Социологическая наука и социальная практика (Sep 2017)
Using the Capacities of Russian Higher Education Institutions to Provide Education for Foreign Students
Abstract
The subject of this article is export of higher education services, which becomes an increasingly important part of social and economic development in various countries across the world. According to the experts, the volume of global higher education services market is 150 billion USD. The share of Russia in this market is about 2%. In this article, we try to estimate the contribution into the Russian economy made by foreign students who study in Russia. The article includes recommendations on how to promote the export of Russian higher education services. As we can see, providing higher education services for foreign students in your country’s higher education institutions is the largest and the most profitable type of the export of education services. Leaders of the global education services market make education services the most important part of their country’s export. These services include foreign language courses, secondary and higher education services, post-graduate education services, internships, and additional vocational education services. With the current amount of education services being exported, Russia doesn’t fully utilize the capabilities of its higher education institutions. With the decreasing number of applications from the residents, providing education services to the foreign students in Russian higher education institutions will be one of the most efficient ways to upkeep the academic staff as well as material and technical resources of higher education institutions. Based on the statistics from Russian and international sources describing the state of global education services market, the author of the article evaluates the capacities of Russian higher education system and the barriers that prevent the admittance of foreign students into Russian higher education institutions. Author pays special attention to a growing competition on the global education services market and to the criteria according to which foreign students choose the country where they will continue their education. Based on the empirical measures analysis, the author comes to the following conclusion: economic and social efficiency of providing education for foreign students directly depends on the amount of investments both in the education sphere itself and in the infrastructure thereof, as well as on a level of comfort we can provide for foreign students living in our country.
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