Abstract:

This article discusses the problem of adaptation of students studying in a foreign country. Despite the active development of the Bologna process and the gradual unification of requirements for the learning process, students studying in foreign universities face a number of difficulties associated not only with their studies, but also with the degree of integration into an unfamiliar society and knowledge of its cultural peculiarities.

The need to pay special attention to this problem in Russian universities exists for several reasons. First, the Russian society is multicultural and multinational. According to the 2010 All-Russian Census, representatives of 195 ethnic groups live in the Russian Federation and we cannot ignore their traditions, customs, and sociocultural characteristics.

Secondly, the integration of Russian universities into the international education system (for example, the Bologna process), the development of international cooperation, and the desire to strengthen their positions in the rankings of higher education institutions (among which one of the criteria is the proportion of foreign students), all these make us deal with those problems that hinder foreign students’ training and adaptation in Russian universities. These problems are connected with cultural features, pedagogical technologies, and other internal and external factors of a new country. The number of foreign students in Russian universities increases annually, for example, in 2018 the number of foreign students in Russia increased by 10%.

These trends determine the importance of the issues raised by the authors in this research. First, the article describes the experience of two leading Russian universities (Lomonosov Moscow State University and RUDN University) in building an adaptation system for foreign students. The specificity of these universities leads to different multicultural and polyethnic composition of students: LMSU is currently oriented on training Asian students, the proportion of whom is significantly increasing. RUDN University, on the other hand, mainly focuses on training students from Africa, Latin America and the Middle East students. Secondly, the authors suggest the results of their research to identify problems, teachers and students face in the process of implementing educational programs in Russian universities. This makes it possible to identify both common successful practices for adaptation in the Russian environment, and the specificity of adaptation of people from different countries and cultures.

Keywords:

Foreign students, students’ training, students’ adaptation, international education system, higher education institution.