Moscow State Woes

GOVERNMENT BREAKS PROMISES TO LECTURERS AT MOSCOW STATE UNIVERSITY WHILE MANY STAFF LEAVE A FREEZE ON THE EMPLOYMENT OF NEW LECTURERS IS IMPOSED!

By Stephen Wilson

(Moscow, Russia) - This is hardly Moscow State University's finest moments.  There is a freeze on the hiring of new staff, repeated broken promises to increase the already meagre salary of lecturers and a huge turn-over of staff who just can't make ends meet!
                   
One of the great mysteries to any outsiders is how such low paid staff continue to scrape by on virtually nothing.  They might as well be voluntary charity workers! Now even the most optimistic lecturer has lost his illusions in a government which breaks promise after promise in a cynical and couldn't care less attitude which doesn't even disguise disrespect.

'Some staff are already discussing emigrating abroad or just giving up their profession. The disillusionment is vast! ' claims one academic which I hesitate to name. So there is a rising mood of disenchantment and anger which won't be so easily appeased as government officials hope.

At the Institute of Foreign languages as many as 50% of lecturers (maybe more) have left while at the same time a freeze on the employment of new staff has been imposed. This has left many courses without lecturers! For example,at the department of the Theory of languages, 40 female lecturers and 5 men previously worked, but this number has declined to around 20 of the former and one or two of the latter.

The salary of a full time lecturer who provides 10 lectures a week can come to approximately 10,000 roubles a month, while a part-timer on half Stavka would receive 5000 roubles and someone on a quarter Stavka,2000 roubles.(10,000 roubles comes to around 320$.)
                   
Since a teacher of English as a foreign language can earn as much as 10,000 roubles on two good day is it any surprise to find lecturers going private? After all, what lecturer could support a family on this money? This might explain why there are so few male lecturers. The             female lecturers often depend on their husband's income to get by.
                   
Many of the lecturers have other jobs. They practically don't have any free time. Another problem is that when some professors die, they just can't be replaced. Only recently, the brilliant lecturer Professor Alexander Vaschenko, a specialist in mythology died from cancer. Alexander was one of the few professors who actively supported and assisted a unique storytelling project which opened the university up to a wider public.


The government claims it lacks the cash. This is utterly unconvincing. Over the past 15 years the oil and gas companies obtained three trillion dollars. Even a fraction of this would be enough to boost the salaries of lecturers not to mention properly fund the Academy of Sciences which has long been starved of funds! The government also announced that it was allocating 7 billion roubles (more than 200 million dollars) to the newly obtained Institute of Nuclear and                 Theoretical Physics! The budget of the local Moscow Government is staggering, yet none of this money finds its way into increasing the meagre salaries of lecturers.

'A lot of money is being made at the University itself through private courses, yet none of this is being allocated to financing a pay rise,' states an academic called Maria.

Why this is clear is evident. Holding a government post is not seen as serving the community interest, but merely grabbing what you can get. Politics has been reduced to a lucratively           corrupt business where officials believe they are above the law, principles and so addicted to making money they believe they are beyond any good or evil. There is no genuine accountability in government, as well as in running the education system.
                   
The government has already passed a law which spells the liquidation of 'The Academy of Sciences'. Even by the standards of amoral politics, this lacks any logic.

What is sad is that so many devoted and dedicated lecturers have become so demoralised they have abandoned the university altogether. It would be more accurate to suggest the university has abandoned them. And where are they going? They are often turning into businessmen! So paying low salaries, freezing new staff recruitment and starving the university of resources represents  a relentless privatisation drive. It creates an atmosphere where a lecturer is under pressure to feel apologetic about not being a businessman! It is time to stop apologizing and agitating instead!

The facts are there is no shortage of funds to create a much more caring and improved education system. There is just a lack of genuine will from a mean and myopic government who represent the rich, and arrogantly abuse the poor.