Education is becoming more regionally stratified. Fewer students are travelling to Moscow to study because of prohibitive travel costs and substandard living conditions. Russian universities now have closer ties with their Western counterparts than with their immediate neighbors. Another major unresolved issue is how closely intertwined higher education is with military service. In exchange for one day per week of military training they graduate as officers and avoid basic training if they end up having to serve.
Graduate students can defer even further.
Those with the Russian equivalent of a Ph.D. are completely exempt. Still, it is not hard to find ways in which Russian student life is similar to that of their American counterparts. The nightclub, with its Siberian Corona beer on tap, yards-long bar and mural of the New York City skyline, looks like it could be in Moscow, London or Manhattan, and the nightclubbers display the expected Generation X ennui, only in typical new Russian style, they are better dressed, sporting designer clothes and trendy sunglasses. Both Russians who support change and those disheartened by reform have not forgotten that their institutions of higher education gave birth to pioneers of the atomic and space ages. Like Russian music, literature and dance, education is a reminder of both past and potential glory.