Youth YABLOKO demanded to increase students’ stipends
to subsistence minimum. An action under the slogan of raising
stipends was held today in Moscow.
According to Kirill Gontcharov, leader of the Youth YABLOKO,
at present an average stipend in Moscow universities amounts
to RUR 1,500 [approximately USD 50]. YABLOKO’s activists showed
what can be bought with this money with the help of a simple
formula: "Stipend – a Moscow Travel Pass = 1 loaf of
bread per day."
Party activists members also demanded additional social guarantees
for students - free travel on public transport and a 50% discount
on textbooks.
Receiving scanty stipends students have to work which affects
their studies, said Galina Mikhalyova, First Deputy Chair
of the Moscow YABLOKO and professor in the Russian State Humanitarian
University (RGGU). In such a situation university graduates
can not become professionals and can work only as street cleaners,
she added.
According to Olga Vlasova, a Youth YABLOKO activist and graduate
student of the Moscow State University (MGU), applicants to
a candidate of science degree are even in a worse situation
than the students. "I get a scholarship of 2000 rubles
[approximately USD 66], it takes me 1,000 to pay for the subway
and another 1,000 for ground transportation", Vlasova
said recalling that graduate students compared to undergraduates
do not have any discounts on city transport cards. "Who
will ensure progress of the Russian science, if instead their
research work graduate students have to seek for some means
of subsistence?” she asks.
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