Internationalization of Higher Education in Russia

Abstract

This study traces the policy and implementation of internationalization in the Russian higher education system from 1917 to the present. The analysis suggests that international academic policy has been applied by the Russian state continuously, though with radically differing emphasis and mechanisms, through the last hundred years. Chapter One presents the research questions, design and methodology of the study. Chapter Two reviews scholarly literature related to academic internationalization and situates this definition within the context of Russian higher education. Chapters 3-5 explore the role of international activities in Russian higher education during the seventy years of the Soviet era. Trends in Soviet academic international policy related to three major historical periods are discussed in this section: a) the initial Bolshevik program for global academic reform; b) Sovietization of higher education in the countries of Communist Bloc; and c) East-West international academic competition during the Cold War period. Chapters 6-7 address the role of internationalization in the reformation of Russian higher education during the last two decades of Post-Soviet period. This section examines the extent and likely outcomes of these changes. This research demonstrates that Russian higher education has had a continuous international aspect, though organized differently than Western structures. The analysis also suggests that key organizational components of the Soviet administrative system still exist in the current Russian higher education structure. The current implementation of internationalization presents Russian academics with an opportunity to enforce academic professionalism and promote their status as global academics. At the same time, however, state organization and governing administration principles of Russian higher education continue to reduce academics to functional executors of state directives and deliverers of vocational training. In this way, internationalization serves as a critical nexus for the collision of traditional administrative structures with the new aspirations of Russian academics.