Interview of the Institute of oil and gas (UK-Ang) rector, Mr. Alexander Demidovich, to the electronic magazine “Distance Learning (UK 28/06/08)”

— Mr. Demidovich, will you, please, characterize your students contingent ?

— First of all, these are people who have some higher education already or those who have completed their secondary education. Secondly, these are school leavers. After having got their certificates, they will be able to get the Institute of oil and gas (UK-Ang) diploma and, accordingly, a specialization in high demand on the labour market. It should be said that our main educational product are applicative programs of experts’ preparation for work in various sectors of economy. The graduates are given qualifications which will enable them to find a well-paid job or to start a business. It should be pointed out at once that our graduates receive a higher education based on modern and accredited educational standards and programs. Distance learning is intended for people who want to receive practical knowledge applied in real life and open new horizons in their professional activity.

Our graduates should be well prepared. I believe that students are not in need of simply receiving a “valuable” paper but they are in need of knowledge. I am firmly convinced this is an informed choice of our students. Specificity of our training consists in that we do not see the student. The defense of the graduate qualification work is carried out online in the form of the dialogue between the examining board and the student in a voice and video mode, which, in our opinion, makes it possible to really check the knowledge obtained by the student. We confidently declare, our opportunities and teaching techniques let us educate highly-qualified professionals. The slogan of our institute is “Education is something, apart form the diploma, to be used in real life”. Agree, the practice of all our educational institutions confirms, if a student wants he may not study at all, but simply, as they say, “queue up for the diploma”. We aspire to that our training is of a practical character. Practical creative tasks make 75% in our program. We have a light and friendly atmosphere. We do not use bureaucratic approaches in the educational process. I am sure to study with us is comfortable and effective.

— What does the unique character of Institute of oil and gas (UK-Ang) lie in?

— We aspire to earn the reputation of the best higher educational institution using distance learning techniques. Today it is already possible to claim that if you have graduated from Institute of oil and gas (UK-Ang), your diploma or rather your knowledge, will be recognized practically all over the world. Today, Institute of oil and gas (UK-Ang) is a reputation and great techniques of distance educating engineers, managers, marketing specialists, economists and financial experts. A huge advantage of our educational institution, I think, is that, despite our specialization in distance learning, all students can directly communicate in real-time voice and video mode with their personal tutor and listen to online lectures in English or Russian — modern opportunities, fortunately, provided by the Internet. I also think, that the main advantage of our program is its flexibility. Actually, in such flexible thing as education there is no place for something set and dogmatic. Therefore a viable higher educational institution should be ready to react to every, even the smallest, change in this world. And, naturally, to make changes in the model of the professional, to correct educational process…

— Does Institute of oil and gas (UK-Ang) have state licenses or accreditation?

— I’ll explain. Institute of oil and gas (UK-Ang) works through its information centres in many countries of the world. The educational institution given state sanction for start education in Anguilla-United Kingdom. As the Institute provides only distance learning via the Internet and places its servers in the international jurisdictions, from the legal and actual points of view we do not operate on the territories of all the other countries of the world. Information work exclusively is carried out on the territory of these countries and it does not require any licenses or any other sanctions from the state authorities of these countries.

— Will you, please, say a few words about the Institute of oil and gas (UK-Ang) teaching staff?

— Our teachers are the leading experts in oil, gas, metallurgy, management, finance and economy. I would like to point out that our experts mainly come from the United Kingdom, the Russian Federation and the USA. By the way, we do not use the term “a teacher”, we have “a tutor”, or, in simple words, a personal instructor of a student.

— Tell about prospects of Institute of oil and gas (UK-Ang) development?

— The important component of any prospect of development is a careful attitude to the already available. A lot is done already in our Institute in this aspect, so it is important not to lose the achieved while developing. The time is different today and demands and needs are also new, that’s why our aim is to make the students’ level of preparation high, to give them feel protected and to keep a friendly atmosphere in our Institute. Certainly, it is necessary to do something new at all levels: in the organization of the educational process, in the international links and in carrying out new scientific researches because without fundamental scientific and applied researches the educational institution cannot exist.

— You have mentioned that Institute of oil and gas (UK-Ang) is a social-oriented institution. What does that mean?

— The development of any educational institution, and any organization in general, must include certain conscious social policy. Our academic board works actively and productively selecting young people at the age from 18 to 35 years and giving them a free-of-charge training opportunity. The basic criterion for selection is to prove that the candidate has talents in social, political or any other activity. It is very important. It is necessary to support and stimulate talented people. Position and activity are worth encouraging.

As to free-of-charge training for the orphan children, it is a stable social policy of our educational institution within the UNESCO concept “Education — for everybody” aimed at supporting the most unprotected layers of our society. Children who have no parents but who have a great desire to receive education, should have chance to have the decent future. We assume an obligation of free-of-charge training of the orphan children irrespective of their citizenship, nationality or sex.

Besides, Institute of oil and gas (UK-Ang) actively supports scientific researches by wide spectrum of directions. For this purpose in the structure of our higher educational institution there was created the academic board, mentioned above already, where the scientists interested in realizing their scientific projects can do this and receive the PhD degree.