Russian invasion of Norway
The number of Russian students in Norway has increased immensely during the last year. Even Swedes and Germans are outnumbered by our populous Eastern neighbor.
Since 2009 the number of Russians students in Norway has increased by
33 percent and the Russians make up the largest group of international
students in Norway.
The biggest growth of Russian students has not surprisingly happened in
the northern part of Norway and especially at Bodø University College
(HiBO). Anatoli Bourmistov is a professor at HiBO, and he is also the
program consultant for one of the first Norwegian-Russian collaboration
projects that started as early as in 1991. He thinks the Russian students
have two main reasons for choosing Norway as a place to complete their
studies.
– First of all Norway has had an increased focus on Russia and there is a
lot of academic collaboration going on in the north. Second of all Norway
is an attractive place to study because it is fairly cheap to study here.
The living cost is undoubtedly high here but I think more and more
Russians understand that they do not need to spend a large amount of
money. You don´t have to go to the pub every night, says Bourmistov.
– Norway is my home
The students Nina Zelenkova from Moscow and Tatiana Yuryeva from
Irkutsk are surprised by the news.
– I attended a Norwegian-Russian upper secondary school in Moscow because
I thought Norway was an exotic country. The school cooperated with Ålesund
University College so when I got the possibility to go there, I did. Now
I´m completing my Master´s at the Centre for Development and the
Environment and I regard Norway as my second home, says Zelenkova.
For Yuryeva it was more of a coincidence that she came to Norway.
– I´ve never had a dream about going to Norway but it was easy to get a visa. Tatian Yuryeva, Russian student of Norwegian
– I´ve never had a dream about going to Norway but it was easy to get a
visa. I started out as an au pair at a French family´s house and I liked
Norway so much that I decided to stay, says Yuryeva, who is now studying
Norwegian at the University of Oslo.
Was talented, came to Norway
Inna Bespalaya is a second year student at Bodø Graduate School of
Business (HHB). She chose to study in Norway because her Russian
university is connected to HHB.
– I completed my Master´s at the Baltic State Technical University in St.
Petersburg, which has been cooperating with HHB since 1991. As one of the
six best students in my year I was offered another Master´s study at HHB.
At one point Inna considered going to England to study, but she could not
afford it. At the same time she was hearing many positive things about
Norway.
– Norway is expensive but due to the cooperation between my Russian
university and HHB I get a full scholarship and loan from the State
Education Fund. That does make it easier to come here but the most
important reason is that I heard so many good things about the line of
study and about Norway. The students who had studied here before had only
good things to say, and they got good jobs when they returned, says
Bespalaya.
Main focus in the north
State Secretary Kyrre Lekve in the Ministry of Education and Research
is somewhat surprised by the fact that the Russians are the largest group
of foreign students, but not by the fact that the growth has been taking
place mostly in the northern part of the country.
– In the north we have the same research agendas as the Russians. There
are several exchange programs and in general there is a lot of cooperation
going on. It is not like we hide the Russians away in northern Norway, but
that is the place where the main focus is right now. In time we hope that
a strong Norwegian-Russian research environment in the north will ramify
in the south. The biggest challenge now is to get more Norwegians to study
in Russia. In 2009 only 75 Norwegians went on exchange to Russia, says
Lekve.
– This is great!
Senior researcher at the Norwegian Institute for International
Affairs (NUPI) Jakub M. Godzimirski thinks there are several reasons for
the increase of Russian students in Norway.
– The most important thing is probably that Norway has a good reputation
in Russia, as a country good for studying in but also as a country of many
possibilities in general, say Godzimirski.
Manager of Norwegian-Russian Chamber of Commerce Jarle Forbord is positive
towards the development.
– This is great! We really do appreciate that more Russians decide to
complete their studies in Norway. It is a great advantage in the
development of an economic collaboration, says Forbord.
Andreas Sveen Bjørnstad • Ketil Blom (foto) • Translation by Ingrid F.
Brubaker
