Transcript of the meeting:

Vladimir Putin: Good afternoon.

I'm very pleased to see your institute, one of the leading educational establishments in the country. Now Mr Kudryavstev (rector) showed me the portraits of your rectors, those who worked here in the past and still work here now. This is very impressive. Academician Nikolsky is more than a hundred years old, and read his first lecture here on September 1, 1947. As far as I know, he is still working.

There were outstanding scientists, statesmen, and military leaders among the heads of your institute. You now have more than 100 members in the Academy of Sciences and many people who work not only in science but also in the industry. This is why we have chosen your institute as a venue for discussing the problems of the development of higher education.

Today, higher education is developing actively, and its material base is improving. We have just been to a new hostel. The rector said that this is the first hostel built since 1983. Nothing else has been built since then. Having received an opportunity, we funded the construction of the hostel and some other projects. I'm hoping very much that they will be used effectively, all the more so as the rector said that almost 70% of your institute's students live in the hostel. Even Muscovites live here because it's rather far from their homes.

As you know, today the world and this country are undergoing economic difficulties that also affect higher education. First of all, it is important to make sure that those students who pay for their education are able to do so. Another very important and urgent issue is employment. This is probably the key issue for every graduate.

Most likely, the first two issues concern you less than others because few people pay for their education at yours and other technical institutes, for that matter. This is the first point. I think that the heads of your institute and the ministry recently launched a very good programme - transferring good students who pay for their education to budget-funded seats. However, this issue is very urgent for others.

I'd like to use this opportunity to say that we will continue to grant loans for education. This is the first point. Second, the Government is now considering additional money to partially subsidise the loans that students take out. Third, strategic banks will now introduce additional programmes of funding loans for education.

This is the second group of questions. Employment is the third one. As far as I know, your institute is also resolving it well. Many work starting from the fourth year, and have an idea as to where they will work.

It goes without saying that this is an ideal option, because the companies where you undergo practice understand with whom they are dealing. They have an opportunity to orient their future employees and current students to what will be required of them in the future. This will also help graduates to orient themselves, concentrate their attention on important things, and make the most rational use of their time in the institute.

I think that additional education will also be required in the current conditions, and the problems on the labour market. This is why we will increase the number of budget-funded Master's seats to 35,000 and those in post-graduate courses to 30,000. Last year, the relevant figure was 25,000.

The Ministry of Education and Science is already studying possibilities for setting up youth design bureaus together with our strategic companies, and involving more student researchers for a term of one to three years. Needless to say, we intend to expand the innovations environment around higher educational establishments.

I'm referring to small companies, business incubators, and so on. We should enable young people to undertake research immediately upon graduation.

These are the areas that we are now working on to stabilise the situation in the labour market.

I've said all this in order to start the discussion. I'm sure you have some questions, so please go ahead.

Question: Mr Putin, did you like our new hostel?

Vladimir Putin: I liked it. It's a modern hostel. I hope its quality is good, with one room for every three students. When Mr Kudrayvtsev and I entered one room with two beds, I was told it's for three people. I was somewhat surprised, but then saw a third bed there. So, I hope everything is done properly.

I was particularly pleased that the heads of your institute managed not only to build it in time (and rather fast) but also to save on its construction. Now this is rare. Usually, people ask us for money: "We have very little. Please give us more." Here the picture is different. This means that people primarily think about students, about their job. I understand that they did not save on quality. Your rector told me that your former graduates who are now academics and professors went to the hostel and started weeping, saying, "We wish we lived in such conditions".

Regrettably, not all hostels are as nice as this one, but this is also understandable because everything built in the 1950s, 1960s, and 1970s has become morally and physically obsolete. As far as I know, repairs are regular.

Your rector said that many students are from the provinces, and I'm very pleased about that. It is great that MIPT supports this practice. First of all, this pools talent from all parts of the country, which is excellent, and allows them to engage in research. Are 500 students engaged in research?

Nikolai Kudryavtsev: Research?

Vladimir Putin: Yes.

Nikolai Kudryavtsev: More. Here everyone is involved in research, all seniors, and there are 2,000 of them now.

Vladimir Putin: Mr Kudryavtsev, how did you manage to attract talents from all over Russia?

Nikolai Kudryavtsev: First, we have a free extracurricular school of physics and technology. Before, it was like this: you received an assignment, did it, and sent it back. A student or a post-graduate student, your supervisor, sends you all remarks and guide you like this. Assignments are usually compiled by teachers and post-graduates at a higher level. Now we are also mastering the electronic form. This can be done over the Internet.

This school has four senior grades and about 15,000 students all over Russia.

Vladimir Putin: I didn't quite understand. Is it a virtual school?

Nikolai Kudryavtsev: Yes, this is a virtual school.

Vladimir Putin: You mean that people are studying all over the country?

Nikolai Kudryavtsev: Absolutely. You can write and be accepted. There are no entrance exams. You will study, and raise your level in physics and math. This is a kind of a social lift that will enable smart young people to find their path in life regardless of their parents' backgrounds.

The graduating class is up to four or five thousand people. A quarter of the graduates matriculate in our institute while others go to other institutes all over Russia. Half of the students in our institute are graduates of this school.

Vladimir Putin: Is it like a foundation programme?

Nikolai Kudryavtsev: Yes, you can call it that. One of our graduates runs the school. At one time, he was the winner of contests and a member of a national physics team. He runs it very well. He is young, not even 30.

Vladimir Putin: Who has graduated from the school?

Nikolai Kudryavtsev: Yes, please raise your hands.

Vladimir Putin: There are many of them.

Remark: Some of us even taught there. In the first and second years, students teach in this school, checking assignments for a little extra money.

Vladimir Putin: In other words, you enter the institute and start teaching?

Remark: This is optional.

Vladimir Putin: For money?

Remark: Sure!

Nikolai Kudryavtsev: This school is financed from the federal budget, not by its students. This is a federal extracurricular school of physics and technology.

Vladimir Putin: I see. How long do they study there? A year?

Nikolai Kudryvtsev: They may study for four years but may also go to the 11th, final grade. This also happens sometimes. The school has worked for more than 40 years, and has done a very good job.

Vladimir Putin: Now that schools have been computerised on a national scale, the work of this school has also become simpler, hasn't it?

Nikolai Kudryavtsev: We are now at a turning point, and have even received a grant from the ministry to switch over to the electronic form.

We need to develop an interactive programme that would allow us to conduct a dialogue. We need to do more than just exchange e-mails. We have to work on it, but I think we are close to the end.

Vladimir Putin: Incidentally, this year we'll launch a federal targeted programme for training and encouraging young teachers. It's called the Programme of Support for Teachers and Scientists. Under it, we'll give grants to young researchers.

We'll also continue the former programme of grants to young masters and doctors of science. The annual grant to young masters of science will be 600,000 roubles, and for young doctors of science, a million roubles.

Nikolai Kudryavstev: This money will not go straight to their pockets. This is for organisation, because they are kind of top managers there, and on the infrastructure.

Vladimir Putin: Why won't it go to their pockets? Are you depriving them of the money?

Nikolai Kudryavstev: We have to build infrastructure here.

Vladimir Putin: How do you stand on equipment?

Nikolai Kudryavstev: During the first contests of innovation educational establishments we won with the programme on high technologies, the economy, and innovations. This is the most difficult part of the innovation chain - from a scientific idea to a prototype that is already of interest to business or industry.

For two years, we were funded from the budget - 210 million roubles a year. We spent 75% of this money to purchase equipment. Some of it was unique (we set up three unique centres), and some was meant for our lab. We'll show it to you. We'll go there and look.

Vladimir Putin: What about equipment?

Nikolai Kudryavtsev: We won the first stage of the university innovation contest. Our programme involved high technologies, the economy and innovation. It implied the hardest part of the innovation chain, from the scientific idea to the pilot sample presented to business and industry.

We had budget funding for two years, at an annual rate of 210 million roubles, and spent 75% of the money on equipment. Some of it had no analogues, and we used it to establish three unique centres. Laboratory equipment was bought, too. You will see it later.

The rest of the money was spent mostly on teaching aids.

There is a generation gap now. Young people are taking university jobs. We are doing a lot to attract them-but then, a person above 30-35 years of age is not considered young nowadays. We have instructed our teaching aids not to squander our experience, so we had two opportunities to earn good money. This is why the institute has a new look now. We also made major purchases in 1980-or maybe 1985, at the latest. Some of our staff members even had to undergo postgraduate training to cope with the new equipment, but we certainly placed the main emphasis on the youth.

Vladimir Putin: Let us get back to the school you have mentioned. Do you attract children through such schools?

Nikolai Kudryavtsev: Yes.

Vladimir Putin: Do they have entrance examinations? Is anyone enrolled on the basis of the Unified State Examination?

Nikolai Kudryavtsev: Applicants are divided into three groups.

Vladimir Putin: What are they?

Nikolai Kudryavtsev: The first is comprised of applicants who submit Unified State Examination certificates.

Vladimir Putin: Is it a large group? Active debates are underway now concerning the examination, as we know. What do you think of it?

Nikolai Kudryavtsev: I think we have a job to do. The decision has been made, and it is too late to discuss it. I think the decision is fairly balanced. Our educational experts are conservative, and that is good. Many took the Unified State Examination with a grain of salt. We joined the relevant experiment from the start to have enough time for preparations, and we watched the academic success of students who had passed the examination. They do no worse than the students who passed entrance examinations at the institute.

Vladimir Putin: Are there any students here who enrolled on Unified State Examination certificates?

Student: I was. I scored a 100% in physics and the same in mathematics.

Vladimir Putin: Where are you from?

Student: Rostov-on-Don.

Vladimir Putin: So you just mailed your papers here?

Student: As it turned out, I took part in institute contests, whose status is equal to entrance examinations. My marks were close to top, so it was no problem earning top marks on the Unified State Examination.

Vladimir Putin: Did you earn top marks in all subjects?

Student: Only in physics and mathematics.

Nikolai Kudryavtsev: The principle disciplines here.

Vladimir Putin: Was the examination hard?

Student: It was no problem after all my preparations for institute and school contests.

Vladimir Putin: What, in your opinion, is wrong with the Unified State Examination?

Student: Examination tests are not always graded objectively, I am afraid. I was lucky, but some people I know had problems.

Vladimir Putin: Anyway, the opportunity to enrol with the Unified State Examination helps gifted young people from the provinces-or am I wrong?

Nikolai Kudryavtsev: True, it helps applicants from the regions. Some parents cannot afford to send their children to Moscow for entrance examinations, so our geographic diversity was rather narrow, and it took a toll on students. They were getting somewhat worse, in our opinion.

The Unified State Examination takes many different kinds of contests into account. We are very active in contests and have extended their geography. We enrol applicants from three sources-the Unified State Examination, our own entrance examinations, and contests. There is a national contest and contests we arrange independently in 30 cities. We come to all major centres to meet our hopefuls. We have even established hundred point marks for contests, entrance examinations, and the Unified State Examination.

Vladimir Putin: But then, Andrei was right to say the Unified State Examination has its drawbacks. They should be taken stock of to improve the arrangement. That matters most.

Nikolai Kudryavtsev: That's the most difficult thing of all. The examination is no test, and marks may really be subjective, to an extent.

Vladimir Putin: But entrance examination results may also be evaluated subjectively.

Nikolai Kudryavtsev: That's right. It's hard to say whether an applicant has coped with 70% or 90% of the assignment. That's the whole problem.

Student: There is another problem, with several possible solution methods. People who check Unified State Examination assignments occasionally do not know them all, so they can say the test was not passed.

Vladimir Putin: Even when the solution is correct? These drawbacks must be removed.

Nikolai Kudryavtsev: That is what we are doing. We will take measures for mathematics next year. We are working with mathematicians to change the arrangement a bit-not this year, but next. We intend to post the entire range of several thousand Unified State Examination assignments on the Internet. They should all be widely accessible because we think that a boy or girl who has done 5,000 sums at school deserves to be enrolled. There is nothing to be afraid of.

Vladimir Putin: What if the school student was prompted with those problems?

Nikolai Kudryavtsev: It doesn't matter. One at least remembers another person's solution.

Vladimir Putin: Right. Are students doing research?

Nikolai Kudryavtsev: All senior students are-from the third and fourth years. They are here. You can ask them.

Vladimir Putin: Who is doing research, and what is it? Speak up please.

Student: I work at an R&D bureau that designs mini satellites for a television linkup in Korolev. Some of our students are working at Gazprom, partly representing the institute. Many can use their extracurricular research in Bachelor's or magisterial theses by expanding the same theme later. I think almost all senior students present here are also doing research at institute departments or in companies. That is the usual practice.

Vladimir Putin: Do you have direct contact with any company?

Student: I am working for my chair at the Machine Science Institute. The department is designing databases for it and doing research on an essential theme, the theory of traffic-we are elaborating the theory for organising traffic in Moscow. Not that we are having any great success, but still...

Vladimir Putin: I see. You are doing the right thing, and I wish you every success.

Student: I have published several relevant contributions, though I am only in my fourth year.

Vladimir Putin: So you are doing traffic and space research simultaneously?

Student: I manage.

Vladimir Putin: Which do you like more?

Student: I am not sure. My parents were involved in the space effort, so it naturally appeals to me. As for traffic, it is necessary research. I drive myself, so I know it has to be done. It's hell driving here!

Vladimir Putin: Sometimes you feel it's better to stay indoors.

Student: It's more convenient to live on the campus.

Vladimir Putin: Right.

Student: The fewer people are driving, the better the traffic situation is.

Vladimir Putin: You mentioned satellite research. Have any spacecraft you helped design been launched?

Student: Not yet, but a pilot craft is being designed now. It represents the quintessence of the latest satellite technologies. It will allow Russia to discard the heavy craft it was building previously and is building now on the same patterns. It takes a huge bureau employing a couple thousand to design such craft, and six years to make one.

Vladimir Putin: What is the main problem with such craft?

Student: They are heavy and rare. As far as I know, Russia has only one spacecraft for remote sensing.

Vladimir Putin: Their service life matters most. Our entire economy depends on it.

Student: Yes, if we double the service life, the craft will be twice as profitable, because the costs will stay approximately the same. We are working on it, too. We think we need 50 people, not a thousand, to build our craft. It will be ten times lighter and last several years longer with the same functions as the craft of previous generations.

Vladimir Putin: Our space research should use more advanced technologies than now.

Student: Yes, they are outdated a bit because many specialists are past their prime. True, our space and rocket research has a major forestall, but we were lagging behind in satellites for quite a while. Though we were the first for manned flights, it was America that built the first communication satellite. We have been working to catch up with it ever since. Now, at last, we have the opportunity to engage students, who are quick on the uptake. As a result, we have the chance to catch up and make spacecraft up to the highest world standards, which will compete with foreign equivalents and even be superior to them. They will be made entirely of Russian-manufactured parts to allow for industry diversification.

Vladimir Putin: The service life of Russian spacecraft is several years longer now-but that is not enough. We need to prolong it by another five years. This is a complex task that involves materials and much more.

Voice from the audience: Meanwhile, the whole thing flops when one part fails. There are not enough standby devices.

Vladimir Putin: Was it your craft that collided with American satellites?

Voice: No!

Vladimir Putin: Was it accidental?

Voice: I am not sure. There is an old joke. The Shuttle collided with a meteorite ...

Vladimir Putin: Is it a dirty joke? The press is here, you see.

Voice: Press statement: The Shuttle collided with a meteorite and crashed. The Soviet meteorite crew received government awards.

Vladimir Putin: They did it. Who is doing what research?

Student: I am in my fourth year now, and work at the research and educational nanotechnological centre, which Dmitry Medvedev visited two years ago. We now work in many fields.

Vladimir Putin: At the Kurchatov Institute?

Student: No, it's a new building here. Our department and chair are working at gas semiconductor sensor systems. That's rather an old problem tackled for years. But then, there are new aspects to it. We, in particular, are working for the system to exude substances against the background of permanent admixtures, such as car exhaust fumes, which badly pollute the air.

We are steadily extending the substance basis. Our research promises ample industrial use in production and safety systems. The latest materials and cutting-edge equipment are of great help.

Vladimir Putin: If you pool all your efforts, our satellites will last twenty years or so.

Do you know the nanotechnological research programme we advanced about two years ago? And have you heard about the Nanotechnology Fund?

Student: Yes, our institute educational centre is developing apace. It employs a far greater number of young researchers than veterans. Students account for a major part. The average age of our personnel is 25. Students make more than a half. They find the job very interesting.

Vladimir Putin: It is quite a new and promising branch of research.

Student: Our bosses are 30-40 year old.

Vladimir Putin: Are you in contact with other research centres? How have you arranged partnership with colleagues in other Moscow centres, in Russia and abroad?

Student: Our centre often evaluates gadgetry made in other centres thanks to our cutting-edge multi-functional microscopic equipment.

Vladimir Putin: Do you allow outsiders use it?

Student: Yes, we do. We are presently working at the idea of collective centres for people who have none of the expensive gauges they need to bring us samples for all-round studies.

Vladimir Putin: Do you have an access to other research centres' equipment?

Student: Sure, thanks to our managers who cooperate with such centres.

Vladimir Putin: I see. But is it possible for undergraduates and researchers employed here to use the equipment of the Academy of Sciences and other centres?

Nikolai Kudryavtsev: Mr Putin, that's no problem among normal scientists.

Vladimir Putin: Do you have such access here?

Nikolai Kudryavtsev: Of course. Any manager in the system knows all his neighbours, so that's no problem at all.

Vladimir Putin: I met with Yury Osipov, the President of the Academy of Sciences, yesterday. We talked the matter over. He said other research centres were widely using Academy facilities, university centres being no exception.

Nikolai Kudryavtsev: The Academy of Sciences is our only system partner after the collapse of the USSR. The Academy affiliates 43 out of the total 96 basic organisations-that is, a half.

The exchange is very dynamic within the Academy, too, at the managerial level.

Vladimir Putin: You have a branch in Kiev, if I am not mistaken?

Nikolai Kudryavtsev: We do.

Vladimir Putin: Is it an educational branch?

Nikolai Kudryavtsev: This is how it works. Our commission goes to Kiev for interviews with tentative applicants. Some Ukrainians come to Moscow to enrol. They spend four years here for Bachelor's degree and go to the Ukrainian Academy of Sciences to do research. We have six chairs in Ukraine. The work of the branch got its full scope in 1978, if I am not mistaken. We had problems in 1998. We even thought we should have closed it-but we decided to fight, and we were success. The branch is very popular, and our Ukrainian students are doing well.

Vladimir Putin: Do you know why I have asked this question? The nanotechnological project envisages pooling in all positive achievements in the post-Soviet and ever a greater area. The scientists who work at this range of problems in the former Soviet republics feel unwanted at home. Some countries overlook the problem and others merely cannot afford such research. These scientists need the chance to fulfil themselves. Their work will be of use to the entire post-Soviet area, their native countries and naturally to Russia. Such all-round partnership in the comprehensive problem of nanotechnologies will bring good results. So your branch is an infrastructural institution to be used for personnel training and research in the most promising fields.

Nikolai Kudryavtsev: Mr Putin, our institute is an associated member of the International Association of the Academies of Sciences. It comprises all Academies of Sciences of the post-Soviet countries, the Baltic ones being the only exception. We gather twice a year to discuss everything we need, and the associated members have the chance of communication. Other post-Soviet countries are not so well represented at the Institute of Physics and Technology. We have a branch in Belarus, and we can only regret that its work has been suspended-mainly because it does not interest the host country enough. As for students from other post-Soviet countries, they are, for the most part, former members of national teams for contests in physics and mathematics-physics mostly.

Vladimir Putin: So you invite gifted young people. That's good.

Nikolai Kudryavtsev: A half of our Ukrainian students naturalise in Russia towards the end of tuition.

Vladimir Putin: That's their choice.

Nikolai Kudryavtsev: That's right.

Vladimir Putin: Are there any questions you want to ask me? Or would we go and see the laboratories and everything else you want to show?

Student: What will the state do in the future to promote technical innovation projects at their inception?

Vladimir Putin: We have a set of tools to promote them. I have mentioned one, the Nanotechnology Fund, and there is a wide range of federal target programmes related to high technologies. We have great financial problems this year and, to all appearances, they will last into the next. Despite all that, we have preserved all high-tech projects as we arrange priorities for the time of crisis. All space, civilian and military shipbuilding and other projects are going on. We have an engineering project, too, and many others, I cannot enumerate them by heart. So we are not cutting high-tech projects. Only token cuts have been made. We have left intact all high-tech projects of the Education and Science Ministry. That's the first field.
Investment projects make the second field. Here, the state promotes certain high-tech projects, and will continue supporting them. So the investment field survives.
Last but not least, there is a third field. That is support for small and medium-sized companies, especially those engaged in high technologies. We have decided to offer taxation privileges to all small and medium-sized companies. They are the greatest for high-tech enterprise, with special preferences.
Everything we have mentioned today is also support for the personnel.

Andrei Fursenko: May I put in a word?

Vladimir Putin: Yes, please.

Andrei Fursenko: The programme Mr Putin is referring to concerns the professorial staff.

Vladimir Putin: It's a new programme.

Andrei Fursenko: It is taking start this year. The first contest will be announced quite soon. It concerns many fields and encourages young people to take part. So please pay attention to it. You can find it on the website.

Next, there is a rather well-known Fund for Assistance to Small Technical Research Companies. Funding has been cut in some places, but this fund will get everything down to the last kopeck. So support of small companies and enterprising people who want to cooperate with them to launch projects will be much greater than last year. Financing will increase by 30% or even more, if I am not mistaken. So look up all the projects you have mentioned on the Internet.

Vladimir Putin: I want to say something else about what we are doing. Take our decisions, for instance, in the fiscal sphere. Now, we are making the pension reform consistently and actively. It is not of any interest to you as yet-but it has great practical importance. I will explain it. We intend de facto increase of the unified social tax. The rise does not concern the tax itself but insurance deductions. Small investment companies will be exempt from those increased deductions. This is not an only instance, I mentioned it just as an example.

The special economic zones for high-tech projects will also function. So the set of tools we created recently will receive support and promotion, and more tools will be introduced. That is what the state is doing. As for promotion by private enterprise, I don't think your institute has any reason to complain. It has extensive direct contacts. Many company managers, who will attend our meeting today, are present in the institute not formally but practically. Many teach here, and students undergo training in their companies. It is a very good form of contact, and I hope it will develop, though many companies are in dire straits now, and their problems tell on their relations with higher education some way or other.

Student: Mr Putin, I want to describe the problem of high-tech projects once again. They cannot get necessary funds from certain agencies. The small businesses support fund deals with small sums, 700,000 roubles a year, while, let say, the grants Rosnano Co. gives out are too big-small businesses are afraid to approach.

Vladimir Putin: Do you think it was easy to find money in the past? That's wrong. Possibly, the present situation offers greater chance because high technologies are in greater demand now than ever before-energy-saving technologies, in particular. One has to be efficient now to stay competitive despite money shortages. Whatever high-tech projects increasing productivity will find their users. I never doubt it. The demand will be greater now than recently, when such projects were shrugged off, because one has to get more competitive to stay afloat. Perceptions grow more acute at such times as this, so lucrative offers will meet with great demand. As for problems, they exist at any time.

Student: A majority of our students have come from regions, as Mr Kudryavtsev said. We are getting good education here. But a young specialist needs a home to make a career in high-tech production or become a professor. Where to find accommodation? What would you advise?

Vladimir Putin: This is the most painful question for young scientists and other specialists. It is always a responsible choice. As for state efforts, there is a federal housing programme with subprogrammes for young specialists and young families to get housing loans co-funded by the federal and regional budgets. It is harder to obtain such a loan now. All privileges are gone. Still, the arrangement is going on. If you have already established contacts with the company you are going to work for, you can ask it for help. The company can arrange a loan for you. Not that it is a simple thing, with interest rising. But then, it has to rise, considering 13% inflation. Interest rates cannot get behind inflation rates. It can, in a sense, but what about the refinancing rate? Such co-funding is sizable in certain regions. That is the simplest way. Or you can have a direct arrangement with your company.

Nikolai Kudryavtsev: If a company is greatly interested in employing a graduate but cannot buy him a flat, it usually pays for a rented flat as a first step.

Vladimir Putin: But that is a temporary arrangement. A young man needs a flat of his own to start a family.

Nikolai Kudryavtsev: There are so many pretty girls in Moscow!

Vladimir Putin: I think Anton wants to cope with his problems on his own, as any young man would like to. That's the right thing to do. Anyway, the best way to solve the problem is to work well and earn well enough to afford housing.

Student: Let us get back to secondary school. I am a private tutor and have many pupils. One of them, an 11th form girl, has no physics classes at school.

Vladimir Putin: No physics classes? How that? What classes does she have?

Student: Economics at a school affiliated to the Higher School of Economics. She is thinking where to apply-the Higher School of Economics or the Institute of Physics and Technology. To enrol for the latter, she needs to pass the Unified State Examination. For that, she must study physics, so she has found a teacher at the same school for private classes. But what about others, who are not resourceful enough to find a private tutor? School pupils are seldom sure what career to take. Sometimes, they choose this or another physical institute as late as in the final, 11th form.

Vladimir Putin: I see. It is stunning-I have always thought that basic education needs unified standards. It has never occurred to me that basic education does not provide general knowledge on principal disciplines. That's rather a question for the Education and Science Minister. I will talk to him about it-possibly, not in this audience. I don't know what to say. Perhaps they think the pupils have received all the information they need and now is the time for streaming. As to me, I think they should study basic disciplines-mathematics and physics included-up to graduation. I think the teachers are guided by simple logic: if you have received basic education and want to take up a particular field, you can go to another school. But it is hard to do, especially considering the address. It is difficult even for senior formers to go to a distant school. So, I think, such educational systems as that need precise improvement.

Student: I think one should have freedom of choice up to the 11th form.

Vladimir Putin: You are right. I am really stunned. I repeat: they might think the pupils have already received basic knowledge and should have streaming. If you don't like it, you are free to go to another school. But that is hard to do even in Moscow, and might be quite impossible in outlying areas. That is for the Education Ministry to consider.

Andrei Fursenko: The matter concerns specialised school. I think the girl has chosen the school herself because she wanted to specialise in economics. That is why she goes to a school under the Higher School of Economics. The 10th and 11th forms have specialised tuition there, if I am not mistaken. But then, she might have realised that economics is not all in this life. Choice is a hazardous thing.

Vladimir Putin: Choice is an eternal problem. One should make one's choice on one's own but the state should guarantee certain standards.

Andrei Fursenko: The standards are observed. Basic knowledge of physics is provided up to the 9th form. Mr Putin, you know I received education in a different field. I agree physics should be studied through the 11th form, just as mathematics. But that school might be of a different opinion. The children might have chosen it because it does not teach physics but has economics, humanities, etc.

Student: She grasped the situation only in September, after she made her choice.

Vladimir Putin: So she changed her mind.

Andrei Fursenko: I think it was hard for her to enrol in that school.

Vladimir Putin: Her age is not the age for a final choice. That's the whole problem. Ilya's pupil is very young. She has some priorities today and may shift them tomorrow-but she will have no physics classes. I don't know whether it is the correct arrangement. We should think about it together.

Student: I, too, finished a specialist school-the Novosibirsk physics and mathematics school. Many of our students come from it. The school provided basic education in economics and many other disciplines. Some of us entered humanities departments.

Vladimir Putin: You studied literature and history up to leaving, didn't you?

Student: Complete basic education.

Vladimir Putin: What you have said is an example of overdoing things. It implies a final choice. Nothing can be changed even when you are still at school. I don't think that is reasonable. But regulations enable a school to arrange tuition that way. The ministry should consider the matter. Thank you for paying attention to it.
Any more questions?

Student: Mr Putin, there are rather many higher educational establishments in Russia. Some of them provide what we might call elite education.

Vladimir Putin: Elite is a bad word.

Student: All right, let us say the best education.

Vladimir Putin: The more profound one.

Student: There is the Unified State Examination, and there are school contests. As you see, two parallel trends are developing. One selects the best of the best while the other guarantees choice and caters for as many people as possible.

Vladimir Putin: Both are admissible, I think. Andrei says he himself has passed the Unified State Examination and seen its weak points at once. The relevant agency-the Education Ministry in this instance-should take it into consideration and improve the Unified State Examination. It does not rule out selection of gifted people with the help of contests. They are used to great effect today not only by this institute but also by the Moscow, St Petersburg and practically all foremost universities. That is an opportunity to choose the people a university wants even at an early stage. Then, a contest has the air of competition and creativity, which is always beneficial. I think we should promote them, and we will.

Student: Pupils occasionally orient on the Unified State Examination, and never mind extensive and profound knowledge. It is difficult to combine both approaches.

Vladimir Putin: You are right. But still, as we have said, the Unified State Examination gives the opportunity to take a broader view of the entire country. As for the contest system, however well it might be arranged, it is selective and does not allow involve the whole nation. So, as I see it, the right thing to do is to combine the two. Then, leading universities can have interviews with applicants. That is also effective. I don't think we should concentrate on one arrangement. It would be wise to use the tools that allow the selection of the most talented people who really want to receive the profession they choose and have the gifts for it-those who do not make their choice proceeding from the passing popularity of a profession or for other down-to-earth reasons.

Is that all? I wish you every success. Thank you very much.