Russia

In the era of the growth of digital technologies, striving to keep up with the latest technological developments and innovations states encourage the internationalization of education, in particular through the academic mobility of students, scientists, and teachers. A precise and short definition is given in the Global Convention on the Recognition of Higher Education Qualifications, adopted at the 40th UNESCO Assembly, which speaks not only of physical, but also virtual mobility.

States stimulate academic mobility not only with the purpose of human capital development and establishment of cultural and scientific ties but also with the purpose of increase of influence through the foreign policy of «soft power». Traditionally, the education of foreign students at Russian universities has been mainly in the context of “soft power” in order to create a favorable image and loyal attitude. This approach is still preserved, but new approaches have appeared, such as the export of educational services in order to generate income.

Annual Soft-Power Ranking 2020

The training of foreign students in Russia has always been considered in the context of solving strategic and current tasks of state policy, ensuring the national interests and national security of Russia. Traditionally, the education of foreign students at Russian universities has been mainly in the context of “Soft Power”.

In the annual soft power ranking for 2020, which ranks the countries in which the most influential world leaders have received their education, Russia ranks 4th, after the USA, Great Britain, France, which testifies to the successful implementation of the “soft power” approach in modern Russia. Russia has provided 15,000 government scholarships for foreign students annually since 2015, and this number has grown to 18,000 in 2021. The organization of selection for 18,000 state scholarships is carried out jointly by the Ministry of Education and Science of Russia and the special agency of the Ministry of Foreign Affairs of Russia – Rossotrudnichestvo. Budget scholarships are one of the main tools of the Russian Foreign Ministry in cooperation with foreign states on the humanitarian track. The geography of the scholarship distribution reflects the general interest in Russian education on the part of the foreign citizen.

New priorities of state policy indicated the need for sustained high growth rates of exports of Russian services and replenishment of labor resources for the national economy at the expense of highly qualified migrants, which was reflected in the changes in the migration educational policy outlined in the Executive Order “On national goals and strategic objectives through 2024 “dated May 7, 2018, No. 204, namely: an increase in the number of foreign citizens studying in educational institutions of higher education and scientific organizations at least twice, as well as the employment of the best of them in the Russian Federation.

In 2019, by the Order of the Government of the Russian Federation, the Strategy for the Development of Export of Services until 2025 is adopted, in which a separate section “Educational Services” is devoted to the export of education.

Currently, for­­eign students study in Russian educational institutions on a contract and budgetary basis. Income from the training of foreign citizens in Russian universities in the 2018/2019 academic year amounted to 17.538 billion rubles.

Targets were set in the Export of Education project – to reach 425 thousand foreign students by 2024.

The dynamics of the growth of foreign students are shown on the slide, and the total number of foreign students in Russia has passed the 300 thousand barriers.

Foreign students from the CIS countries account for more than half of the total. The leading countries in the number of foreign students among the Commonwealth countries are Kazakhstan, Turkmenistan, Uzbekistan. Students from China are the second largest group of students after Kazakhstan.

Last year has become a year of stress, many plans have been changed and it is impossible not to say about it. During the pandemic, a report was prepared by the rectors of leading universities with a large sample of student surveys, the study of social networks – Stress test lessons. One of the conclusions is –  «The most vulnerable group of students turned out to be foreign students, whose chances of returning to the “normal educational process” in September 2020 became impossible. It is necessary to work out options for continuing education for foreign students who left the Russian Federation, and to develop distance programs for foreign students (maintaining the position of universities in the education export markets)».

The COVID-19 pandemic has put universities both in Russia and around the world in difficult conditions, forcing them to adapt to the current events in the shortest possible time, spend significant funds for accelerated digitalization, and adaptation of both teachers and students to new conditions. Universities found themselves forced to solve a lot of pressing issues in a short time: in what forms to conduct distance learning; what technical means to use for this; how to assess the assimilation of the material by students; how to conduct final exams and how to recruit for the next academic year. I must say that, in general, Russian universities coped with this task, although, of course, each was prepared in completely different ways for these challenges.

At the same time, the sensation of the admissions campaign in 2020-2021 was the fact that the admission of foreign students who enrolled in Russian universities practically did not decrease, and even increased in some universities. This is clearly illustrated by the example of medical universities. For 5 years, the number of foreign students in the universities of the Ministry of Health increased by 50%, and in 2020 – by 9.1%.

In our opinion, important measures for overcoming a stressful situation, taking into account experience, should be:

• recognition mechanisms for different forms of online education;
• coordination of restrictive measures against foreign students, at least in a bilateral regime;
• drafting friendly migration legislation;
• state support for universities (international students) affected by the pandemic.

Policies

The procedure of foreign education recognition

The foreign education and (or) qualifications recognition in the Russian Federation means the official confirmation of importance (level) acquired abroad education and (or) qualifications with granting academic, professional, and (or) other rights to the owners. The decision on recognition is taken by Federal Service for Supervision in the Sphere of Education and Science (in abbreviated form – Rosobrnadzor).

The links for detailed information on the procedure of foreign education recognition:

• https://nic.gov.ru/ru/proc/nic (Russian language)
• https://nic.gov.ru/en/proc/nic (English language)

 

Projects & Initiatives

You can see the situation in Russia  in the UNESCO map of “Global Flow of Tertiary-Level Students.”