Opinions & Interviews

Viktor Yakzhik: Export of education services looks most promising

MINSK, 4 March (BelTA) – The export of education services has been one of the most promising avenues in the development of Belarus’ foreign economic ties in the last few decades. The information was released by Deputy Education Minister Mr Viktor Yakzhik at a roundtable session held to discuss cooperation between universities and graduates in a bid to advance education services onto foreign markets.

According to the Deputy Education Minister, as far as the training of workforce for foreign countries is concerned, the Belarus government has entrusted the Education Ministry to encourage about 15,000 foreign students to study in Belarus in 2015-2016. To do it, it will be necessary to use the full potential of international cooperation, including opportunities offered by foreign graduates of Belarusian universities for the sake of increasing the quality and the competitive ability of the national education system, remarked the Deputy Education Minister. Last year’s export of education services can be broken down into education services (80%), science services (11.5%), travel services (4.7%), other services (3.8%) such as architecture, technical services, and other ones.

“In order to accomplish the established goals in a quality manner, it is necessary to consider the possibility of setting up educational bodies abroad such as pre-training agencies, representative offices, centers, faculties, and branches,” believes Viktor Yakzhik.

At the roundtable session Viktor Yakzhik drew attention to the consideration that educational institutions should work harder to start offering education services in English. Belarusian universities also have to develop remote education services as an effective way to increase the export of education services to remote destinations. At present this kind of training is available in the Belarusian State University of Informatics and Radioelectronics, the Belarusian State University, the Belarusian State Technical University, and the Academy of Public Administration under the aegis of the President of Belarus.

In the 2012-2013 academic year the number of foreign students attending Belarusian educational institutions totaled 13,922 people, who had come from 88 countries. Of the total number of students in Belarus foreign ones account for 2.5%, 2.1 times as much as in the 2005-2006 academic year. The largest number of foreign students study at the Belarusian State University (15.1% of the total number of foreign students), the Belarusian State Medical University (10%), the Belarusian National Technical University (5.9%), the Belarusian State Agricultural Academy (4.8%), the Minsk State Linguistic University (4.8%), and the Belarusian State University of Informatics and Radioelectronics (2.5%).

Belarusian education services are exported to the following destinations: CIS states (63.1% of the foreign students), Asia (29.2%), Africa (5.8%), Europe (1.5%), North and South Americas (0.4%). In 2013 the growth of the export of services was driven by the rising number of students from Turkmenistan – 7,368 (52.9%), China – 2,037 (14.6%), Russia – 886 (6.3%). The export of education services to countries of the Middle East, Southeastern Asia, and Africa is on the rise.

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