Simplifications of procedure for visa extension

International students are now allowed to stay in Russia until the end of their education at universities. Such amendments are included in federal law and give international students at TSU the opportunity to extend their visas after completing the Pre-courses Department without leaving the country. - For TSU it is a very important decision. Previously, all international students who came to TSU, had to go home to extend the visa after graduation from the Pre-courses Department, - explains Artyom Rykun, Vice-Rector for International Affairs. - For some of them, the cost of the flight home was comparable to the price of a whole semester of studies at the university, and many simply could not find the financial opportunity to return to enter TSU.

 

For this reason, in 2017 TSU lost more than 40 graduates of the Pre-courses Department. For example, 13 students from Cameroon did not study further, only one remained at TSU. Now, after working out a mechanism for extending visas without leaving Russia, such a problem should not arise.

 

The legislative amendments extend to full-time or part-time educational programs that have state accreditation. If international students have been transferred to another institution to continue their studies, they will also be able to stay in Russia until receiving a diploma.In addition, now the university itself submits an application to extend the term of temporary residence of a foreign citizen. Previously, students had to go home to register a new study visa when they moved to the next level of education, and universities had to issue a new package of migration documents for the subsequent training of the international students.

 

Now 2,294 students from 50 countries are studying at TSU. About a hundred international students come every year to participate in the TSU’s summer and winter educational schools. The number of international students is constantly growing, and the geography is expanding. All this is the result of the implementation of the priority state project on the export of Russian education: - Now more and more countries are competing for international students, including absolutely new ones in the market of global education: Malaysia, Saudi Arabia, Portugal, and Argentina, not to mention China, Japan, and South Korea. So, we need to increase the attractiveness of our own education, create conditions for a comfortable life for international students, and of course, here the universities of China are providing us a lot of competition. Therefore, it is gratifying that now TSU is building another new comfortable hostel. And of course, for serious work in the educational market, we must increase the number of programs in English, - said Artyom Rykun.