The strategy for the development of higher education in the Russian Federation assumes the active promotion of universities, scientific organizations, and Russian higher education in general abroad. This was stated by the head of the Ministry of Education and Science of Russia Valery Falkov at the first All-Russian Pedagogical Congress.

The strategy also envisages increasing the attractiveness of domestic programmes, increasing the number of international students, expanding network forms of interaction with universities from friendly countries, promoting the Russian language as one of the world languages of interethnic communication, the language in which scientific research is conducted and the best specialists around the world receive higher education.

"Russian, and formerly Soviet, higher education has always been recognized abroad as high-quality and accessible. Today, 395,012 international students study at Russian universities within the borders of our country. Another 19,623 study at foreign branches of Russian universities and 18,115 people at Russian-national (Slavic) universities. In total, therefore, there are more than 432,762 international students," noted Valery Falkov.

According to one recent survey, almost 80% of international students in their final years experience positive emotions from their stay and study in Russia.

"The President has set an ambitious goal to increase the number of international students at Russian universities by 2030 to a level of at least 500 thousand people. Therefore, the role of the new model of higher education is, among other things, to increase the interest of talented foreigners in studying at Russian universities, Slavic universities abroad, and in studying at branches of our universities located in other countries," the Minister emphasized.

That said, he added that it is necessary not to lower, but to raise the level of requirements for applicants, including proficiency in Russian. And at the same time to provide them with an education at the best world level. Therefore, the new model of higher education is compared with international standards and approaches in the field of higher education, this work finds understanding among foreign colleagues.

Information and photos can be found on the official website of the Ministry of Science and Higher Education of the Russian Federation