Abstract:

For the last century a great number of studies have been conducted to determine the range of the problems students face. But to tackle these issues in the most efficient way we need to specify them by country and subjects, relying on the peculiarities of mentality and historical heritage. This paper does not only aim to give a comprehensive account of the challenges a student of foreign languages departments may face in one of the Russian universities, but also suggests the ways to deal with them. In order to gain the required information and analyse it, qualitative methods (observation, focus group and in-depth interviews) were used. The author focuses on the most frequent challenges young people face at the Universities in Russia on daily basis. Among them are: lack of real language practice, old-fashioned ways of transferring skills, obsolete technologies, lack of motivation among students and teachers, and irrational use of modern technologies. The results obtained indicate that to solve all the main problems preventing these particular groups of students from achieving success at their University studies, the whole educational system in Russia requires a comprehensive modernization at different levels. The study stresses out the weakest points and suggests the ways to overcome them. Although not all of the issues that have been raised in this paper could find a solution within this particular research. Further studies on this subject are still required at different levels. Based on the results it is possible to conclude that the whole concept of education is changing too fast and some universities do not keep up with these changes.

Keywords:

Higher education, challenges students face, foreign languages students, analysis of educational system, Russian students.