O S E A S * E U R O P E

Advising in the Newly Independent States: What We Do, How We Do It, and Where We Can Help Each Other

Minutes recorded by:

Chair: Zara Oganessian, Educational Adviser, IREX EAC, Erevan, Armenia

Speakers: 1) Ivan Tsarikov, EAC Advising Director, Soros Educational Advising Center, Minsk, Belarus 2) Vera Ternovskaya, Educational Adviser, International Educational Advising Center, Kiev, Ukraine 3) Olga Kachaeva, US Educational Adviser, Saratov State University, Saratov, Russia.

The session was opened by Zara Oganessian, the chair of this panel discussion, with a general description of educational advising activities in the Newly Independent States.

There are different organizations in these countries dealing with educational advising and research exchanges which established their EACs through the region, and the number of such centers is increasing annually. All of these EACs: IREX, ACTR/ACCELS, Sor os Foundation, independent and combined are differentiated mainly from the point of view of their source of financing, equipment supply and priorities in their work, but all of them have very much in common: administering programs, personal advising, cond ucting of testing etc.

Among the speakers at the session there are representatives of the IREX, Soros, independent, and combined EACs.

The Chair underlined that advising in the sphere of higher education is a rather new activity for all the countries of the region. And though being carried out by different organizations and influenced by regional peculiarities, advising has the same goal s, trends and principles in each country.
Besides, all the Educational Advisers working in the NIS now are in the beginning of this great and important work. Most of them have never visited US universities and have never experienced culture shock themselves but they search for ways of improving t he services they offer and try to help prospective students at all educational levels to reach their goals.

Now NIS advisers have to face and overcome similar difficulties of the first period of organization - a period of adaptation to home-country conditions and enrollment in the international advising process.

Remarks by Ivan Tsarikov:

Ivan emphasized the role of the Soros Foundation in establishing and maintaining of advising activities in the NIS through the network of Educational Advising Centers, and dwelt on the peculiarities of Soros EAC in Minsk working from 1993.

Among the activities of the Center, which are typical for every EAC in the NIS, he mentioned the following ones:

- Advising of students and scholars on study and research opportunities abroad
- Administering of the standardized tests
- Conducting lectures and workshops on different aspects of the US universities admission process;
- Coordinating of student-exchange and research programs;
- Managing the Center and budget development.

And one more program which is specific only for Soros Centers:

- Conducting the "Voucher Program", together with the American Embassy, which enables students applying to foreign universities to obtain on a competitive basis a voucher to be able to pay for standardized tests.

Speaking about Educational Advising in Belarus, Mr. Tsarikov stressed the necessity to create the network of EACs through the whole country (because, for the present moment, there are only two centers working in Belarus) to overcome certain ideological ob stacles in the situation of' power, to solve financial problems deriving from the Center's budget limitations.

He also suggested some ways of improving his adviser's work, for example to depict the process of advising as a scheme : student -> ed. adviser -> US university. He suggested this could also work in the opposite direction : US university -> ed. adviser -> student .

Remarks by Vera Ternovskaya

Vera underlined specific features and kinds of advising activities characteristic to Kiev EAC, which is an international office combining advising efforts of three different organizations - ACTR/ACCELS, Soros Foundation and Kiev State University, where it is located. The Center started functioning in November, 1993.

These organizations work separately but in close cooperation among themselves and with USIS Post and the America House in Kiev. IEAC is the bright example of this cooperation.

There are 8 EACs in Ukraine: 6 of Soros Foundation, 1 of ACTR/ACCELS and IEAC in Kiev. Being the largest EAC in the country, Kiev IEAC provides some specific kinds of advising activities, such as pre-departure orientation sessions for students departing t o study in the US, workshops:

- "How to write a statement of purpose"
- Special lectures for parents (in Ukrainian and Russian languages), attracting of foreign specialists working in the Ukraine to conduct lectures on American Culture and help in other ways in the EAC.

The staff prepared the lectures using video-films "If you want to study in the USA " and "You too can study in the United States".

They also collect useful information about the Education Systems and Sponsored Programs in the European Community and other countries of the World.

The center has all the books of the MRB and is equipped with CD-ROM system, several computers, one of them dedicated especially for students.

The speaker noticed that because of the imperfectness of Banking System it is not so easy to pay for ETS Tests and application fees in Ukraine.

Prospective students from the NIS who tried to enter US Universities individually faced many difficulties in the admission procedure. Nevertheless this year 25 applicants advised by IEAC Advisers were accepted to US Universities with full financial aid.
In addition Ms. Ternovskaya paid special attention to some aspects of advising considered most important for the moment:

- Advertising EAC's services and activities
- Compiling Handouts (in both English and Ukrainian languages)
- Searching for information on higher education in Western European countries
- Collecting information on financial support for study abroad.

Remarks by Zara Oganessian:

In her presentation of advising activities at IREX EAC in Erevan, Armenia, Zara stressed the achievements of advisory efforts in Armenia, where the Center worked in difficult conditions of the country in a war period without electricity and water.
The Center is the only place in Armenia where people can get information about US Universities, the admission process and sponsored programs. There researchers can receive professional advice for creating their projects as well as help in their practical realization.

Ms.Oganessian presents workshops on:
"Statement of Purpose"
"Pre-Departure Orientation"
and provides personal and group consultations.

The speaker noticed that it took more than two and a half years for each prospective Armenian student to pass through his/her admission process, but this year 15 applicants from Armenia were accepted to the US Universities.

She suggested some kind of help for American University Advisers and Admission Officers by providing them with any necessary information about the educational system and institutions, research opportunities and fields of special scientific interests in Ar menia which they might need in order to evaluate prospective students properly.

The Center was opened in 1992 and Ms. Oganessian considered this year's advisory work to be of great importance for the Center and the whole country because it brought the first results of their work in previous years: a lot of Armenian students and schol ars returned home after completing their study and research abroad.

Ms. Oganessian would like to have more information from the USIS Post and from the American Host Universities about the students coming back to Armenia in order to have some "feedback" for future work.

In this respect the development of special re-entry programs seemed to be very important and timely. Ms. Oganessian shared some ideas on the needs, strategies and aims of such programs.

Remarks by Olga Kachaeva

The fourth EAC introduced at this session is an independent one. It was opened in January 1995 in Saratov, Russia and was organized due to the enthusiasm and energy of its director, Olga Kachaeva, and the help of her colleagues, students and support of th e administration of Saratov State University.

In the first part of her speech Ms. Kachaeva gave some information about the history of Saratov. For many years it was a closed city working for the huge military complex. Only in Spring 1992 was its secret status was abolished. But in this big industrial and educational center with 16 universities, academies and research institutes there always was great interest in international cooperation with highly-developed countries, with the US in particular.

So the idea of creating an American Educational Center was a timely one. Though it took time and strong efforts to open the Center, it is now very popular and has completely confirmed the necessity of its existence. Suffice it to say that in February 1995 they had 500 visitors and in June - already 1500.

The Center established friendly connections with a number of US Universities and on this basis developed and now successfully conducts its own Exchange Program, the "Saratov-Wyoming Initiative".

The main part of this program was opening the Business College and organizing lectures not only in the USA but also in the EAC. This year four teachers from Saratov University passed through the training program in the USA and eight American professors an d lecturers gave classes for three months in Business, Bank Management, Accounting, teaching of Business English and TOEFL orientation in the EAC.

The Center is connected by close sister city contacts with the University of North Carolina, Chapel Hill.

Then Ms. Kachaeva described briefly the idea of the new Project "Distance Educational Program," which is planned to be executed with the Center as base, together with American universities.

Ms.Kachaeva noticed that there are two problems in her work: financial support and equipment. To be more precise: the absence of the both.

They have not had any financial support and may only use the university library computer and Xerox for center needs. To take into consideration the problems of such EACs the director suggested creating some kind of Financial/ Equipment Program and providi ng funds to support them.

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