Urals Students Change Course To French Universities

01.12.2009 — News

THE SVERDLOVSK OBLAST.

Urals students are hurrying to use the opportunity to get education in France. The number of long term student visas issued by the French Consulate General in Ekaterinburg has grown 1.5 times this year.

To get the French visa, pay for airfare and accommodation in France, and have food and pocket money a young Russian would have to have no less than 7 thousand Euro per year. This sum includes the registration fee for studying in a state-owned university. This does not exceed 600 Euro since the real cost of studying (6-15 thousand Euro per year) is covered by the French Government.

Claude Crouail, the Consul General of France in Ekaterinburg, told RusBusinessNews that 120 student visas have been issued in 2009. Humanities, tourism, and hotel business are most popular amongst students due to the personnel shortages in foreign hotel chains which came recently to the Urals.

There are more than 40 contracts between the Urals and the French universities which provide for both the short term secondment programmes for Russians and studying for a joint degree. The Urals State University of Economics, for instance, will be cooperating with the Institute for Business Administration of the University of Lyon. The University of Limoges will work with the Urals State Technical University and the Ural State Academy of Architecture and Arts.

According to experts' estimates there are about 250 thousand foreigners studying in French universities. The Republic is the third country in the world (after the US and Great Britain) in terms of the number of foreign students.