Higher education institutes in Chechnya
Three institutes of higher education are functioning in the Chechen capital Grozny at the moment.
The Chechen State University was until the late 80s one of the leading institutes in the North Caucasus. Founded in 1972 it had 9
faculties and 34 sub-departments with more than 60 Doctors and over 300
Candidates working there. The University had a solid scientific base, technical
laboratories and a rich library. Every year it published collections of
works on technical and humanitarian sciences and regularly held international,
national and regional conferences and seminars. During the 1994-1996 military
operations the University's wings were destroyed. But some time later classes
resumed on the premises of a boarding-school in Olympiisky district in Grozny
and went on until October 1999. In March 2000 the University resumed work again.
Despite the difficult times and destruction it published several monographs and
text-books and 300 scientific articles. 2 theses for the PHD degree and 7 for
the Candidate degree were defended. Last academic year the Chechen University
had 5 thousand students. The preparatory department was working full time. This
year the majority of entrants chose to go to the finance and economics faculties
and the English department of the faculty of languages and literature.
Competition at entrance examinations at the faculties was stiff enough with 6 people contesting one seat.
The Teachers Training Institute is the republic's youngest, opened in 1981. 7
faculties - humanitarian sciences, physics and mathematics, technology and
economics, teachers training, natural sciences, physical training and
correspondence - offered training in 17 professions. Now that the main building
needs restoration, classes are held in another one. 2325 students are now
studying at 6 faculties and 248 teachers are working, of them 4 Doctors
and 67 Candidates. Starting from the new academic year the institute is opening
post-graduate courses for 16 seats.
Grozny State Petrochemical Institute. Under a decree by the Council of
People's Commissars of the Soviet Union on the 3rd of July 1929 the
Oil Technical College in Grozny was reorganized as Petrochemical Institute with
two faculties, mining and petrochemical. In the 50s the institute was among the
country's prestigious institutes of higher education. Students came to study
there from various Soviet regions and foreign countries. It was no accident
because prominent scholars worked at the institute. Among them are academicians
M.D. Millionshikov whose name currently bears the institute, A.A. Dorodnitsin, and
V.A.Selsky. There were many Doctors of Philosophy and Professors among the
staff. There were 8 faculties by 1989 and students graduated under 16
specialties. And more than 5 000 students studied in full-time, evening and
correspondence courses. Though the institute was damaged in fighting the staff
remains. Among them are Professors T.D. Dakhkilgov, M.M. Magomatov, S.M. Dibiev and
I.A. Bashirov. The Institute is reviving owing to the staff's efforts. Now it has
five faculties, oil technology, building construction, petrochemical, automation
and information technology and geological and mining. At present about 3 000
students are studying in full-time courses. At the admission examinations this
year four young people competed for one place. More than 50 000 have graduated
from the institute in the past 70 years.
Grozny Music College
Opened in 1937, the college has since spawned several generations of pianists, violinists,
singers, accordionists, conductors and music critics. Most of these people
graced the city's musical life and were known far beyond the borders of their
native Chechen-Ingush Republic.
During its heyday in the Seventies and Eighties, the college had seven
departments - piano, singers, strings, winds, conductors', folk music and of
music theory. The applicants held their breath hearing the names of Ogarkova,
Snitko, Milhailov, Nikogosov, Bezuglov, Sudenko, Voit, Lukinov, Vysotskaya and
other leading teachers each boasting a school and style all his own.
Many graduates of the college's piano department subsequently went on studying at the Gnessins Music Institute in
Moscow and the Leningrad Conservatory. Once studying here, in the class of
Merited Artist of the Chechen-Ingush Republic, Maina Snitko, was Ali Dimayev.
The singers' department was equally renowned, its graduates very successfully working with opera companies across
the former Soviet Union, including the Lunacharsky Opera and Ballet Theater in
Saratov and the Yerevan Opera Company. The conductors' and choir department was
always the most populous, its teachers much credited for promoting the art of
Chechen choir singing.The folk music department was equally famous providing
excellent training on traditional folk instruments including, of course, dechik-pondur.
The department of wind instruments was hugely popular among the students, especially
during the Sixties when their jazz orchestra was a major city highlight playing
in the style of the Glen Miller Orchestra, which was very hip back in those
days. A. Edisultanov was the pride and glory of the winds department, setting up
a big band at the republican circus and conducting the symphony orchestra of the
local philharmonic society. Composer Said Dimayev once also studied there.
Many graduates of the music theory department are equally admired in Chechnya, especially
Adnan Shahbulatov, a well-known composer and public figure whose name is now borne by the music college he once attended.
The Grozny Music College has at various times been led by a constellation of talented musicians and managers,
among them Leonid Brailovsky. A Merited Artist of the Chechen-Ingush Republic
and a graduate of the conductors' department of the Gnessins Music Institute in
Moscow, he once led a children's choir at the city's Music School No 1, trained
would-be students and did a lot of educational work in the republic. He put together a team of excellent
teachers and developed a highly successful teachers' training course there. The students regularly took part in all
kinds of music competitions occasionally teaming up on stage with their teachers
performing in Grozny and elsewhere in the republic.
Teachers working at the Grozny Music College remain true to the lofty traditions of their
much-respected institution. Those of them who stayed on keep working on, never
losing hope that, someday, orchestras will be playing there again.
Teachers training collage in Grozny
The shortage of school teachers is among the many problems before Chechnya that makes efforts to return life to
normal. This problem is more acute in rural areas. Nevertheless, the Chechen authorities do their best to solve the problem.
To this end the teachers training collage in Grozny makes a significant contribution.
The college is one of the oldest in the republic and was founded in 1935.
It has been training primary school teachers in the past 75 years. The graduates from the college teach in
almost all 447 schools now functioning in Chechnya. According to the director of
the college Amirbek Zairkhanov, youth from rural areas come to study at the
collage with pleasure since they desire to return to their villages after
graduation. The college has decided to open its branches Vedensky, Nadterechny, Shalinsky and Yrus-Martanovsky districts.
The director says that the collage has close contacts with the Teachers Training Institute in Grozny.
The graduates from the collage are being admitted to the 2nd or 3rd courses so that they could return
to rural areas as graduate-trained teachers. The staff of the institute also
delivers lectures at the college and holds seminars.
The director of the college believes that such a method makes it possible to fill
all teachers' vacancies at the Chechen schools in ten years.
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