Mandatory Russian

From the MT:
"Foreign Students May Face Compulsory Russian Language Tests"

Russian universities should demand fluency in Russian from foreign students, according to Vladimir Filippov, the head of Russia’s Peoples’ Friendship University, the TASS news agency reported Monday.  “To be accepted into American and British universities, you must send them the results of an English language test. We don’t currently require anything like that from foreigners applying to our universities,” said Filippov, TASS reported.  Foreigners studying in Russia “just arrive and enroll,” according to Filippov.  “This causes problems and there is the issue of taking on an ever-growing number of postgraduate students from Western and African universities,” he added.  Filippov also said that Russian universities have difficulty in attracting the best international students.  “Unfortunately Russian universities are getting the last pick of good students — those who weren’t accepted into the British, French, American and Australian systems.”  He added that Russia needs to find a more effective way of attracting talented young people.  A compulsory exam on Russian language, law and history was introduced in 2015 for migrants working in trade, domestic services and construction. Highly-qualified specialists, children under 18 and those taking part in government resettlement programs are excluded from taking the exam.

^ As someone who studied in Russia twice (the first time without knowing a word of Russian) I am not so sure about this requirement. I understand that it is near-impossible to live in Russia without speaking some Russian - since most Russians do not know a foreign language - not even English - but there shouldn't be a blanket mandatory language requirement. If you are going to Russia to study medicine, technology, etc. then maybe there should be, but if you are going to Russia to learn Russian - like I did at first - then there shouldn't be a language requirement. The main point here isn't a language requirement, but why Russia is far behind most of the world in attracting foreign students to their universities. ^

http://www.themoscowtimes.com/news/article/foreign-students-may-face-compulsory-russian-language-tests/573608.html