The Russian Market for Exported Educational Services: the Shanghai Cooperation Organization (SCO) Network University

Abstract

The research reported in this paper seeks to assess the potential of the Russian market for exported educational services through the example of the Shanghai Cooperation Organisation Network University (SCOU). The authors share the findings from their analysis of a set of educational models for the SCOU, provide an assessment of the role of backbone Russian and Chinese colleges in and their contribution to the implementation of priority areas for the training of specialists from SCO member states, share the findings from their statistical analysis of demand for joint export educational programs (JEEPs), and examine some of the key forms and characteristics of the academic mobility of students attending school via a JEEP, which they view as an indispensable part of today's international educational process. The paper shares the findings from a sociological study which was conducted by the authors in the form of a questionnaire-based survey of students from top Chinese and Russian colleges participating in the SCOU program for the purpose of exploring the motivation of students in the context of planning out their individual educational path based on the pursuit of studies overseas. The work makes use of SCOU-related data from the Ministries of Education of China and Russia and various statistics websites on the Internet to analyze the results from the implementation of SCOU JEEPs and also explore the foreign student body attending school in Russia. In putting this work together, the authors employed a set of traditional methods of research, including classification, comparative analysis, summarization, juxtaposition, forecasting, and surveying by questionnaire. The authors' assessments of the potential of the Russian market for export educational programs, based on the example of the Shanghai Cooperation Organisation Network University, have helped put together a set of recommendations on boosting the competitiveness and efficiency of the market for the export of educational projects and programs.