International Academic Student Mobility as a Factor for Enhancing the Leadership Potential of the University

Abstract

The academic leadership of universities is shown in various ratings to a great extent. The university rankings may differ in their KPI systems. The leading and the most popular academic rankings, in particular, the QS World University Rankings (QS), take into account the share of international students and teachers in the university as an indicator. Times Higher Education (the ranking that separated from QS) includes such an indicator as international cooperation both for teachers and for students. These rankings consider the international academic mobility only as an “input,” i.e., engaging students and academic staff from abroad. The young students perceive the university leadership from a different angle; they consider how the university could assist the student to become a valuable employee. The students are interested not only in the share of international students who study together with them but in their own opportunities to obtain knowledge from the best educators at the university they study in as well as at the international universities. The opportunities the university provides within the framework of outbound student academic mobility make it more competitive in the educational market and enhance its leadership position in the region. This paper provides a short summary of trends in the development of international academic mobility for students as in the case study of Russian and foreign universities. The authors attempt to demonstrate the opportunities of outbound international academic mobility of students in forming the university leadership potential basing on the data of a sociological research.