president and c.e.o. of this hatred of international education spotlight will be back shortly afterward take a break so stay with us to continue and let's belin. with

the. mission. critical three. three.

three. three. three. videos for your media project a free media to our teeth. welcome back to spotlight i'm all going to have and today our guest is al goodman who is the c.e.o. of institute our international education. tell us which countries today are the most popular destinations for forest national scholars well we think of you. really the big cry of the united states the united kingdom france germany and for the country you can take a pic now it could be australia could be counted it could be china but those

country instead i mentioned the g five g eight account for about eighty percent to eighty percent of all move move right. oh of the countries outside the western world's china which is pretty exotic bad but is part of that that's our competitive well education wise you bet and in a sense every country is competitive because it's the experience of being in another place that can make you a different profession but there are about two thousand americans here in russia there are about two thousand american studying and each of. those are considered high risk there's some higher education those are exotic destinations they're just as meaningful as going to something like china because what you're doing is understanding a great nation an old civilization and how you relate to well europe has already introduced a standard of education called the balon your system the russians it's

a lot about introducing it here in this country and we've already made steps well not everybody likes that many people disagree but still we are moving in the direction do you think they should be a global standard of education. i think the transfer of credits of the movement of students and scholars across borders ought to bring liberalize standardize something that institutions and governments commit to sharing. we are america poorly understandable on your process we poorly understand the nature of the degrees and it begins with the fact that your high schools are longer than our high schools so it will take some time for. to be comfortable with the degree from europe but the fact that you're trying to standardize you're trying to make mobility you're trying to encourage people who are going to different countries and

i think that's something that should be a global standard. recent report by the institute of international education which you present here found that there were notable increases in the number of our viewers students going to study in less traditional destinations what you were talking about there fifteen of the top twenty five destinations were outside western europe and nineteen countries where english is not a primary language so what makes these countries the tractor for our freemantle americans because americans they should be i mean american kids they should be pretty realistic they you may be thinking of. going around there i mean. it is introducing yourself to foreign cultures but kids think about how to have how to find a good job how to make money so why are they going about maybe the chinese example or want something else or your first question was about the global economy and the

knowledge economy that's taking place outside of great britain that's taking place outside of france that he was in that he was trying to that is egypt and so americans are very conscious of really need to understand those places so i think that's why they're going on on more and more tonight on traditional destinations and they ought to because that's where the global economic action is. in the most prestigious university rankings that we see and that there we can take a look at the russian education looks quite merry awkward and it's very sad for the russians because we we are used to especially the people that were raised in the soviet union as myself where you. two and knowing that the russian education system is one of the best in the world what's happening is there's something wrong with the rankings is there something wrong with the standards we're talking about or is this something something really wrong with the russian system since you here in

russia maybe maybe you can tell it's just wait a minute given the and we've been waiting for twenty years and it's not becoming any but i was just with your minister for education and science and he and all the rector's i met with hooting the rector of moscow state mentioned the fact that government is investing now heavily in education that's the beginning. and that hasn't been the case here it isn't the case in many countries that's why they're not on the list but i think in five years russia will be on hold what's called the league tables people will see that the twenty nine designated research universities are making major contributions to the world especially in science and that's what's going to put us on the rain put our schools on rankings and your schools and rankings so so you think it's due funding because of the kind of strike and russian

economy now that it's just the lack of money in there in the universities and this is the reason for the drawbacks we have money isn't everything but if you ask an american university leader what are the three most important ingredients that usually money money and money think dollars dollars cents and maybe some people chinese you are. and you know. the great universities are built on huge and down fund research fund cutting edge teaching and production of knowledge other countries are catching up with. your government's investment is going to make a very good start at this this is a very educated culture and very smart students we send our kids here to have my. in moscow because you're not going to actually because your university teaching of madness a period of two hours and anything can you name least a couple of russian universities which you think should be should be among the

ranks among the best in the world i think you deserve to be i think you'll see moscow state and say here's third and beauty and before too long the twenty nine university has ignited for research and the government is investing in excellence i mean this new program i think that's going to that's going to change the worse you mention math what are the areas which would you recommend for international students to come to russia where we have. good or maybe even better than others russia is famous for physics for nanoparticles research for optics in addition to the fact that you've got a rich culture that's given the world. dostoyevsky tolstoy and the plays of turkey so there are so many things here that people from other cultures interested in knowledge can learn but i think the real growth is going to be in the science and

tech in math there and what the russians mainly go to to study in the us what they mainly what's what science is not rushing off because they're. i get that impression that most of the people going to america want to study business business administration is it true well maybe something else probably half are doing the sciences and half are doing business in your graduate students and physics are becoming our graduate students and residents. there's a tremendous flow in the math field between the two countries so i think you'll see that continue but business is very important subject now it attracts students to america we go abroad to study here and i think you'll see that growth continue. do you have a remedy against brain drain it's called is there is very it's called globalization and its coalition which is what causes braintree no it is actually

what solves the problem because now you can be educated in a foreign country and then you look for a job and you realise that job is waiting for you back home because you have the advanced skills and it can be used in economy so instead of brain drain we are seeing brain gain in many of the places like india and china where a decade before it was only a floor one way so globalization is producing jobs it's also producing a way to attract people back to their home countries you said you met the russian reactors are being your cities the ministry of higher education well they should have told you a lot about skulk about this new innovation project well what do you think this is this skolkovo educational center special place designed for for education and for. getting scared that we bringing together people from suits from all over the

world can solve the problem again when trying to shut russia is facing today i think the total set of activities that you're a minister is undertaking a new draft law on higher education the openness of your directorate so all of that's required special centers special programs in the laws all that is going to help with brain circulation you also have a rich yes or of russian intellectuals and professors in america and europe and you're attracting them back as well you're attracting their students back to russia that's also going to create a flow back here but the mere real model we need to look at is not is not just a one way flow but a continuous circulation just like we talked earlier of continuous education on how do you do that i mean this could conceivably then you keep your borders open you encourage your students to study abroad you encourage them to come home you

encourage them to go out again because knowledge is also global that's what we're learning from the internet and and so the sites where it's produced exist all over the world and what we should be doing is keeping our doors our minds and our borders open thank you thank you very much for being with us and just to remind you that my guest today on the show was alan that he's the president and c.e.o. of the institute international education and that's it for now from all of us here if you want to have your say and spotlight or maybe you have someone in mind you think i should think through next time then just drop me a line i'll be out and see the dots are new and let's keep spotlights going to move the back with more force coming from what's going on in and outside of russia and so then they have heartache and take it thank you.