Penza State University student Tuitu Hemza became the winner of the 5th Anniversary International Olympiad in Russian as a Foreign Language "Lobachevsky/RU", held by Lobachevsky State University of Nizhny Novgorod.

It was attended by 946 international citizens studying both in foreign educational organizations and in Russian universities. This year, the Olympiad brought together representatives of 84 countries, and the top 10 countries by the number of participants included: Uzbekistan, Kazakhstan, China, Egypt, Mongolia, Turkmenistan, Tajikistan, Serbia, Moldova and Colombia.

Deputy Minister of Science and Higher Education of Russia Olga Petrova greeted the participants of the anniversary Olympiad: “Five years is a serious experience for such a global international event, which shows its significance and demand all over the world. The fact that every year the number of participants is only increasing proves once again that interest in Russian as a foreign language is growing, that our culture is interesting. It is especially nice to see that the participants are actively showing themselves, are not afraid to demonstrate their level of language proficiency, they strive for more and achieve tangible success.”

It should be noted that in 2021 the Lobachevsky / RU Olympiad was included in the list of the Ministry of Science and Higher Education of Russia, which allows the winners and prize-holders of the Olympiad to receive the right to free education in master's degree programmes in Russia through the intergovernmental quota.

Tatyana Kolyuzhko, senior teacher at the department "Russian as a foreign language" supervised the participant from Penza State University, who is studying at the department "Russian as a foreign language" in study field "linguistics" - "theory and practice of intercultural communication".

Tuitu Hemza successfully passed all stages of the Olympiad (there were two of them). The first one had tasks related to knowledge of the rules of the Russian language. Participants who successfully passed the first stage received electronic certificates. In the second stage, the participants had to go through an online interview.

The PSU international student won, and now he is entitled to free education in master's degree programmes in Russia through an intergovernmental quota.