Popularization of service in the Russian army is a burning and painful topic. On the one hand, the state is trying with all its might to give the very fact of service a positive connotation, but on the other hand, modern young people of military age are still far from everyone in a hurry to take such efforts at face value.
In this material, we will talk about how ready Russian educational institutions of higher professional education (HEIs) are to provide retired graduates of schools and secondary vocational educational institutions with benefits for admission and further education.
To begin with, it is worth recalling the basic provision that universities are obliged to provide certain benefits to young people who have served in the army. This situation was not just thrown in from out of nowhere, but was voiced by the top leaders of the state, including President Vladimir Putin. Such theses are contained in a special presidential decree "On the further improvement of military service in the Russian Federation." The decree was issued on the day President Putin took office - May 7, 2012. Let's pay attention to one of the most important points of such a law:
“Introducing amendments to the legislation of the Russian Federation aimed at implementing measures to increase the prestige and attractiveness of conscript military service, providing for:
providing citizens of the Russian Federation who have completed military service on conscription, additional benefits when entering higher educational institutions, as well as the opportunity for them to carry out, at the expense of the corresponding budgets, preparation for passing entrance exams."
Besides:
"Providing preferences to citizens who have completed military service by conscription, when entering the state civil service, as well as when they are included in the reserve of managerial personnel."
It is worth recalling that this is not a project that will be considered at an unknown time. This is a real presidential decree, which entered into force on the very day that Vladimir Putin put his signature to it.
So, according to the letter of federal law, Russian universities must certainly provide benefits to incoming Russian citizens who have completed military service by conscription. This is according to the letter of the law, but what is in practice? Let's try to figure it out with a specific example.
Year 2011, September. Artem K. (the surname is not called at the request of the youngest man) after graduating with honors from an agricultural technical school, he enters the Voronezh State Agrarian University named after V. I. Emperor Peter I (former SKHI). Note that he enters without any problems, because the selection committee has testified in Artyom's diploma extremely positive marks in all profile disciplines, as well as a very outstanding characteristic of the applicant's personal qualities. Artem K. was enrolled in the students of the Voronezh university (we will remind you again - the state one). But Artem did not have time to start full-fledged studies at the university, when the district military commissariat suddenly sends him a summons, according to which he must appear at the specified address within the specified time, since he is being drafted into the army.
In Artem's family, bewilderment arose (how many of these bewilders will still be in connection with the story in question): after all, the guy received higher education for the first time, became a student of a state university (not a private shop, namely a state university with a rich history and powerful traditions), and therefore according to the law had the right to a deferral from military service during training.
Many other young people, who would have been in the place of Artyom K., would simply start running away from the military registration and enlistment office, sending out certificates of study and not showing up at classes at the university. But he decided to follow a completely legal path: he went to the dean's office, showed a summons, secured the words that he was not the first, he was not the last to be called up from a student's bench in the army, and after conscription he could calmly return to his studies at the university - no problem there will be no recovery. At the same time, did the conscript receive some kind of paper that would testify to the trouble-free recovery at the university after serving in the army? No I did not receive it. But, in fairness, it must be said that neither he nor his parents, who were not at all opposed to their son's army service, did not have any thoughts to secure some written guarantees from the leadership of the VSAU in terms of restoration in student status.
As a result, in the fall of 2011, Artyom was “safely” expelled from the university students, and he went to serve on the draft, making plans for a successful future for himself: getting a military specialization, continuing education in an interesting civilian specialization of a technical nature, graduation, employment, etc. etc.
However, in reality, everything turned out, to put it mildly, not quite as Artem K. had expected. He received a military specialty, after which he returned home and, having in his hands a military ID with all the required marks, about a month ago he went to recover at the Voronezh State Agrarian University. But at the university, the serving Artyom was not greeted with bread and salt.
The first thing he had to face was the reluctance of competent university staff to make any concessions. The phrase that “your recovery is possible, but it may be fraught with great difficulties” again caused bewilderment among both yesterday's soldier and his parents, who expected that the recovery would take place without any problems.
People from the dean's office told Artem K. that he could be enrolled in the 1st year students right now, but for this he would have to pay off all the debts literally today, pass tests from teachers and urgently start taking exams, since according to new educational standards in VSAU certification events for students begin not in January, but in early December. Hand over all "debts" right here and now! As they say, it is strong … For this he was advised to contact the university teachers personally … The semantic accents of this sentence are difficult to convey in a regular text, but an attentive reader will guess himself in what sense the word "personally" could have sounded …
It would seem that everything is correct: let the guy go and do dozens of tests and practical work in all academic disciplines in the 1st semester, negotiate with the teachers about passing half a dozen tests in one day and literally tomorrow he will start taking exams, which, it seems,, you still need to prepare.
But let's imagine for a moment the state of a young man who for a year was forced to engage in army activities, and it clearly did not imply the calculation of definite integrals and finding the roots of equations written in matrix form, and after that he suddenly found himself in a situation where he was practically they say that the leadership of the university, excuse me, does not care about the very hardships of military service and the benefits prescribed in the law.
Artem decided not to conflict with the management, and, indeed, went to count the steps of the Higher State Agrarian University, planning to walk from one teacher's office to another in order to go through the entire procedure of "preferential" enrollment. However, already the first teacher, with whom Artyom had to talk, "put everything" on the shelves, and said that he was not going to enter the position of a former student, because he "knows" that he was expelled from the university in the fall of 2011 only because student K. is "dumb". “And there is no need to say, - said the teacher, who, apparently, had heard little about such a concept as pedagogical tact, - that you yourself decided to join the army.” “We know, we know,” continued the “informed” assistant professor, “how you yourself go to the army. I couldn't study myself, that's why I thundered into our valiant one."
You can imagine how everything began to bubble up inside Artyom. If desired, he could get out of the folder his red diploma of a specialized technical school, and a school certificate with A's, and a military ID, and a recommendation to enter a university from a military unit, but Artyom just turned around and left … He took it and left … He counted below his dignity to speak with a person for whom lies and slander have become the norm. Artyom didn’t try to prove that the assistant professor was wrong, he didn’t begin to explain, foaming at his mouth, how his expulsion actually took place. As he descended the stairs of the Voronezh STATE University, he simply played one thought in his head: "benefits for admission for those who served", "state benefits for admission", "benefits" …
But, as practice has shown, state benefits for admission to a university for those who have served on conscription can be such a plastic substance that they can easily be transformed into any figure in the hands of university stakeholders. Perhaps the VSAU would have remembered the benefits for conscripts if Artyom had put a certain amount in the envelope? Perhaps it was then that the preferential principles spelled out in the presidential decree were activated in this university?
For reference:
Voronezh State Agrarian University, bearing the great name of Emperor Peter I, currently trains about 15 thousand students in 30 specialties. The university employs over 640 teachers. The head of the VSAU is Doctor of Agricultural Sciences Vyacheslav Ivanovich Kotarev, who himself, after serving in the ranks of the Soviet army, entered the Voronezh Agricultural Institute.
Interestingly, Vyacheslav Ivanovich was also told upon admission that it was futile to enroll him as a student, and he went to the army only because he did not want and could not study … Apparently, at that time the teachers of the SKI did not speak in such a tone with the applicants who had given their debt to the Motherland. could allow … And today - freedom, today - allow …
But what happened at the Peter I Higher State Agrarian University is a real sabotage of the letter of the presidential decree. In fact, the leadership of the university, which positions itself as a quote: "a living, dynamically developing organism, an active participant in the modernization of all aspects of the life of Russian society," simply spits from the high bell tower at all the efforts of the Russian authorities to raise the prestige of the army service. Apparently, here they are following the path: whoever signed the law, let him provide benefits himself …
So, perhaps in this regard, it is worth not to disgrace the name of the Russian Emperor Peter the Great and urgently rename the university, well, for example, into the Voronezh State Agrarian University named after False Dmitry II. At least this name is much more accurate characterizes a certain direction of work.
From the editorial board of "VO". If you have encountered something like this, send your stories, preferably with the specific names of the perpetrators, we will voice them on the pages of the site. As they say, water wears away a stone. If we are not silent, maybe something will change for the better.
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