Today in Moscow Deputy Minister of Science and Higher Education of Russia Natalya Bocharova and Minister of Education of Turkmenistan Gurbangul Atayeva discussed about the creation of a joint Russian-Turkmen university.

As informed the press service of the Ministry of Education and Science of the Russian Federation, the department received a letter from the Russian Foreign Ministry about the interest of the Turkmen side in creating a joint university.

The Russian side stated that it had a positive attitude towards this possibility, taking into account the 20-year experience of the functioning of four joint universities created with the participation of various CIS states.

Gurbangul Atayeva noted that more than 30,7 thousand citizens of Turkmenistan study at Russian universities. According to her, at present time, technical, medical and engineering personnel are especially in demand in the country.

Also, sides discussed the specifics of applying the Recognition Procedure in Turkmenistan to Russian documents on education, and the mechanism for selecting Turkmen citizens to study within the quota of the Government of the Russian Federation.

Russian education is in high demand in Turkmenistan. Last year 1800 applications were received from the federal budget for 220 quotas for studying at Russian universities that is the competition amounted to nine people per place.

Experts attribute their interest in Russian education to traditional, historically established ties.

The Russian side stated that it plans to increase the number of free places for citizens from Turkmenistan to 250 in the upcoming academic year.