The Russian government is planning to set up a cluster of educational institutions in the city of Domodedovo, Moscow. The project will be a $3 million campus resembling the cluster in Cambridge.
The campus will be spread over more than 40 hectares and will comprise of the nation's leading higher education institutions, primarily their academic buildings and sporting infrastructure. Plus, it will provide housing for up to 3,000 students.
Initially five technical universities will move into the campus, namely the Moscow Institute of Steel and Alloys; the Russian Economic University; Moscow Technical State University of Radio Engineering, Electronics and Automation; Moscow Industrial University and Moscow Engineering Physics Institute.
Arcady Dvorkovich, Russia's First Deputy Prime Minister said that the aim behind establishing the campus is to bring Russia's education standards on par with Western standards.
"[We're] planning to build new educational facilities, a congress center, sports complex, student dorms and faculty housing around Domodedovo [as a response to] the growing scope and specter of these universities' activities in education and research," said Anatoly Govorin, Plekhanov University Vice-Rector for Administration.
While over a billion dollars will be pumped in from federal sources, the authorities are hoping that they will gain financial support from businessmen Victor Vekselberg, Oleg Deripaska, Mikhail Prokhorov and Petr Aven, all members of the Russian Geographical Society.
News of the new campus has not been received very well by some people.
Alex Kozak, head of the student union, is unhappy with the government for forcing the universities to leave their current premises into the cluster. He is asking the government to first prepare a list of prospective universities, hold a contest among them and select the best of the lot.
An official spokesperson of the Peoples' Friendship University of Russia said that the university is not willing to move to Domodedovo because it has its own campus in South Moscow. Plus, it will be prove costly to build a campus in another city.
Paul Pospelov, first vice-rector of the Moscow State Automobile and Road Technical University, said that the move would be feasible to smaller institutions with significantly less infrastructure and equipment.
"We believe that changing of location would be inappropriate for the university. It would be possible to build additional dorms in Domodedovo but not to fully move to the Moscow region," Pospelov said. "All of our buildings are currently located in the immediate proximity of each other. In addition, we constructed a new building in 2010 and are not going to leave it."
Deputy chair of the Education Committee of the state duma, Oleg Smolin, said that the government is making universities shift to outskirts of Moscow to pave way for offices and commercial buildings. Majority of students will find it difficult to travel outside the city.