Short-Term International Academic Mobility as a Factor of Higher Education Internationalization

This research paper presents the results of a survey conducted by the authors and their interpretation of the identified factors influencing the students’ satisfaction of participating in international academic mobility. The investigation studies the issues of the education internationalization effectiveness in Russian universities, which is provided via students’ opportunity to participate in international mobility programs. The problems of internationalization are practical, since now this process is one of the prior directions in the development of education. Within this work, there has been conducted a study of Russian students’ views on the level and quality of education in the programs of international academic mobility, and the main result of the work is the identification of the most significant factors affecting the students’ choice of higher school for mobility. These factors are combined by the authors in a set of recommendations to the leading Russian universities when choosing partner universities. The practical part includes an expert interview of students (14 people) participating in mobility programs. It aims at identifying criteria for their satisfaction with this experience, which, together with the factors identified as a result of analyzing theoretical works, has provided the basis for making a questionnaire on academic mobility, then passed by 148 students. Thus, the following significant components of the effective program mastery have been identified: a high level of foreign students’ adaptation and awareness at the host university, high professionalism of the teachers, expenses moderation, scholarships availability, team projects for getting along with course mates. There have been found out the leading criteria for the students’ selection of foreign universities: established partnerships between sending and receiving universities, the attractiveness of the country of the program, the opportunity to practice rare foreign languages with their native speakers. As a research perspective, there can be suggested distinguishing the factors which influence the choice of Western or Eastern universities-partners. 

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