In order to keep the UK education sector updated on the market changes, priorities and give an overview of the situation with Covid-19 in Wider Europe, the International Education Services team in the region is pleased to present you with the following news. 

In this update we will give you an overview of the situation with Covid-19 in the Wider Europe countries, the pandemic effect on the education system, economy and other key areas of countries' development. 

Here is the quick summary in the region: 

Kazakhstan – continuous slight increase of Covid cases, combined method of education, HEI inspections, school enrolment process changes, emigration stats show decreased outbound of Kazakhstanis

Russia - Covid-19 recovery rates decreasing, public places operate in limited capacity, Sputnik reaches more people, face-to-face schooling starts, new education opportunties on the way 

Turkey - weakened curfew, opened schools as of 2 March and Covid-19 cases decreasing

Kazakhstan

Update 08 March 2021

Kazakhstan declared a state of emergency to curb the spread of the Covid-19 infection on 16 March through 11 May after the World Health Organization defined the spread of the coronavirus as a pandemic.

Since then, Kazakhstan has seen a number of restrictive measures being taken in order to hold the spread of virus, yet it had to allow businesses to reopen by following some sanitary requirements which include social distancing, wearing masks, limited number of people in one room, etc.

Quick summary in the beginning of March:

• Kazakhstan still divides the country into red, yellow and green zones. Currently, there are no cities and regions under the red zone, but the largest cities like Almaty, Nur-Sultan and Shymkent remain under the yellow risk zone. The rest of the country is categorised as Covid low-risk areas.
• Currently, the number of people infected with Covid-19 is gradually increasing in Kazakhstan. The daily rate of infected people is around 700-800 people (varies region to region). The total number of infection cases has been over 267,600 in which lethal cases account for less than 1.5% (3,490) since the start of pandemic.
• Public places are being reopened in Kazakhstan cities, e.g., cinemas, theatres and school canteens are allowed to operate at 30% of their full capacity.
• The Kazakhstan – Russia border remains closed for general travel, only a certain group of people are granted permission to cross the borders. The exempt pool of people includes family members of diplomatic missions, citizens of either sides travelling to reunite with their families or those needing medical treatment (with invitation).
• As of 5 March, the number vaccinated people with the fist component tops 28,000 people, and with the add-one code is the half of the number, i.e., over 14,000 people.

School and universities

Kazakh education has been delivered online since the third term of 2019/20 academic year. Since the beginning of second term of 2020-2021 academic year it is allowed:

• to teach in the “traditional format” at urban and rural schools with the maximum number 15 pupils in classes at a time;
• to deliver blended classes in general education schools for students of preschool, and grades 1 to 5 inclusive, at international schools from grades 1 to 7 inclusive with no more than 25 people in a classroom at a time from 1 March;
• to teach in the blended format for 6 days for graduating classes (9, 11 (12) classes): 70% of subjects taught offline (15 pupils in a classroom at a time), the rest of subjects or 30% will be delivered remotely;
• to conduct extracurricular classes for students to take part in, a group must be limited to no more than 15 people.

The Ministry of Education and Science is continuing its project of cancelling licenses at low-quality institutions, and in the beginning of March jointly with the Ministry of National Economy, the body issued an updated version of the checklist of inspections at HEIs. The new checklist consists of 46 criteria (previously 105) that institutions are going to be scrutinised under.

The labour market has also contributed to this project by making suggestions of heightening quality standards of delivery of Law, Medicine and Architecture & Construction programmes. The Ministry of Education and Science is going to take the lead and set requirements for professional experience of teachers/their qualifications and availability of specialised textbooks and computing software at HEIs.

Student financial support

The Bolashaq International Scholarship scheme list of approved institutions is now being revised, the new list is due to be out in March (TBA). Once the new list is approved by the Ministry of Education and Science of Kazakhstan, we will organise an exclusive refresh meeting for UK institutions.

The new scholarship scheme for research students is going to be launched this year and the administrator of the governmental scholarship scheme is going to be JSC “Centre for International Programmes”, who is the current administrator of Bolashaq International Scholarship. It is expected that the new scheme will allow over 500 scholars to undergo internship programmes at overseas educational institutions and businesses.

Economic situation

By the end of 2020 fiscal year, Kazakhstan’s economy shrank by 3.8%, says Eurasian Development Bank.

The World Bank predicts that the economy of Kazakhstan will grow by 2.5% in 2021, whilst the Eurasian Development Bank analysts predict an increase in aggregate GDP by 3.2% in 2021.

The Minister of the National Economy Ruslan Dalenov presented draft amendments to the law on the restoration of economic growth at the plenary session of the Senate. The amendments focus on the attraction of investment, development of entrepreneurship and the real sector, stabilisation of the financial market, digitalisation, project management, as well as improvement of monetary, social and trade policies.

Interesting to read:

According to the Bureau of National Statistics, over 29.1 thousand Kazakhstanis emigrated from Kazakhstan in 2020 and around 11.4 thousand people came to live in the country.

This shows that the difference between the immigrants and emigrants was 17.6 thousand people. For the first time in recent years, the number of emigrants decreased by 35.6%.

Country activities:

• Study UK Alumni Awards 2020-21
• Meet Educational Agents: Kazakhstan-Russia Agent Meetings - availale on request
• Digital Marketing Services – more details upon request

Contact

For more information and insights about the Covid-19 situation in Kazakhstan, please contact Zhanaidar Duzgenbay, International Education Services Coordinator, Kazakhstan at Zhanaidar.Duzgenbay@britishcouncil.org.

Russia

Update 8 March 2021

Overview:

The situation in Russia is improving, with daily cases becoming lower (around 10.5K) and recovery cases increasing. Moscow (1,5K daily cases) and St Petersburg (1K daily cases) remain the cities with highest numbers of positive Covid-19 cases. Regions have an average of 200 cases per region. The majority of businesses are operating as usual with some restrictions in place. Masks and gloves regime remains in place in most areas, however, regions are given the authority to abolish it guided by the local data, and some regions have started to do so. 

In large cities large scale events are still prohibited, but theatres, cinema and concert halls can work with up to 50% capacity. In Moscow and St.Petersburg some restrictions have been lifted for the nighttime (from 11 pm to 6 am) including opening up bars, restaurants and entertainment establishments. The requirement to transfer at least 30 percent of employees to remote work is no longer mandatory, but is recommended. Museums, libraries and exhibition centres have recently reopened in Moscow. 65+yo citizens have their social cards unblocked from 8^th of March, so self-isolation of this social group is not obligatory anymore, but recommended.

The vaccination campaign against the coronavirus is in full swing, over 2 mln have already received the first dose of Sputnik vaccine. The number of vaccination hubs is growing, and people aged 60+ have been identified as a priority group for vaccination by the RF Ministry of Health, second and third groups of include key workers - medics, teachers, transport sector, military people, police, as well as civil servants. Vaccination from COVID has been added to the list of national calendar of vaccinations. Second vaccine ‘Vector’ has been officially registered and mass vaccination with ‘Vector’ vaccine is planned to start in mid-March.

Internal travel is operating, regular international flights are resumed with several countries by now: UK, Turkey, Tanzania, Montenegro, Egypt, UAE, Maldives, Greece and Switzerland (limited), Belorussia, Kazakhstan, Kirgizstan, Serbia, Japan and Cuba, Maldives, UAE, South Korea, Egypt, Ethiopia, Seychelle islands, Armenia. Flights to and from the UK are banned until 16 March 2021. Covid-19 tests are made in the airports upon arrival to Russia. Foreigners who need to come to Russia require a Covid-19 medical test result taken no more than 72 hours before the flight. Self-isolation for 14 days for foreigners is not required.

IELTS centers are open. UK visa centres are open all over Russia. other visa centres are resuming their work. International flights with the UK are available for all the purposes.

Covid-19 effect on schools and universities

Schools:

At schools F2F regime was resumed on 18th January. Masks are not required at schools, the timing of lessons and breaks was changed. Temperature is measured upon entering an educational institution. Although restrictions imposed during the pandemic and distance learning is possible, depending on the epidemiological situation. EGE exam for school-leavers is planned to be implemented F2F.

HEIs:

F2F education in HEIs resumed on 8 February. HEIs are operating with safety measures in place (temperature is measured upon entrance, face masks are obligatory). This measures are expected to continue until 2022. Online courses by local universities continue to be developed.

International students studying in Russia, if studying F2F, will have to pass the Covid-19 test. If there is no opportunity for international students to start studying F2F, studying online will be available. From 2020/2021 academic year it has become easier for international students studying in Russia to be employed during their studies.

Education agents have reported that UK remains the first choice for students and the demand for studying abroad is expected to increase for September 2022 intake.

Blended learning development:

Online education is planned to be delivered all over Russia by 2024. Blended learning has proved to be a new trend in education that should be embedded in a new education strategy. Many universities are planning to continue blended learning, exploring replacing face-to-face lectures with online courses when further developed in five years. Russian MOOC platforms will also be developed further. 

Many leading universities are planning to increase independent online course production, with the intention of making them partly open to public free of charge.

New educational programmes & opportunities for partnerships:

“Strategic academic leadership programme” is a new Russian reform in education that will replace Project 5-100 starting from 2020. It is based on the importance of science and higher education for achieving national development goals, which includes becoming a top five world economy by developing innovative businesses. The reform will involve over 100 leading universities in over 50 constituent entities of the Russian Federation. Thus it creates opportunities for joint research as well as TNE. Another fundamental aim of the reform is for Russian leading universities to achieve high standings in established educational rankings (THE, QS etc.).

By 2024 it is planned to implement the national project "Education". According to it Russian education should become more attractive for foreigners. So, in the next few years, thanks to the Federal project "Export of education", the number of foreign students in domestic universities will double to 425 thousand people. A total of 784.5 billion rubles were allocated for the national project. The project aims to ensure the global competitiveness of Russian education, as well as Russia's entry into the top ten countries for the quality of General education.

Economy:

Although Covid-19 has weakened the Russian economy by 3-4 per cent in GDP, mainly due to the significant reduction of exports, stabilisation of the economy is predicted thanks to large national projects, trade recovery in 2021, mass vaccination, and agreements with OPEC. 

Fitch  ranked Russian economy with ‘BBB’ level and predicted the Russian currency will strengthen its position against dollar in 2021 and 2022. The Agency assumes that in 2021, the dollar will cost an average of 70 rubles, and in 2022 — 69 rubles. The Agency also improved the outlook for the Russian economy as a whole and GDP to be increased by 3% in 2021.

Other relevant information:

VTSIOM published the results of a survey, according to which every sixth person expressed a desire to leave the country with 40% among youth aged 18-24 and 31% among aged 25-31 (7 September 2020).

Contact:

For more information and insights about the Covid-19 situation in Russia, please feel free to contact Daria Lavrentieva lavrentieva@ecmcentre.com and Elizaveta Utolina Elizaveta.Utolina@britishcouncil.org.

Turkey

Update 08 March

Updates

Turkey imposes gradual normalisation. Cities have been divided into four color-coded groups: blue means low risk, yellow medium risk, orange high risk, and red signifies very high-risk provinces. All cities are still under curfew between 21:00pm and 5:00am during weekdays while weekend lockdowns have been lifted entirely in low and medium-risk cities. High and very high-risk cities will remain in lockdown on Sundays. Citizens over 65 are allowed to go out between 10.00-14.00. Work hours for state institutions have returned to normal across Turkey. Cafes and restaurants are open between 07.00-19.00.

Temperature checks and physical distancing rules are still in place and wearing a mask is compulsory in public areas.

Most international flights are ongoing with most European Union destinations still closed to Turkish citizens.

All passengers are required to undergo a PCR test coronavirus.

Mass vaccination with Chinese Sinovak is in progress, to date, over 3.5 per cent of the total population has been vaccinated.

Economic outlook in Turkey

Turkey's economy expanded 1.8 per cent in 2020. Turkey Statistical Institute (TURKSTAT) announced the gross domestic product (GDP) at current prices with a growth of 1.8 per cent in 2020, and by 5.9 per cent in Q4 of 2020. The gross domestic product (GDP) increased in 2020 by 16.8 per cent to TL 5 trillion 47 billion 909 million, compared to the previous year.

School and university closures

Over 26 million students are affected by Covid-19, including 18 million school students and 8 million higher education students.

Schools

The Government announced a road map for gradual return to face-to-face education as of 2 March.

All pre-school students are fully back to face-to-face teaching in any cities.

Low and medium-risk cities: Students at their final grades in middle and high schools are back to schools up to 24 hours per week and the remainder of students are up to two days.

High and very high-risk cities: Only the students who are at their final grades in middle and high schools will go to schools up to 24 hours per week.

The semester grades will be determined by the number of subjects taught during September and October. 40 per cent of all high school students have taken their exams while the remaining 60 per cent await. If schools are ordered to stay closed in provinces with very high risks, exams will not be held and be postponed.

Exams for high school students are scheduled face-to-face as of 8 March.

Universities

The delivery mode of teaching at universities is hybrid, a combination of online and face-to-face teaching/activities for small groups those are required for applied science courses.

Council of Higher Education (CoHE) run a mass survey (1.3 million responses were collected) to analyse the effectiveness of distance learning.  With the advice of Ministry of Health CoHE published a guidance for the HE sector to decide on their teaching model for semester two.

International Student Mobility

Ministry of National Education (MoNE) scholars who are currently enrolled to a UK HE programme are advised to do their studies online except those who are required to attend a laboratory classes or undertake any field work in the UK. New cohort of scholars for 2021-22 academic year were selected and soon will start submitting their applications.

The number of scholarships were gradually reduced over the last few years from 1000s to 800s because of MoNE’s strategy and budget. The UK received around one third which makes up around 300 annually.

This year numbers dropped to 600 in total. Despite the decline in students’ interest due to Covid-19 and government budget reduced, half of scholars have chosen the UK as a study destination for the 2021-22 academic year.

Tier 4 visas from Turkey dropped by approximately a third from 2019 (from 2394 to 1698).

(enter a title here e.g the Study UK School Counsellors Workshop)

We are organising the Study UK School Counsellors Workshop to bring together counsellors and UK institutions virtually w/c 22 March. The event will serve as a discussion platform between school counsellors and HE institutions to understand both parties’ expectations and identify next steps. (include a link to register depending on the deadline date?)

The interest in the workshop has been high. Therefore, we are looking into organising another series in April/May.

UK Visas and Immigration (UKVI)

UKVI have agreed with the Visa Application Centres (VACs) managed by TLS Contact to reduce the opening hours of their visa application centres with effect from the 1 March. The VACs in Istanbul, Ankara and Izmir will return to opening three days a week on Mondays, Tuesdays and Fridays.

Contact

British Council direct marketing services, including digital promotion, remain available to help the UK institutions engage with students and retain a presence in Turkey.

For more information, please contact Semra Yalcin Dogan, International Education Services Manager at Semra.Yalcin@britishcouncil.org.tr.

Read our previous update released on 19 February.