HIGHER INSTITUTIONS OF RUSSIA IN CONTEXTS OF INTEGRATION INTO INTERNATIONAL EDUCATIONAL SPACE

Abstract

The paper is devoted to Structural shifts in mobility and certifies they demonstrate integration processes and developing competition of different countries for students at international education market. According to UNESCO outlook, the number of students studying abroad can reach 7 million people by 2025. In some countries, profit gained of educational export is so high that it makes the budget. However, the educational export of Russia cannot be considered as profitable one. The article reveals the place of Russian universities in the international educational space and analyzes situation in the Russian universities, which slows down the process of internationalization. Nowadays the number of international students trained in universities of Russia is about 2.5 %; this criterion doesn’t take into account students from the former Soviet Union countries. World university rankings have become an integral part of the global higher education system. High rank of university assumes contribution to country image and improvement of its positions according to other important criteria. The task regulated by the presidential decree includes entree of five Russian universities the top one hundred research universities by 2020 (in accordance with the main world ranking). Many Russian and international experts see this task as more than ambitious. While building an appropriate infrastructure which conforms to the international standards, universities face some problems that slow down international universities integration. Studying the situation of higher education modernization in Russia, researchers identify such problems as less funding in comparison with the leading universities of other countries, the language barrier and slow changes in academic culture of Russian universities. University community will experience significant transformations, which may take more time than it was planned before. Educational community and the government do not have clear guidelines and strategies to make Russian education popular abroad; the system of educational programs advancement and support of international students trained in Russian are very weak.