November 18, 2014. Uralvagonzavod Corporation is now one of Russian companies that supports gifted students applying for colleges abroad: school-leavers who managed to enter a foreign college and plan to get a degree in a popular vocational field can now sign an employment contract with the corporation that will entitle them to some 1.5m RUR from the Russian Government for every year spent studying. This decision was made by the Russian Industry & Trade Ministry, Uralvagonzavod Corporation’s press service says.

The company plans to go ahead with these contracts next school year. Students leaving Nizhniy Tagil schools will be able to sign their contracts with the corporation and get good quality modern education in MIT, Harvard, Cambridge, Yale, and a dozen other colleges on the World’s Best Universities list. The graduates’ coming back to Russia and starting work at one of Uralvagonzavod Corporation’s member enterprises for the time period stated in the contract is a compulsory condition. The students will also be financially liable for non-compliance with the terms of the contract, which means the corporation will be legally protected from the brain drain. The company is currently liaising with secondary schools that have students with intellectual excellence sufficient to enter a foreign college.

First and foremost, these are schools from Uralvagonzavod’s social partnership network, with whom the company has been working already to help talented students enter Russia’s best colleges. For one, seniors are encouraged to enter the Corporate University’s member colleges and to major in the fields that Uralvagonzavod needs most.

Uralvagonzavod will have similar schemes with Omsk State Technical University, Baltiysky State Technical University, Ural Federal University, and a number of other Russian colleges. School-leavers can apply for these and count on funding if they get high enough scores on their Russian State Exam, undergo selection procedures at the corporation’s member enterprises, and sign an agreement on coming to work at the enterprise upon graduation.