CC BY
22
UDC 37.014.242:314.74
Lyubov V. Sergeeva Ural Federal University
ACADEMIC MOBILITY AS EXPANSION FACTOR OF MIGRATORY FLOWS
Abstract
In recent years, migration as a transnational phenomenon plays an increasingly prominent role in the geo-economic and geopolitical processes. Academic migration can be viewed as a special kind of migration. This type of migration contributes to the development of quality human potential, which is closely linked to the quality of human capital. The purpose of the article is to examine the Russian demographic situation at present and possible replenishment of high-quality labor resources due to academic migration. The article presents the forecast of the number of students in Russian universities, including foreign ones.
The article considers adaptation experience of foreign students in the American University of Toledo and the University of New Zealand, as well as the analysis of educational migration in the Ural Federal University (Yekaterinburg, Russia), which shows the dynamics of educational migration at the University from 1998 to 2015. These results emphasize the importance of the problem of socio-economic and cultural adaptation related to moving to another country for further training. The data obtained can be used to compile the adaptation program in the academic environment. Taking into account the complexity and diversity challenges presented, it is necessary to undertake further multidisciplinary research.
Keywords: academic mobility, migration flows, educational migrants, foreign students' adaptation
Introduction
In recent years, as reflected in the Concept of the Migration Policy of the Russian Federation for the period up to 2025, in Russian migration processes educational migration takes an important place. Recognizing the significant role of educational migration is caused by two factors. The first factor involves a complex system of parameters characterizing primarily the demographic situation in Russia. The second factor is the "soft power" associated with the desire of Russian universities to become educational and cultural centers, enter the rankings of the best universities in the world, promote academic mobility in general [4, p. 44].
Education, including at the international level, is an important part of the social life of the individual. Russia is not an exception: more and more students seek training and additional international standard qualification in foreign universities. Educational migration for many countries, including in Russia, turns into an important and highly profitable sector of the economy and its
transformation into a reliable source of essential personnel. The higher academic mobility is the greater social activity of younger generation.
Academic mobility enables students and university professors to "move" from one institution to another to exchange experiences, overcome national isolation and acquire the pan-European perspective. According to the recommendations of the Bologna Declaration, each student is invited to spend at least one semester at another university, preferably abroad. Undoubtedly, the high degree of academic mobility requires a well-developed infrastructure (hostels, health insurance, etc.), availability of financing sources (scholarships, travel grants, etc.), high language skills of students and lecturers enabled to teach and be taught abroad (in foreign languages), as well as the psychological readiness of educational migrants to adapt to the new conditions, which, unfortunately, are not always feasible. Currently in Russia, even internal mobility is not sufficiently developed. We should also mention about mass trips of students to European and other foreign universities. It should be a priority for universities and education authorities [2].
Demographic situation in Russia
In the modern world demographic processes are determined by the fast growth of the senior group. Between 1994 and 2014 the number of people aged 60 and older increased by almost half. The world's population is aging. Even in China, according to available estimates, the population will begin to decline as early as 2038-2040. In 2014 the total fertility rate in the world was about 2.5 children per woman [6].
So, the interest in foreign students is related to the demographic challenges. Demographic calculations show that the reduction in the number of high school graduates in the next five years, the main contingent of entering universities, is about 10% [4, p. 45].
According to the medium variant of Rosstat forecast (Russia) for the period 2015-2020 there will be the deepest gap in the number of the active labor contingent falling by 5 million people. The reduction will mainly affect the youngest working age group (18-29 years old). Young workers will quickly become the scarcest resource in the labor market [7].
Due to the demographic situation in Russia, the number of students of institutions implementing the program of higher education, as compared 2009/2010 to 2013/2014 academic years, will be reduced by 493,800 i.e. 15.3%.
To reduce the negative effect of reducing the total number of students in Russian university until 2025 is presumably possible by increasing the admission the foreign nationals. If the annual rate of increase of foreign citizens in the Russian universities will remain at current levels (4-5%), comparing with the 2009/2010 academic year then by 2025 their numbers in higher education institutions of the Russian Federation may increase about twice: 76,600 people - 2009/2010 and 159,300 - 2024/2025.
Nowadays, the growth in the number of foreign students in the Russian Federation is mainly due to immigrants from the CIS countries (Belarus, Kazakhstan, Turkmenistan, Tajikistan and Azerbaijan) and Asia (China, Myanmar and Mongolia). The largest contingent of foreign students in Russian universities are the representatives of China, in the second place - Kazakhstan, the third 88
- India, the fourth - Ukraine, the fifth - Vietnam. At the same time the number of students from the Baltic countries, Africa and Latin America have decreased [3].
Analysis of educational migration opportunities in Russia
In recent years, educational migration takes a significant place in the Russian migration policy. It can be judged by the statements of the government, updating the thesaurus of terms characterizing the educational migration, reflected in the Concept of the Migration Policy of the Russian Federation for the period until 2025.
The peculiarity of the formation of the modern education system in Russia is an attempt to ensure consistent development according to European trends in the mid 1970s of the twentieth century, when there was a need of convergence and harmonization of European education systems in order to create a single European Higher Education Area.
The liberalization of the immigration legislation in the last decade of the twentieth century offered Russian young generation the opportunity to receive higher education and advanced degrees in foreign universities. Research of educational migration shows that every year between countries and universities there is an increase in competition for the education migrants as foreign students are the "norm of international cooperation" and "soft power" in the context of geo-cultural space, and future "quality labor migrants" (young, embedded in the socio-cultural context). The increase share of educational migration in the total migration flow provides greater manageability of the immigration process; therefore, education migration can be considered an important component in the concept of security of any country.
Thus, the "educational migrants" as a category of social analysis and a special group of migrants was first designated in the new Concept of the Migration Policy of the Russian Federation for the period up to 2025. Educational migration is not a homogeneous phenomenon; the group of educational migrants consists of various subgroups that differ in the goals of migration, respectively, play different roles in the immigration policy of Russia.
Thus, students from the EU and US are participants of the short-term educational programs focused on international cooperation in the future professional activity, but definitely they don't plan to work in Russia. At the same time, educational migrants from CIS countries getting higher professional education in Russia make plans for professional development precisely in Russia (especially in Moscow) [4, p. 49].
Success in the field of educational migration depends on the agreed decisions and actions, both at the university management level and at the level of regional and federal immigration policy. So, educational migration is widespread in the modern world. There is a sufficient experience on the organization of the acceptance and training of students in foreign countries, which offer numerous programs for various periods of training. The CIS countries have less experience with international migration. However, many representatives of these countries want to study abroad.
Russia is one of the ten top countries for educational migration. The most popular among foreign students studying in Russian universities, are areas in the humanities (20.5%), health care (20.2%), economics and management (16.6%) and the Russian language.
Problems of educational migration adaptation on the example of foreign universities
To solve problems of educational migration one can use the experience of other foreign universities. Thus, we have studied the experience of the two foreign universities: the American University of Toledo and the University of New Zealand.
At the University of Toledo (USA), foreign students account for about 10% of the number of students (the total enrollment is over 16,000 students). The main problems of international students are adaptation to a new culture, lack of knowledge of the English language, financial hardship, nostalgia for the homeland and a mutual lack of understanding on the part of a broad University community. The researchers note that foreign students are often lonely in the new environment.
Such loneliness includes not only the absence of friends and relatives, but also the absence of a familiar cultural and linguistic environment. Therefore, the number of friends for a foreign student is one of the main factors of success of adaptation to the new environment. Experts also note that knowledge of English is very important in terms of academic and social integration of foreign students. Recommendations for a more successful adaptation of foreign students include initiatives to enhance the role of international students at the university, to improve the financial aid and scholarships, as well as to create conditions for mastering spoken English [5].
A special feature of the University of Technology in New Zealand is that more than 85% of international students are from Asia. A lot of work on studying the level of the Asian international students' needs has been done. The survey found that Asian students were generally satisfied with their learning experience at the university in terms of the quality of education and training programs. The main problems were cross-cultural communication barriers: language difficulties, cultural differences, lack of knowledge of academic rules and regulations, the difficulties in making friends among local students, and the lack of a sense of belonging to the student community.
Research shows that it is important that lecturers of leading universities can adapt pedagogical methods of teaching and redesign them according to the needs of international students. The closer to the student the culture of the host community, the easier it is to find interaction and regulate the process of adaptation. The survey found that Asian students were more concerned about the high-quality education, but had lower levels of satisfaction with their training and experienced more problems related to academic and intellectual tasks than students from Europe, South and North America and Australia [1].
Educational migration in Ural Federal University (Yekaterinburg, Russia)
Despite the fact that the migration of the population as a socio-economic phenomenon has long been known, it has still attracted attention and interest in science and in practical terms, especially it concerns educational (training) migration.
In our study on the example of the Ural Federal University in Yekaterinburg (UrFU), we consider the dynamics of educational migration at the University from 1998 to 2015. Working with electronic databases, using statistical methods, we have made the following conclusions:
• Over 18 years in the Ural Federal University there have been students (educational migrants)
from 74 countries, including 15 countries of the "near abroad" (15 former Soviet republics) and 59 countries from "far abroad". Well represented are Africa (Gabon, Guinea, Zambia, Egypt, and others) and Asian countries (China, Japan, Korea, Afghanistan, Iraq, Iran, Syria, Pakistan, etc.), to a less extent European countries (Germany, Italy, France, Bulgaria, Great Britain and others.) and the United States.
• During the period of 1998-2015 there are observed a steady annual increase in entering. Although in 2009 there was a significant decline from the 267 people in 2008 to 81 people in 2009. It was due to the financial crisis of 2008-2009 in Russia against the background of the global financial crisis. However, since 2011 there is a rise with a constant annual growth: 2011 - 170 people; 2012 - 338; 2013 - 499; 2014 - 714; 2015 - 724.
• By gender male-foreigners entered in 2 times more than women, especially from Asian countries: 2011 - 100 and 70; 2015 - 445 and 279, respectively.
• From 2000 to 2005, there were more popular courses in the area of economics and management, and in 2006-2008 there was a peak of popularity in the course of "Industrial and Civil Construction." Since 2009 the course "Philology" has been gaining popularity, as there was a start of working of the one-year preparatory department for foreigners studying Russian language with the aim of further entering the UrFU.
Conclusion
In recent decades, the research of the problem of foreign students' adaptation to the new socio-cultural environment has become extremely important in the foreign and Russian science. The reason for scrutiny of the scientific community, reflected in numerous research, is the intensification of migration flows and other movement types (tourism, business trips, international exchanges, education, etc).
Education abroad is a popular trend worldwide. Year by year, there is an increase in the number of those wishing to receive additional education outside the country. Employers, according to the survey, are more inclined to choose someone who has experience of studying abroad. International experience, in the opinion of employers, helps to better understand the cultural differences and significantly helps to achieve success in their work.
In this regard, there is a very urgent problem of socio-economic and cultural adaptation related to moving to another country for further training. Thus, we can conclude that the transnational migration flows involve not only the labor and trade migration, but educational migration as well, the number of which increases with each year. This type of migration contributes to the development of quality human potential, which is closely linked to the quality of human capital. In general, the concept of human potential can be considered as an extension of human capabilities through education, which are further implemented in other types of economic activity. However, this type of migration has a number of problems that require further research and development of programs for adaptation [3].
References
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Information about the author
Lyubov Vladimirovna Sergeeva, post-graduate student (Scientific supervisor - Prof. T.Kuprina), Department of Foreign Languages and Translation, Ural Federal University, 19, Mira St., Yekaterinburg, 620002, +7 (343) 375-93-71, l.v.chernavskih@ urfu.ru
