Dear friends, once again I asked MHSE IDL participants to provide us with their feedback upon the program. This time I've requested them to answer the following questions:
1. What were/are the reasons of your participation in IDL? (Please be frank and concrete.)
2. Did the program meet your expectations?
3. Was the program useful for you? If yes then, please, specify the reasons for why it was. Also, if you can, please, tell us about of instances when your IDL experience helped you.
4. Was there anything during the course of your IDL studies that you didn't like?
5. On your opinion, is the information, provided in the IDL courses, relevant for Russian students in general, for MHSE students and for you in particular?
6. Do you think the content of the program is politically biased? Why?
7. Can you suggest anything for the improvement of the program?
I think a collection of their responses, which I gathered, is of interest and will help us better appreciate how the students perceive our beloved program. I thought I have no right to edit the views of other persons, therefore all the praises to your most humble servant were left in the text, for which I bring my sincerest apologies. I do hope you will not consider this to be indecent.
Did you ask your students for a feedback?
Andrey Subochev
1. What were/are the reasons of your participation in IDL? (Please be frank and concrete.)First (for 103), it was "a line in resume" and a course itself, which promised to be interesting, then (for 104) a deeper interest in politics.
2. Did the program meet your expectations?yes - interesting, full of facts, new ideas
3. Was the program useful for you? If yes then, please, specify the reasons for why it was. Also, if you can, please, tell us about of instances when your IDL experience helped you.yes - in some way helped to prepare for exams in political science Master programme. Made me reread some politicians memoirs in search of relevant quotes. I think, impact will be more noticable in future - providing arguements for discussions, determining further directions for study etc.
4. Was there anything during the course of your IDL studies that you didn't like? Analyzing essays in the class. I don't think it's much useful even for newcomers, TA notes are more personal and provide good info for those, who want to write essays better.
5. On your opinion, is the information, provided in the IDL courses, relevant for Russian students in general, for MHSE students and for you in particular?yes. Most of 104 course deals with UN and SecCounsil role in crisis management.
6. Do you think the content of the program is politically biased? Why?No, contrary, the course presented many ideas supported by facts that changed my views (formed by russian-biased media).
7. Can you suggest anything for the improvement of the program?-The respondent is a student of economics, participated in IDL 103 and 104_______________________________________________________________
1. What were/are the reasons of your participation in IDL? (Please be frank and concrete.)1) Develop my knowledge of global political prossess. As a student majoring in world economics, I've never had a decent political course.
2) Train my English -- never useless
3) What can be more flattering than a "Stanford certificate" in a CV?
2. Did the program meet your expectations?Yes, greatly exceeded! Both in terms of organisation of the study prossess and the high quality theoretical content. Thanks to Professor Stedman and Dan and Andrei Subochev, it all was very weel structured and delivered.
3. Was the program useful for you? If yes then, please, specify the reasons for why it was. Also, if you can, please, tell us about of instances when your IDL experience helped you.I got broader understanding of the UN structures, decision-making in international politics, historical (and geographical =)) knowledge. I trained my critical thinking -- thanks for the emphasis on that in the programme. Definitely, essay-writing skills and skills in reading vast amounts of information.
4. Was there anything during the course of your IDL studies that you didn't like?The only thing I can mention is that as I study on the other side of Moscow and my schedule and weekly classes timings overlapped, I was unable to attend a single one. So I won't get a positive graded certificate, although my results were among the highest. Also my group consisted of people with very different level and desire to participate, so it was easier to move ahead alone than do real group wrok. Unfortunately, we didn't have very good teamwork.
5. On your opinion, is the information, provided in the IDL courses, relevant for Russian students in general, for MHSE students and for you in particular?Really precious information for me because 80 percent of topics are not widely discussed in the media. For me it is not some straight applicable knowledge, but more of a high-quality broadening of general background.
6. Do you think the content of the program is politically biased? Why?I don't think the content is biased. We were always encouraged to form our own opinion. Although all comments on Chechnya were critical of Russia (we here see it in quite in opposite way), it is always valuable to get a different opinion.
7. Can you suggest anything for the improvement of the program?More flexibility in group size (2 people can work very well together) and less credit for attendance for those GENUINELY interested in the program =). Maybe less emphasis on group work -- for those willing to progress alone it is faster and more efficient.
Thank you very much, Andrei Nikolaevich, for the supervising and helping us in this program and for high level of organisation! And Dan and everybody who providied this course to us!
No real problems with English after the course=).
The respondent is a student of international economics, participated in IDL 104_______________________________________________________________
1. What were/are the reasons of your participation in IDL? (Please be frank and concrete.)The reasons for my participation in the IDL course were my interest in the topics of the IDL courses, the fact that the course is implemented in English, a good reputation of the program and the opportunity to study with the help of the materials an video lectures from a very respective University.
2. Did the program meet your expectations?It was more interactive and more intensive than i had expected.
3. Was the program useful for you? If yes then, please, specify the reasons for why it was. Also, if you can, please, tell us about of instances when your IDL experience helped you.The knowledge I gained within the IDL courses were helpful at the seminars at the University as well as it helped me significantly in participation in the various discussions at the conference, e.g. at the conference in Brussels where I participated (one of the issues discussed - the Kosovo
conflict ) and in shaping personal opinion
4. Was there anything during the course of your IDL studies that you didn't like?5. On your opinion, is the information, provided in the IDL courses, relevant for Russian students in general, for MHSE students and for you in particular?It is relevant for any student interested in international relations
6. Do you think the content of the program is politically biased? Why?No, it is not, although there were some aspects with which our group disagreed (one of the most tough one was the Kosovo issue)
7. Can you suggest anything for the improvement of the program?In my opinion, it would be useful if you could include a list of recommended literature for every lecture and, if possible, the web-links for those who are interested in further readings. Perhaps it would be good to organize meetings of the IDL students with Stanford IDL instructors from time to time :) And it would also be much more convenient if the courses started later in the evening.
The respondent participated in IDL 104_______________________________________________________________
1. What were/are the reasons of your participation in IDL? (Please be frank and concrete.)I thought it would be a wonderful chance to participate in a new program which could was an opportunity both to learn new things and to improve my knowledge of English.
2. Did the program meet your expectations?Well in fact I didn’t have any particular expectations but I liked the program. Unfortunately I couldn’t attend classes because of main courses in the University, still I liked lectures very much.
3. Was the program useful for you? If yes then, please, specify the reasons for why it was. Also, if you can, please, tell us about of instances when your IDL experience helped you.I think the program was helpful in a general way. I learnt more about civil wars in the world, some I had not been aware of before. A lot was said about the US foreign policy, which is also very interesting.
4. Was there anything during the course of your IDL studies that you didn’t like?I liked the fact that every week essays were read and corrected. That helped to understand the mistakes and improve. I liked the lectures and the way the exams were held.
5. On your opinion, is the information, provided in the IDL courses, relevant for Russian students in general, for MHSE students and for you in particular?The information gives a broader knowledge of the subject, which is useful. For me there were a lot of new things to learn.
6. Do you think the content of the program is politically biased? Why?Yes, I do think that sometimes the course gives politically biased evaluation of the events (Yugoslavia)
7. Can you suggest anything for the improvement of the program?
I liked the course and the IDL experience was new to me. I can’t think of any improvements.
The respondent is a student of international economics, participated in IDL 104_______________________________________________________________
1. What were/are the reasons of your participation in IDL? (Please be frank and concrete.)As for me the main reason was to test my English in terms of understanding lectures and discussing specific subjects in it. I wanted to know how broad my reserve of English words is. As well I was interested to find out what my uncle is engaged in (as he is political scientist). And to sum up I wanted to know the attitude of American and European scientists to Russia and its political future.
2. Did the program meet your expectations?Yes, it was very interesting experience.
3. Was the program useful for you? If yes then, please, specify the reasons for why it was. Also, if you can, please, tell us about of instances when your IDL experience helped you.IDL helped me much to develop critical views, especially during the process of writing essays and reading articles. It also facilitated to stick to the point and to be as concrete as possible. IDL as well widened my reserve of English words, political and economic terms and helped to be a team-player.
4. Was there anything during the course of your IDL studies that you didn't like?As it was my first experience of participation in such a programme, some lectures seemed to me too informative.
5. On your opinion, is the information, provided in the IDL courses, relevant for Russian students in general, for MHSE students and for you in particular?Some lectures were dedicated to modern Russian reality and tried to explain what we should expect in 2008. That is relevant for any Russian citizen and student. As student of MHSE I wanted to hear Western interpretation of economics and hear all concepts we study in university in the language of origin.
6. Do you think the content of the program is politically biased? Why?When it comes to politics, everything is biased. Especially studying such unstable country as Russia.
7. Can you suggest anything for the improvement of the program? I think it would be quite good to invite Russian scientists or those of them living abroad (in USA for example) to voice their point of view. That would be just.
The respondent is a student of management, participated in IDL 105_________________________________________________________________
I decided to take part in the IDL program because it combines two things I like. It's in English and it's connected with the political science and international relations.
To be honest, IDL program exceeded my expectations. I'm very glad that some months ago I wasn't lazy to write an assay and became the participant of the program and May conference in Yaroslavl.
The 104th course was really useful for me. It gave me deeper understanding of the UN problems and dilemmas of humanitarian intervention. We didn't touch upon these questions in my university studies.
I also aknowledged with another system of education. And about writing essays: now I'm paying more attention to organizing my essays, their structure. For example, it was useful for my term paper that was devoted to ethnic conflict (in France). In the 104th course we had also the article about ethnic conflicts. I used it for writing my term paper.
I don't think that the content of the program is politically biased. In the104th course we had readings that reflected the opposite points of view (the readings about Kosovo come to my mind, Russian and American authors present completely opposite views on the problem). I think it's very important to look at the world from the position of the representative of the other country and to make sure the world is more complex than we used to think.
I would also to thank our Russian instructor for really interesting seminars. After the seminar I had the feeling I knew about the problem more. It was very helpful for writing our weekly assignments.
Please, continue your work, it's very helpful! I would like only to ask why don't you have a contest among the Russian students to go to some Stanford conference (at Stanford)?
The respondent is a student of business and political journalism, participated in IDL 104________________________________________________________________
1. What were/are the reasons of your participation in IDL? (Please be frank and concrete.)I wanted to learn more about western (american) academic approach to political science. Also I was really interested in the suggested topics of the courses.
2. Did the program meet your expectations?Yes, more than that.
3. Was the program useful for you? If yes then, please, specify the reasons for why it was. Also, if you can, please, tell us about of instances when your IDL experience helped you.Yes, it was. I learned many new theories (which are almost unknown in Russia) and became more confident in myself as young specialist in political science. IDL experience helped me a lot in practicing my written skills, I learned how to structure my thoughts in the paper.
4. Was there anything during the course of your IDL studies that you didn't like?I would like to have 2 seminars a week, so the course could be more intense.
5. On your opinion, is the information, provided in the IDL courses, relevant for Russian students in general, for MHSE students and for you in particular?Yes, the information is relevant. It helps to understand the western perspective in details.
6. Do you think the content of the program is politically biased? Why?I do not think it is biased. The content is very up-to-date and consists of urgent issues.
7. Can you suggest anything for the improvement of the program?To motivate participants be more disciplined.
The respondent participated in IDL 101, 103, 104 and 105_______________________________________________________________
1. What were/are the reasons of your participation in IDL? (Please be frank and concrete.)I wanted to have additional practice in English, to learn interesting information about international relations.
2. Did the program meet your expectations?Yes, the program met my expectations. It was extremely interesting and it widened my mind.
3. Was the program useful for you? If yes then, please, specify the reasons for why it was. Also, if you can, please, tell us about of instances when your IDL experience helped you.The program gave me a lot of information and in some way a new way of thinking (especially course 104). Now I can judge the international issues more professionally.
4. Was there anything during the course of your IDL studies that you didn't like?I really can't think of something that I didn't like.. Well, it was sometimes difficult to combine IDL with my studies, but it is not connected with the courses themselves.
5. On your opinion, is the information, provided in the IDL courses, relevant for Russian students in general, for MHSE students and for you in particular?I believe that the information is relevant for all students. For me it was especially relevant because I study in political science department, but we have lack of information on international relations, though this sphere interests me a lot.
6. Do you think the content of the program is politically biased? Why?When I decided to take IDL course I expected it could be biased. I mean, Stanford is an American university and I thought they can interpret some events in a specific way. But already during my first course (103) I understood that I was mistaken. I think that professors present the information rather unbiased. Of course they may have their personal opinion on some issues.
7. Can you suggest anything for the improvement of the program?I can only suggest that the program could be expanded with some new courses.
The respondent is a student of applied political science, participated in IDL 104 and 105__________________________________________________________________
I would like to say that the IDL program has basically met my expectations and even exceeded them to some extent especially the conference, which was really fantastic! I would also like to mark your approach to holding seminars, which is much better than what we have in the ordinary studies. As far as potential improvements are concerned it is of course hard for me to be better than professionals but may be it could be useful to discuss not only lectures but also some interesting readings though I understand it is problematic given the lack of time. Probably that's all for now. I wish you to keep up with the good work you are doing. It was a pleasure to work with you.
The respondent is a student of law, participated in IDL 101 and 105_______________________________________________________________
1. What were/are the reasons of your participation in IDL? (Please be frank and concrete.)I would like to point out several reasons:
1) to participate in the course in English in order to have practice;
2) to participate in course of different system of education;
3) to improve my knowledge about political science;
4) to get acqainted with new people. I thought that the people who participate in IDL cources are interesting and I wasn’t mistaken
2. Did the program meet your expectations? Yes, it did. But at first it was very difficult to assimilate information (it is about IDL 101)
3. Was the program useful for you? If yes then, please, specify the reasons for why it was. Also, if you can, please, tell us about of instances when your IDL experience helped you.Yes, there are several reasons:
1) It helped to understand better the political situation in the world and to express my judgement about it.
2) Now it is rather easy for me to write short essays in English even if the topic is rather difficult and / or unfamiliar to me.
4. Was there anything during the course of your IDL studies that you didn’t like?I liked everything in IDL 104. The only thing I can mention is the fact that the groupe in IDL 101 was a little bit stronger.
5. On your opinion, is the information, provided in the IDL courses, relevant for Russian students in general, for MHSE students and for you in particular?I think the information is more relevant for the students who study political studies or journalism. As to the others it is more interesting than useful. Nevertheless in my opinion participation in IDL can contribute greatly to the knowledge of English language.
6. Do you think the content of the program is politically biased? Why?I think, yes, since IDL is an American program and the situation is considered from their viewpoint. But it is impossible to avoid it. I am sure that this program could have been much more politically biased.
7. Can you suggest anything for the improvement of the program?I don’t have any ideas now.
The respondent is a student of sociology, participated in IDL 101 and 104
