#ARCTIC. #SIBERIA. THIS IS TAIMYR. Scientists are concerned that many graduates leave the Russian Arctic for higher education and never return. This leads to a decrease and aging of the population in the Arctic.
Over the past ten years, the number of the Russian Arctic inhabitants has decreased by about five percent – such data are provided by the Territorial Development Problems magazine.
Scientists have found that more than ten percent of the population outflow is provided by graduates. At the same time, almost 25 percent of new arrivals are also young people aged 24–29. This may indicate that some graduates are returning after training or young people from other regions are coming.
Another investigation shows that school graduates leave to study in other regions, mainly due to the fact that opportunities for higher education are limited in a number of Arctic territories. There are only nine universities and nine branches in all the nine Arctic regions, and on average in Russia there are about eleven universities in one region.
At the same time, independent educational organizations are located mainly in the Arctic territories of the Arhangelsk and Murmansk regions, as well as the Krasnoyarsk region.
The Arctic is attractive for young professionals with high salaries, but this is not the only and not the main reason.
“In order to increase the Arctic territories’ attractiveness for young people, it is necessary to improve the local educational and medical organizations, socio-cultural infrastructure’s quality, as well as develop the housing market”, says Irina Stepus, head of the project supported by a grant from the Russian Science Foundation, Candidate of Economic Sciences, the Petrozavodsk State University budget monitoring center employee.
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Text: Anzhelika Stepanova, Photo: Nikolay Shchipko
