Academic literacies and international mobility. The organization and supervision of degree projects in Sweden and Russia

Maria Zackariasson,Jenny Magnusson

doi:10.1080/2331186x.2020.1855770

Abstract

In this article, we will discuss how circumstances and requirements on a micro-level may be of relevance for the conditions for international student mobility within higher education. This will be ...

Highlights

One of the main goals of the Bologna Declaration from 1999, an international agreement concerning higher education signed by a large number of countries in Europe, was to facilitate mobility between countries for both students and scholars through making higher education in the European area more comparable (European Ministers in charge of Higher Education, 1999, p. 385)
In the comparative qualitative content analysis of the material, described in the methodology section, we focused on examples of significant differences and of significant similarities in how the participating supervisors and course representatives at the Swedish and Russian universities presented and described the degree project courses and their work with them
Concluding discussion In this article, we have primarily looked at the micro-level, through examining how specific courses of a similar kind, degree project courses, are organized at universities in two different countries, Russia and Sweden, as well as at the experiences and views of organizers and supervisors in these courses

Summary

Introduction

One of the main goals of the Bologna Declaration from 1999, an international agreement concerning higher education signed by a large number of countries in Europe, was to facilitate mobility between countries for both students and scholars through making higher education in the European area more comparable (European Ministers in charge of Higher Education, 1999, p. 385). Internationalization of higher education through international mobility was in other words perceived and presented as something positive and as a significant goal to strive for. There are a number of reasons why internationalization of higher education is regarded in such a positive light, on different levels. On a national level, increased international mobility may be described as having the potential of enhancing quality within higher education in a particular country, for example, through attracting high-quality students and scholars from other parts of the world (SOU 2018:3, 2018; SOU 2018:78, 2018). Internationalization in the form of student mobility is thought to potentially benefit a person’s education through offering experiences he or she would otherwise not have (Dall’Alba & Sidhu, 2013)

Objectives

Methods

Results

Conclusion