Since Russian President Vladimir Putin invaded Ukraine on Feb. 24, 2022, universities across Europe and the United States have condemned the war and cut ties with Russia altogether. In the following Q&A, Arik Burakovsky, an expert on relations between the U.S. and Russia, shines light on the future of cooperation between Russia and the West in the realm of higher education.
What kinds of ties have existed between Western and Russian universities?
Since the end of the Cold War in 1991, Western and Russian higher education institutions have formed hundreds of partnerships and cooperated on different initiatives. These activities have included academic exchanges, curriculum development, joint online courses and collaborative research projects.
Russia has worked over the past two decades to make its universities more prestigious. The Russian government internationalized and updated its higher education system. This meant moving away from Soviet traditions and adopting European higher education standards, particularly transitioning from the one-tier, five-year “specialist” degree to the two-tier “bachelor-master” system.
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In their desire for global competitiveness, Russian universities built international branch campuses throughout former Soviet countries. They also offered more opportunities for Russian students to study abroad and attracted more international students. The number of foreign students in Russia nearly tripled, from 100,900 in the 2004-2005 academic year to 282,900 a decade later.
Russian universities have opened more courses taught in English and established joint- and dual-degree programs with Western universities in a variety of disciplines. For example, the Moscow School for the Social and Economic Sciences offers joint bachelor’s and master’s degree diplomas with the University of Manchester in the United Kingdom.
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