Matriculation success!

By comparison with previous years, this year’s matriculation was calmer and more productive. This was the topic of talk by the matriculation commission secretaries of the six Tomsk universities at a roundtable dedicated to the preliminary results of Matriculation-2015.

The conversation took place right between the first and second waves of matriculation, so many figures are indeed preliminary. Nevertheless, the universities’ representatives spoke about the characteristic tendencies without the slightest doubt.

Positive dynamics

“This year there are 9395 state-funded places at Tomsk universities, which is 366 more than last year,” announced Alexei Pushkarenko, head of Tomsk Region’s Department for Higher Education. The number of university applicants and applications has increased. Fifty-five thousand applications were received from 23700 people, which is correspondingly 4,500 thousand and 2,500 (11%) more than in 2014. We had 759 (9%) more applicants from Tomsk Region, and 1073 more applicants from other Russian regions. Moreover, we had 274 fewer places on bachelor’s programs, yet 588 more places on master’s programs. This is a realization of the tendency long spoken of by rectors that we are creating research universities to provide an elite higher education.”

Applicants of a variety of ages are taking advantage of the opportunity to enter specialized master’s programs. “TSU saw a mass of applications from people with PhDs and even one doctor of science,” noted TSU’s matriculation commission secretary, Evgeny Pavlov.

The roundtable participants spoke about the reasons behind the growth in popularity of Tomsk higher education. “This is the result of active work by universities’ matriculation commissions and special visits to other places, all in collaboration with the regional authorities,” said Dr. Pushkarenko. “And our joint work with the consortium of universities and scientific organizations.”

University rankings now influence the choices of applicants from other cities. Our universities can be proud that they are all in the top-100 in Russia. “Two thirds of those who entered in the first wave are not from Tomsk,” confirmed Tatiana Saprina, secretary of SSMU’s matriculation commission. “This year we were allocated an additional 50 state-funded places, as a result of which we took first place in terms of number of state-funded places among the medical universities of Siberia. This, along with the university’s high ranking, made the university more attractive to applicants. In the past we sometimes had 90% of the intake coming from Tomsk Region schools.”

Various campaigns also add to the fame of Tomsk universities. “More than 15 thousand applicants took part in the internet game Join.TPU,” said Boris Kadlubovich, secretary of TPU’s matriculation commission. “Maybe it’s thanks to this that we’ve seen a considerable widening of the geographical area – 64 regions – from which our applicants come from. For the first time we’ve accepted students from Kaliningrad, Belgorod, Orenburg and Magadan Region.” The first matriculated student at TSU was from Crimea.

To Russia with love

There is a noticeable increase in Tomsk universities’ popularity among international applicants. Students from such CIS countries as Kazakhstan, Tajikistan, Uzbekistan and Kyrgyzstan traditionally study in Tomsk. There are many students from China, Mongolia and Vietnam. Foreign students come from near and far due to various forms of collaboration between our respective countries – agreements, quotas, contracts, and by personal choice and at personal expense. This year TSPU accepted for the first time four students form such faraway countries as Congo, Indonesia and Mali.

At TPU the flow of international students is stable. This year saw the acceptance of approximately 300 applicants from almost 30 countries, including Indonesia, Zimbabwe, Iraq, China, Mongolia and Vietnam. TSU traditionally receives applications from these countries, with its Faculty of Philology being particularly popular. “Among the exotic places of origin are Africa, Burkina Faso,” Pavlov notes. The road from CIS countries to TSUAB is well-worn – over 300 CIS citizens have applied this year. “There are also exotic countries,” said Yury Vlasov, TSUAB’s matriculation commission secretary. “A student from Morocco will study land management, and a Yemeni will study architecture.”

Certificates, medal, badges

This matriculation year has several new features, one of which is taking into account individual achievements.

“In previous years we spoke a lot about the value of a portfolio. Finally it’s taken into account during matriculation,” says Evgeny Pavlov. “In accordance with the rules, universities published last fall the matriculation requirements, including information on individual achievements.”

Thanks to individual achievements, an applicant’s number of points can increase by 1 to 20. Nonetheless, say university representatives, taking into account of an individual’s portfolio can cause great difficulties for matriculation commissions. The universities took account of achievements in accordance with their own priorities, and they had a certain degree of freedom to do so, since they were primarily interested in professionally-oriented applicants. But this is just the first experience and it is still very much an experiment. School leavers more often than not provided reams of papers – ranging from certificates for winning 3^rd place in an amateur sports competition to 1^st place certificates in national competitions in their subject. Badges, musical achievements, volunteering experience, fluency in three languages and essays all impressed matriculation commission members, but added to their work.

“Last year’s school leavers and applicants from CIS countries were competing on unequal terms with this year’s Russian school leavers – they didn’t write essays,” noted Kadlubovich. “I think that the Ministry of Education will analyze our reports and make some changes.”

For the first time

TSPU matriculation sees an increase in employer-sponsored students.

“I’d like to note the close cooperation with the Regional Administration and Regional Department of Education in this are,” said Andrei Mikhailichenko, TSPU’s matriculation commission secretary. “A large number of contracts were signed, moreover not like before with just state and local authorities, but with actual establishments – schools, kindergartens, technical schools. For the first time the competition among employer-sponsored students was 1.4 applicants per place, and for external students we anticipate 2.5-3 applicants per place.”

SSMU has also had some pleasant changes. “For the first time we’re introducing a new competitive group with whom work will conclude at the end of August,” announced Tatiana Saprina. “At the Faculty of General Medicine, we’re matriculating a group consisting of 15 foreign students from countries such as India, Nigeria, Egypt and Columbia who will study General Medicine. They will study on a bilingual program, with the teaching in English.”

Greater competition

Despite SSMU awarding a low number of points for individual achievements (a maximum of 6 points – 5 for finishing school with excellent grades and 1 point for an essay), the entry standard rose noticeably, from 12 to 36 points for different majors compared to last year.

“The most popular majors are General Medicine and Dentistry,” noted Saprina. “The minimum last year for General Medicine was 228 points, whereas this year it was 265 for the first wave.”

“We saw the greatest competition for those wishing to major in Architecture at the Faculty of Architecture, more than 4 applicants per place,” said Yury Vlasov from TSUAB. “Many applied who finished school with gold or silver medals.”

At TUSUR they were worried about majors connected with physics, since there were plenty of state-funded places yet not many applicants who successfully passed the unified state exam in mathematics and physics. “We were worried, but as it turned out had no reason to be,” said Alexei Mozgunov, secretary of the matriculation commission. “For all these majors there was quite serious competition and the minimum entry points needed was higher than last year by 6-10 points event without individual achievements.” TUSUR had traditionally high entry requirements for the major Information Security. There was serious competition, too, for places on the new major Economic Security where the entry requirements rose to 246 points. AtTUSURoveralltherewere 3.5 applicantsperplace.

At TSU there is an average of 3.7 applicants per place. “In general this indicator is hard to look at objectively,” noted Evgeny Pavlov. “For example, the Faculty of Foreign Languages has only two state-funded places for some majors, but more than 100 applicants. Thus there are 56 applicants per place. Traditionally the most popular majors are Law, International Relations and Foreign Languages. For Law the entry standard is 267 points for the first wave. We were pleasantly surprised by the Faculty of Mechanics and Mathematics. In comparison with last year, the number of applications doubled for Mathematics and Computer Science, moreover for many applicants it was their first choice. Overall, for mathematics majors competition increased. And that’s despite the fact that this year it wasn’t easy to pass the unified state exam in mathematics.”

“Our applicants were impressed by the major Software Engineering which saw 11 applicants per place,” noted Boris Kaldubovich (TPU). “However, this year impressive-sounding majors were less popular. Chemical Engineering even overtook Oil and Gas Engineering, with 7 applicants per place for biotechnology versus 6 for oil and gas, which was almost a shock for us. The highest entry requirements were for Automation of Technological Process and Production at 251 points. Electrical Engineering remained popular, though they do have 220 state-funded places, which is a lot.”

Anyway, we shouldn’t count our chicks before they hatch, and we can judge the level of our current applicants according to the results of the first exam session.

Krasnoye Znamya