Every fifth student at PSU represents a foreign culture: the university is hosting an international forum on the internationalization of higher education

The international forum “Internationalization of Russian Higher Education: Pedagogical Innovations, Problems, Prospects” is being held at Penza State University.

The grand opening took place on Thursday, October 17. The two-day scientific event brought together leading scholars in the fields of education and psychology, who are involved in training international students.

The forum is being held for the first time. Penza State University was chosen as its venue for a good reason: the university is one of the top five universities in the Volga Federal District in terms of the number of international students.

The tone for the discussion and analysis of practices was set at the plenary session. It was chaired by Vsevolod Konstantinov, Head of the Department of General Psychology at PSU, who expressed the organizers' confidence that the forum would turn out to be two days of intense, interesting and useful work for the participants: "Communication caused by such an exchange of opinions is of enormous value."

The participants were greeted by Oleg Yagov, Deputy Chairman of the Government of the Penza Region. Oleg Yagov noted that a global reboot is underway in the higher education system. "At the state level, 20-30 years of experience in higher education is being reviewed. Steps are being outlined, albeit cautious for now, to return to the 5-year education system," Oleg Yagov noted.

He emphasized that the region's universities have created all the conditions not only for obtaining a quality education, but also for socializing and developing each young person who comes here to study.Three thousand foreign students from 50 countries are currently studying at Penza State University.

Viktor Mekhanov, Vice-Rector for Academic Affairs of PSU, having focused his colleagues on productive work, noted that controversial issues concerning the sphere of higher education have always been and will always be: “Each generation of teachers and students is new by definition, with their own interests and goals. In this regard, the problems of education at each new stage of development will be their own. Higher education and pedagogical science must monitor these problems, respond and even go ahead of them. The future of the country depends on the school, general and higher. The internationalization of education, reflected in the name of the forum, is certainly very important. The world is changing, rebuilding. This must be taken into account. I hope that the forum will give impetus to the development of the topics under discussion.”

Gleb Sintsov, Vice-Rector for International Affairs of PSU, also spoke about the special relevance of the issues discussed at the forum:

"Every foreigner who comes here is not just a person speaking their language. They are bearers of culture and education which they received in their native land. Penza, like all other regions, is a point of attraction for these young people. Coming to Russia to study, they spend 5-6 years or more here, hopefully, receiving high-quality, necessary education for them, which in the future will give them a chance in life."

Such events are a point of attraction for teachers who are involved in the process of teaching modern youth, added Gleb Sintsov.

Olga Surina, Director of the Institute of Teacher Education, explained that the institute is actively involved in the process of internationalizing education. "Since 2014, the Institute of Teacher Education has been a member of the consortium for pedagogical education, which includes universities from eight European countries. As part of our cooperation, we worked on a project to train teaching staff within the framework of pedagogical practices. The experiment "School in the Hands of Students" was held at two schools and showed a high result: the motivation of students increased. Our experience in implementing such projects as "Immersion in Professional Activity", "School for Young Teachers", and the "Pedagogical Debut", which is a pedagogical skills competition, was adopted by colleagues from other countries," Olga Surina shared her experience.

Elena Kazakova, Director of the Institute of Pedagogy of Saint Petersburg State University, scientific director of the Center for the Development of Pedagogical Education of the Russian Academy of Education, Corresponding Member of the Russian Academy of Education, presented a plenary report on the topic “Value-Semantic Core of the Internationalization of Pedagogical Education". Elena Kazakova began her speech with a discussion question: what we include in the concept of "internationalization".

"This issue is very important. At the state level, the task is set to increase the number of international students to 500 thousand by 2030. We need these young people as a "soft force" - intelligent, cultured, kind, who demonstrate our understanding of good and evil, and thus help to establish this understanding in the world," Professor Kazakova expressed confidence.

She focused the attention of the participants on another meaning of internationalization.

"There is another meaning. It is connected with the word "hospitality". Together with it, a special facet opens up in the conversation about internationalization. This is necessary not even for foreigners coming to Russia, but for us, in order to preserve ourselves, to preserve our culture as a culture of hospitality. Let's ask ourselves: what is the source of development for us? In my opinion, it is in diversity - different views on things, different cultures and experiences. All this gives us the opportunity to find points of development in the synergy of this diversity," Elena Kazakova expressed her position.

According to her, education and educational activities are a tool for achieving the national development goals of our country.

"I value the word "regionalization". I believe that each region should grow by itself, its sources, friendship. I firmly understand that today we live and work in order to preserve our population. And to preserve it not by force, not by the power of financial resources, but to preserve it by the right of love for the homeland," said Elena Kazakova.

The experience of Penza State University was presented by Sergey Ivanchin, Head of the International Education Office of the Institute of International Cooperation.

"Export of Russian education is an important component of Russian universities. Currently, over 350 thousand young people from abroad are studying at Russian universities. According to the results of 2023, Russia took 6th place in the world in terms of the number of international students. Over 5 years, the number of international students at PSU has increased by more than 76%. In 2019, there were 1800 of them, today there are already 3 thousand. Top 7 countries are: Tajikistan, Turkmenistan, Kyrgyzstan, India, China, Morocco, Egypt. That is, every fifth student at PSU is a bearer of a foreign culture," Sergey Ivanchin presented the data in his presentation. He also noted that from this year, another new program will open at PSU, which will be implemented with the help of an intermediary language. This is a higher education programme in Psychology.

Sergey Ivanchin expressed his position on the topic under discussion: "It would be more correct and useful for socialization and integration to call and perceive international students as Russian, but with a different citizenship. They study at Russian universities, so, first of all, they are Russian students, and secondly, foreign citizens."

The programme of the first day of the forum continued with a scientific and methodological seminar “Pedagogical innovations as a key factor in improving the quality of higher education”, and a workshop “Educational programmes implemented in a network format with foreign partners as a tool for attracting and recruiting foreign citizens: exchange of experience, problems and prospects”.

One of the key events was the meeting of the Federal Educational and Methodological Association of Higher Education on UGSN 44.00.00 "Education and Pedagogical Sciences". The topic of the meeting chaired by Elena Kazakova was "Internationalization of Pedagogical Education in the Context of Improving the Domestic Model of Higher Education".

The full broadcast of the meeting of the Federal Educational and Methodological Association of Higher Education is available on the Rutube channel of PSU at the link.