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Around 40% of Russian universities teaching students remotely

The minister of science and higher education stressed that distance learning is now organized in approximately half of all Russian regions

© Sergei Savostyanov/TASS

MOSCOW, December 28. /TASS/. More than 60% of students in Russia are studying remotely, while some 40% of Russian universities have switched to remote studying, Russian Minister of Science and Higher Education Valery Falkov told reporters.

"We have 64% of students [studying remotely]. Correspondingly, I think it is a little under 40% of universities that are teaching students remotely or in a fully remote format," Falkov emphasized.

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The minister stressed that distance learning is now organized in approximately half of all Russian regions. "Regions have different situations, but I reiterate that probably at least half of Russian regions have remote studying organized," he said.

According to the minister, he started receiving calls from rectors already in November, telling him that there are so many ill or quarantining teaching staffers that "nobody can teach students in person, everybody is staying home, it is only possible to teach remotely."

"I’ll tell you this, there are no miracles. If a region has difficult epidemiological situation, universities generally also moved to remote studying, while there is a rather large number of those who contracted the disease. Because it is society, universities are not [operating] in a void," Falkov underscored.

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