Note from the Russian University

I thought I would post some differences between American and Russian universities. In general, going to college is a job in Russia rather than a way of life, like it is in American. Russian universities rely on a large number of class hours relative to American universities and far more in the major subject. Monday thru Saturday there are four class period of 1.5 hours each. Students have classes five days a week and an average of three classes a day, meaning a little more than 20 class hours a week. On the other hand, Russian students have less than one hour of homework for every hour of in class time. Almost all of their classes are in the major subject, or failing that, in a related subject. For example, my third year groups have four English classes, six second foreign language classes and five lectures on foreign history and economics or teaching.

Students generally enter the university at 16 or 17 meaning the first year of college in Russia replaces senior year at American high schools. As you might expect, a lot of Russian students lack some of the general knowledge American high school graduates have but have an excellent background in their major subject. When they enroll they are placed in a group of 9-12 students and assigned their academic schedule. For language students, this also means an assigned third language. Some of my students were extremely (and not particularly pleasantly) surprised to find that this year their group had been assigned to learn Japanese.

The age of Russian students also means they are sometimes not as mature as you would expect college students to be (maybe my expectation of college students is too high). Last week I was in my history class, listening to a lecture about the origins of the first False Dmitri. This is a first year class on Ancient Russian history with the very youngest students and I was sitting in the back row, trying not to interrupt anything. This girl sitting in front of me repeatedly turned around to take a peak at me, finally placing a notebook near me on the desk. Inside the notebook was this note: