MOSCOW. April 30 (Interfax-AVN) - The number of higher educational establishments will be reduced dramatically during the Russian military education reform, Major General Nikolai Bezborodov, member of the State Duma defense committee, said on Friday.
"Higher educational establishment will be enlarged through abolition of those with the lowest number of cadets and the transfer of cadets to related educational establishments. Moreover, the institutes that are close in specialization and located in one city will be unified, and affiliates will become a thing of the past - some of them will be abolished while others will become independent educational establishments," Bezborodov told Interfax-Military News Agency.
Russia currently has 56 higher military educational establishments (10 academies, nine universities and 37 institutes) with 20 affiliates. "At the same time, half of the establishments have less than 1,000 cadets, which is uneconomic and requires extra expenses," the lawmaker said.
Russia is implementing the federal military education reform program for the period up to 2010. The program is divided in two stages, the first slated for 2003-2005 and the second for 2006- 2010. The main objective of the first stage is to carry out a set of research projects on military personnel training problems and use them as a basis for creating legal, social and economic conditions for improving the military education system. The second stage will feature a full-scale upgrade of the military education system, Bezborodov said.
The lawmaker attended the two-day conference on military education reform problems which ended on Friday. The conference was organized by the Federation Council committee for defense and security.