Adaptation of Chinese Students in the Multicultural Environment of Russian Higher Education in the Period of Distance Learning

Abstract

The processes of globalization lead to a constant increase in mobility. The changing society has long ceased to be a closed and limited system of nation-states. The aim of the research is to determine the conditions of social adaptation of students in multicultural environment in the period of distance learning. The problem of finding the concept that provides adaptability and sustainability of the personality, capable of successful development and interaction in the multicultural space of the Russian university is actualized. A series of sociological studies on the problems of interaction between Russian and Chinese students in the educational space of universities was conducted. In 2016, the project «Russian-Chinese dialogue: the way to meet each other» was implemented within the Program of development of student associations’ activities supported by the Ministry of Education and Science of the Russian Federation 2016-PSO-94 with our participation. A survey involved Chinese and Russian students from three universities in Yekaterinburg (500 Russian and 500 Chinese students participated in the survey). In 2019-2020 a survey was carried out among Russian universities according to the author’s methodology of the matrix of four bases (500 Chinese students). In 2020, we dealt with 2 focus groups with Chinese students. and administered in-depth interviews with Chinese professionals who graduated from Russian higher education (50 Chinese graduates of Russian universities). The geography of the research included the leading universities of Moscow, Yekaterinburg, Tyumen, Chelyabinsk. The obtained data and coordination of the conclusions with a number of studies require creating a system for training multicultural educatorsto provide distance learning.