The international nature of modern education: foreign students’ adaptation to Russian universities

Given the globalization of the educational field, students are provided with ever increasing opportunities for academic mobility. In turn, educating foreign students is an important indicator of the prestige of a modern higher educational facility. That’s why colleges implement programs for attracting foreign students and helping them to adapt. It should be said that the adaptation of various groups of foreign students transpires in different ways, due to several reasons, which have to do with a social, cultural and language environment which is completely new to them. This article is dedicated to analyzing the models and peculiarities of the adaptation of varying groups of foreign students to the educational environment of a Russian university. The main focus of attention is the Kazan Federal University (KFU), one of the largest higher educational facilities in Russia, where approximately every tenth student is a foreigner. This index for the KFU is slightly higher than the average figure for the country: according to statistical data for 2016, the percentage of foreign pupils in Russia’s federal colleges is 4.2% [Academic mobility… 2016: 8]. Given such context, it can be presumed that there is a connection between the intensiveness of the adaptation process for foreign students and their successful socialization and professional establishment. In turn, the evaluation of the education quality, as well as the comfort of the educational process, by foreign students goes quite a long way when determining the image, prestige and relevance of any given higher educational facility. The successful adaptation of foreign students is supposedly effected by the motivation for enrolling into Kazan university, as well as how students evaluate Russian education in general and that provided by KFU in particular. Also analyzed are such aspects of students’ life as the nature of interaction between foreign pupils and Russian students, as well as the local populace, not to mention the problems when it comes to learning the Russian language and organizing everyday life and leisure activities. The following groups of foreign students are identified: students from CIS countries, students from foreign countries (with the exception of Europeans), students from Europe and the USA, students from China.

international students, adaptation, students, university environment, youth.

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