Abstract:

Academic mobility has become a global trend, as the number of the youth, studying abroad, exceeded 5 million in 2018. The continually rising competition encourage contemporary universities to outstep national borders in an attempt to provide significant outcome for the economy and science. In 2017, Prime Minister Dmitry Medvedev claimed that export of Russian higher education was a pivotal national goal. Russia ranks 8th in a list of the most attractive countries for educational tourism, teaching 275 thousand of foreign students in 2018. While Western Siberian universities' share of Russian education export market is about 15% and remains unchanged for the last 5 years. Effects of education, research and teaching rely heavily on the characteristics of academic environment. The formation of a network of international contacts in Siberian universities is aimed at enriching and enhancing personal and social capital of scholars and students.

The empirical base of qualitative research consists of 100 semi-structured interviews with representatives of Siberian academic environment: international students (40) and professors (10), local students (40) and professors (5), employees of foreign relations' departments (5).

The stage of institutionalization of international academic mobility in Western Siberia can be described as "supportive" (three stages are identified: "initial", "supportive" and "advancing"), with universities perfecting their infrastructure, creating new subdivisions and searching for abroad cooperation. The potential for commercialization and private investments attraction is reduced, as the demand for Siberian higher education, developing in a "soft power" model, is primarily influenced by governmental subsidies.

The principal issue of regional academic environment internationalization is the discrepancy between quantitative and qualitative factors. Foreign students’ number is increasing because of post-soviet countries’ citizens, scarcely engaged into science and research (while their education is paid by the state budget). Russian students of Siberian universities, participants of international mobility programs, are mainly driven by cultural and tourist motives, but not academic or career. On the contrary, the main attraction instruments for foreign teachers and professors are career perspectives and higher income. They frequently consider work in Siberia as a stepping stone for the building of international professional life and do not plan to stay there for more than 2 or 3 years.

Acknowledgments:
The reported study was funded by RFBR, project number 19-011-00632.

Keywords:

Qualitative research, academic mobility, internationalization, export of education, educational tourism, motivational factors, "push-pull" model.