SOLID SCIENCE ABROAD

Education abroad is not simply an important, but also a necessary, process for any young country. Back in the period of the Azerbaijani Democratic Republic approximately 100 students were dispatched to a number of European and Turkish institutions of higher education. Only when the existence of the first Azerbaijan Republic ended, was an end put to this splendid practice. It is not difficult to recall the names of all the most prominent public, political and cultural figures who received an education abroad.

The Constitution guarantees every citizen the right to receive an education. What is more, Article 42 of the Constitution guarantees that a citizen will receive a good standard of education. The same right to continuous education is guaranteed to us by the Convention on Human Rights. Article 32 of the Law on Education also gives citizens the right to receive continuous education. Besides this, no-one can be restricted in their choice of educational institution and in their choice of specialisation and disciplines studied.

The very existence of the concept of education abroad adopted throughout the world provides the opportunity to gain a high standard of knowledge, to study for more in-depth qualifications and offers more extensive access to specialised scientific knowledge which is not always available in local institutions of higher education.

Azerbaijan has been an independent state for 25 years now. The process of forming statehood and a fully-fledged civil society automatically involves literate, well-educated, intelligent cadres. Unfortunately, the negative processes taking place in our native education, have done away with any hope of training the highly qualified specialists that our country so badly needs. Therefore state and other private programmes for obtaining higher education abroad have been a real blessing. 

A factor in society's development

Seymur Kazimov, a lecturer who graduated from the Georgian Public Relations Institute, has talked about the difference between higher education locally and abroad. "As a survival of the Soviet educational system, the present higher education is morally obsolete; in the lecture halls too much time is given over to the unnecessary theory taught according to an outdated method and old textbooks. Many pedagogues do not know foreign languages, cannot keep track of the latest trends either in education or in their own specialisation and do not have the opportunity to read scientific works.

Naturally, besides the actual imperfections in the system of education, the low pay received by pedagogues plays quite an important part. The contemporary Azerbaijani pedagogue reads lectures in several institutions of higher education at the same time, literally running from one to the other, gets home late in the evening and has to spend some time with his own family as well. It is natural that racing around, trying to get a normal life does not leave him time to spend on his own self-improvement, not to mention scientific activity. All these factors are not having a very positive impact on the educational process. As far as the pedagogues in European and American institutions of higher education are concerned, then more often than not they only teach at one institution of higher education and they devote the rest of their time to working in science."

Kazimov does of course say that you can't measure all pedagogues by the same yardstick; naturally there are among them very highly intelligent and diligent ones who are aspiring to improve themselves, to gain access to correct, creative information, but these are few and far between; approximately 75 per cent of the pedagogues at institutions of higher education are teachers of "the old school". The lack of a foreign language means they have no access to scientific meetings, conferences and symposiums and to the latest information.  With regard to the teaching process Seymur bay [mark of respect in Azerbaijan] said the following: "I studied journalism in one of the best known institutions of higher education existing within the framework of the education programme. I can say that I no longer have a single lecture or notes from my student years. We simply did not have them. We did everything hands-on: the process of writing articles, filming video footage, making radio broadcasts and assembling montages, and not in mock laboratory classes either, but in real conditions. Our diploma project was not writing a lengthy tome, but a completely concrete task of writing an article or putting together a video subject. In the course of our studies we felt that we were not in the lecture hall, but in a real editorial office." It is worth mentioning that the similar, purely practical, method of obtaining knowledge "in the field" was not only much more interesting and easy to understand, but also more effective than boring, monotonous lectures in the lecture hall.

Kazimov says that receiving an education abroad is an important social and economic factor in developing society: "Students need to be sent abroad so that they can get good qualifications, not to mention the fact that they become valuable cadres in the labour market; they can teach local students the basic principles of their specialisation as well, proceeding from the needs of a universal education and an accessible methodology." On the whole, the flourishing of society depends on educated young people who have gone beyond the framework of an old-fashioned, outdated system. Education abroad is one of the most important factors in developing a country.

Keeping to the state's line

In Azerbaijan the decree on the state programme for Azerbaijani youth to receive education abroad, for the purpose of acquiring the necessary qualifications and becoming directly involved in the development of the country, was signed in 2006. Within the framework of this programme a single system was set up for the organisation of education for talented young people, calculated to cover the years from 2007 to 2015. The list of institutions of higher education, whose syllabus is included in the state programme, included 331 universities from 24 countries. These are those specialisations that are of the highest priority, where a high standard of education is offered and a student is provided with social and other facilities.

But it is logical that university entrants wishing to study abroad do not wish to restrict themselves to the list of institutions of higher education passed by the state programme. One Azerbaijani student, Gunay Farzaliyeva, who is studying at Birmingham University in England, spoke about her choice: "I had dreamt of studying abroad ever since I was a child. My first choice was precisely the British institutions of higher education, since I wanted to study in the homeland of the English language. The qualifications that I am studying for are in international studies in education. I made a thorough study of the lists of higher education institutions for a long time, but then appealed to the Ministry of Education for a grant. 

Owing to the importance of this direction for our country, this institution of higher education was included in the list of higher educational institutions on the state programme for the first time. I made an application here and received a grant." 

According to the student, the first thing that a university entrant should do is to make sure they have the necessary certificate regarding their knowledge of a foreign language such as an IELTS or TOEFL certificates. It is not that complicated to go through an interview and enter an institution of higher education; it is much more difficult to find the means of paying for that tuition. Therefore, one of the priorities of the would-be student is the quest for a sponsor. This can be both the state and also the embassies in the countries where the student is studying, as well as various international programmes such as Erasmus [European Union Exchange Programme], Backis, Alrakis, Fullbright, Social Work, DAAD [German Academic Exchange Service] and so forth.

But by no means everyone manages to get the funding to pay for an institution of higher education abroad. The state may refuse to provide a grant. Thus, the Azerbaijani girl who had dreamt of becoming a student at a prestigious American institution of higher education like Berkeley, sent a letter of application to the Ministry of Education for a grant to pay for the expensive education, but she did not get a positive response. Fortunately for her, everything turned out well, because the institution of higher education itself took upon itself the payment for her education. 

Seymur Kazimov asserts that the state programme does not encourage education in US institutions of higher education specialising in the humanities. "It is impossible to get a grant from the state, to study for qualifications in the humanities such as law, human rights, and journalism," the lecturer says. Naturally, he agrees that agriculture, medicine and engineering are also very important for development, but the normal functioning of a civil society cannot be achieved without experts in international law and human rights.

Recognition of diplomas

Besides the "normal" education received at prestigious higher education establishments throughout the world, some of our fellow citizens, especially those who got low marks at the entrance examinations, turn their attention to a number of institutions of higher education which can be entered without an exam. "The 

Convention on Recognition of Qualifications Concerning Higher Education in the European Region" signed in May 1996 and ratified by Azerbaijan's parliament in September of that year provides the basis for recognising diplomas from fellow signatory countries, foreign diplomas, based on the legislation in each of the countries, in keeping with certain procedures.

There are two important conditions for recognising diplomas: the first of them is that the foreign institution of higher education should be accredited in your own country, i.e. that the higher education establishment should have received acceptance by law in your country. The second condition is the diploma itself that the student receives there. After receiving the diploma, in order for it to be recognised in Azerbaijan, the student has to undergo a nostrification procedure [the act of granting recognition to a degree from a foreign university], which consists of a number of juridical procedures. At the present time, incidentally this procedure, offered by the country's Ministry of Education, can be done on-line. The decision on recognition is taken on the basis of the relevant information on the qualifications for which recognition is being requested.

A special nostrification section for the recognition of educational documents has been set up in Ministry's apparatus to carry out the procedures for recognising qualifications received in other countries and to determine the extent to which the education abroad corresponds to the education standards in our country.

For its part, the country's parliament is also undertaking measures to ensure that education of an insufficiently high standard is not being received. In accordance with the proposed changes to the law "On the Armed Forces", it is proposed that the deferment of military service for students at a number of foreign institutions of higher education should be abolished. The first deputy speaker of the parliament, Ziyafat Asgarov, has said that the granting of deferment to students receiving education abroad on a marks' basis has led to evasion of military service in some cases, since in a number of cases the Ministry of Education has refused to recognise the diplomas received by individuals from a number of institutions of higher education abroad.

A draft law has been drawn up to eliminate the shortcomings in this field," he stated.

 Let us hope that these changes will serve to make university entrants more careful in selecting institutions of higher education abroad and will prevent the exit of young people to inferior educational establishments purely to avoid conscription.