Foreign Postgraduate Students in Soviet and Russian Higher Education Institutions: The Statistical and Sociological Analysis

Abstract

The article highlights the trends in training the personnel of the highest qualification for foreign countries in Soviet and Russian higher education institutions: the change in the number of foreign postgraduate students and their contingent according to the countries of origin, the majors that they studied in the Soviet times and now, as well as the sources of information and motivation of postgraduate training in Russian higher education institutions, the major problems (difficulties) of adaptive nature, which they faced during the first weeks and months after their arrival for training, the satisfaction with the living conditions in Russia and with the quality of training in postgraduate centers. The article provides data on the cost of their training and the amount of the daily residential expenses; analyzes the social and professional plans of the foreign postgraduate students trained in Russia; and suggests information on the sociodemographic contingent of the foreign postgraduate students.The authors conclude on certain achievements in training highly qualified personnel for foreign countries in Russian higher education institutions over the last decade (on the growing number of foreign postgraduate students, on the increasing percentage of students satisfied with the quality of training, and on more tolerant attitude of the Russians to foreign students), but at the same time, they point out a number of persistent problems, including the poor knowledge of the Russian language by almost half of the postgraduate students, which hinders their comprehensive study, the significant percentage of students unsatisfied with the social conditions, as well as of those who wary of meeting difficulties with the future employment having a Russian diploma. The article was prepared based on the departmental statistics of the Ministry of Education of the USSR and the Ministry of Education and Science of the Russian Federation, as well as on the sociological polls among foreign postgraduate students of Russian higher education institutions, which were conducted by the Center for Sociological Research in the academic years of 2004/2005 and 2014/2015 (the research advisor was A.L. Aref'ev).

DOI: 10.5901/mjss.2015.v6n5s4p124