On the adaptation of foreign students

Abstract

Over the recent years, internationalization of the educational process draws heightened interests to foreign students, which in turn, entails a surge of research dedicated to the problems of their adaptation. The goal of this article lies in analyzing the cross-cultural adaptation of foreign students from non-CIS states who study in Russia. The subject of this article is the targeted work of the academic staff on the adaptation of foreign students. Methodological framework is comprised of the following approaches: individual, personality-oriented, activity-oriented, humanistic, and cross-cultural, which takes into account the ethnic and cultural-specific peculiarities of foreign students. The relevance of this topic is justified by the globalization trends of international educational space, as well as strategic tasks of the Russian higher education – stimulate the export of educational services, attract foreign students, and promote the integration of foreign specialists in the Russian job market. The scientific novelty lies in determination of the factors that either contribute to or obstruct the adaptation of foreign students in the Russian universities, as well as the agents of adaptation. On the example of Moscow State University of Technology "STANKIN", the author analyzes the peculiarities of adaptation process, as well as the factors that improve the living and learning conditions of foreign citizens in the new sociocultural environment, increase the level of multicultural interaction within the framework of the educational institution. It is established that the adaptation of foreign students depends on the psychophysiological, educational-cognitive, sociocultural and casual factors, which are closely interrelated. The problems faced by foreign students are associated with submerging to a new sociocultural and educational environment of the university; therefore, the process of their adaptation should be organized, targeted, and integrated.