Demographic and Structural Features of The Foreign Students Obtaining Degrees at the Lomonosov Moscow State University

Abstract

Background. A significant problem in studying the current situation with the provision of academic services to foreign students in Russia is the lack of access to information on the composition of the international students in separate educational institutions. The Ministry of Science and Higher Education of Russia annually publishes open data on the number of foreign students, their citizenship and academic preferences. However, offers of educational services in Russia are very diverse. The average indicators for the country do not fully reflect the realities of both leading universities with high tuition fees and regional universities with more affordable prices.

Objectives. The goal of the conducted research is to create a basic understanding of the MSU’s international students’ composition within the scientific community. Analysis is mostly conducted from the points of the areas of immigration and the choices of educational trajectories available at Moscow University. The authors see an additional purpose in identifying similarities and differences between foreign students of Lomonosov Moscow State University and the nationwide trends in interstate inbound academic mobility.

Study participants. This article presents the results revealed in the process of exploring all MSU’s undergraduate and graduate international students (5184 people) who are obtaining degrees based on the data for 2023.

Methods. Quantitative and comparative analyses were used as methods to process the empirical material; comparative analytics was used both at the stage of working with initial data and at the stage of working with secondary data.

Results. Among the main results, it should be noted that a significant dominance of Chinese students at MSU (82.2%) is observed along with absence of students from India (0.06%), which differs strongly from Russian median indicators. It is also important to mention the steady trend of interest in the humanities among foreign Bachelors and Masters of Lomonosov Moscow State University. In terms of numbers of admission of international students, the leading departments are the Higher School of Translation and Interpreting, the Faculty of Journalism, and the Faculty of Foreign Languages and Area Studies.

Conclusions. The analysis of data on the number of the Moscow university’s foreign students for the period from 2019 to 2022 allows us to say that the demand for MSU’s educational programmes is almost not affected by global or local socio-cultural and geopolitical events, due to the stable interest in the educational programmes of Moscow university on the part of Chinese citizens, and the sustainable development of international cooperation in the field of obtaining academic qualifications between Moscow and Beijing as well.

References

Brisset, C., Safdar, S., Lewis, J.R., Sabatier, C. (2010). Psychological and sociocultural adaptation of university students in France: The case of Vietnamese international students. International journal of intercultural relations, 34(4), 413–426. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.ijintrel.2010.02.009

Cherevko, T.S., Puceva, M.D. (2023). Prerequisites and motives for Chinese citizens to receive journalism education in Russia (on the example of students of the Faculty of Journalism of Moscow State University). Vesnik Moskovskogo gosudarstvennogo universiteta. Serija 10. Zhurnalistika = Bulletin of Moscow State University. Series 10. Journalism, (6), 168–191. (In Russ.)

Egorova, S.N., Voronina, E.A., Koshpaeva, E.S., Vorob'eva, N.V. (2022). Study of the satisfaction of foreign students with the choice of profession and training in the specialty “pharmacy”. Voprosy obespechenija kachestva lekarstvennyh sredstv = Issues in Ensuring the Quality of Medicines, 3(37), 47–54. (In Russ.)

Fofanova, K.V., Sychev, A.A. (2018). On the problem of attracting foreign students to Russian regions. Gumanitarnye i politiko-pravovye issledovanija = Humanitarian and political-legal studies, 3(3), 1–8. (In Russ.)

Ge, L., Brown, D., Durst, D. (2019). Chinese international students’ experiences in a Canadian university: Ethnographic inquiry with gender comparison. Journal of International Students, 9(2), 582–612. https://doi.org/10.32674/jis.v0i0.272

Kieu, H. (2021). International Students in the UK and a Sketch of their Englishscapes. In: T. Mammadova, (ed.). Cultural Diversity in Cross-Cultural Settings: A Global Approach. (pp. 135–150). Newcastle upon Tyne: Cambridge Scholars Publ.

Lanati, M., Thiele, R. (2020). International Student Flows from Developing Countries: Do Donors Have an Impact? Economics of Education Review, 77(5). https://doi.org/10.1016/j.econedurev.2020.101997

Larbi, F.O., Fu, W. (2017). Practices and challenges of internationalization of higher education in China; international students’ perspective: A case study of Beijing Normal University. International Journal of Comparative Education and Development, 19(3), 78–96. http://dx.doi.org/10.1108/IJCED-12-2016-0025

Logacheva, E.A., Shuteeva, T.V. (2018). On the issue of the specifics of teaching neurology to foreign students at Kursk State Medical University. Kollekcija gumanitarnyh issledovanij = Collection of Humanitarian Research, 1(10), 18–21. (In Russ.)

Poljanskaja, E.N., Jernazarova, D.D. (2019). Comparative analysis of career orientations of Russian and Chinese students. Kazanskij pedagogicheskij zhurnal = Kazan Pedagogical Journal, 5(136), 189–196. (In Russ.)

Rjazancev, V.V. (2008). Representations of foreign students of the Faculty of СMС of Lomonosov Moscow State University about the importance of the Russian language. Vestnik Moskovskogo gosudarstvennogo universiteta Serija 18: Sociologija i politologija = Bulletin of the Moscow State University Series 18: Sociology and Political Science, (4), 128–131. (In Russ.)

Taylor, G., Ali, N. (2017). Learning and living overseas: Exploring factors that influence meaningful learning and assimilation: How international students adjust to studying in the UK from a socio-cultural perspective. Education Sciences, 7(1). https://doi.org/10.3390/educsci7010035

Vorob'eva, G.V., Baturina, L.A. (2018). Promising directions for social and linguistic adaptation of foreign students (from the experience of the Volgograd International Students Association). Vestnik Tul'skogo gosudarstvennogo universiteta. Serija: sovremennye obrazovatel'nye tehnologii v prepodavanii estestvennonauchnyh discipline = Bulletin of Tula State University. Series: Modern Educational Technologies in Teaching Natural Sciences, 1(17), 18–21. (In Russ.)

Zimova, N.S. (2022). Features of adaptation of educational migrants in a pandemic: the experience of Lomonosov Moscow State University. Nauchnyj rezul'tat. Sociologija i upravlenie = Scientific Result. Sociology and Management, 8(2), 112–130. (In Russ.)