Concise Encyclopedia of Tufts History
Sauer, Anne
Branco, Jessica
Bennett, John
Crowley, Zachary
2000
Tufts In Moscow, 1991
Tufts in Moscow, an exchange program with the Mendeleyev University of Chemical Technology, began in the fall of 1991. It is one of the first American exchange programs in Russia to focus on teaching subjects outside of the Russian language. | |
Tufts in Moscow allows three students per semester to travel to Russia and study at Mendeleyev University. Founded in 1920, the university is one of the leading chemical and technical institutes in the world, and also offers strong liberal arts courses. Prospective students must have three years of college Russian, and much demonstrate proficiency before their departure. Once students arrive in Moscow, they are housed with Russian families in the area. Originally, students lived in a special dorm for visiting students. Generally viewed as a negative aspect of the program, such housing was required due to security concerns at general university housing. As post-Soviet Russia settled down politically, students were finally allowed to live with Russian families, thus giving them greater exposure to the Russian language and Russian life. | |
Special features of the program include a three-day excursion to St. Petersburg, a daylong trip to a historic Russian city and day tours of Moscow. Also, Tufts in Moscow offers American students the chance to take both science and liberal arts classes at Mendeleyev. Most US exchange programs to Russia focus mainly on language, and tend to ignore other subjects. | |
Tufts in Moscow was developed after Professor Martin Sherwin of the Tufts Department of History organized a satellite link-up with Mendeleyev called the Space Bridge, a joint discussion between Russian students and Tufts students about the environment. Using modern technology,After the event, Tufts administrators proposed an exchange program, having failed in previous negotiations with the University of Moscow. | |
As part of the program, three Russian students are brought to study at Tufts each semester. | |
Source: OBS, TD, PAGB | |
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