In the framework of implementation of the 5-100 Project the director of the SUSU Project Office Alexander Deev took part in the workshop “The Internationalization of Higher Education in the 21st Century: Experience of Universities in the USA”, which was held in Boston. Alexander Vladimirovich has got to know the work of Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT) and Boston University.
According to Alexander Deev, the internship in the USA was a truly unique. The instructors and managers of Russian universities which participate in the 5-100 Project learnt the best practices of interaction with foreign students. The internship enabled them to analyze different approaches to internationalization and compare with those which exist in Russia.
Apart from group classes, each participant of the workshop worked on a project for development of international activity of his or her university. Alexander Vladimirovich developed the project on attraction of talented and gifted international students. He noted that this training helped him adjust the project towards the increase in motivation of communication between professors and students. Conformable conditions of studying in a foreign country and people who surround are crucial for gifted international students. In the course of this internship all participating members analyzed all components of internationalization (campus, curriculum, etc.). The final defense of individual projects of the workshop participants will be held in February 2017. At this moment, the project is going to be improved and strengthened taking into consideration a specific character of South Ural State University.
Alexander Vladimirovich made special reference to the founder of the Center for International Higher Education at Boston College, a member of the 5-100 Project International Council Philip Altbach and an independent research fellow of the Center for International Higher Education at Boston College Liz Reisberg who helped him to adjust the individual project. The experts told Russian instructors about nuances of adaptation of talented international students.
The internship was characterized by extremely comfortable business-like climate in the group.
“Thanks to a supervisor, we become united within a creative laboratory and at informal meetings we exchanged the experience, having analyzed both strategic and operational components of internationalization,” says Alexander Deev.
The next upcoming event is a European stage of the workshop, the main goal of which is to extend and adjust the knowledge gained by Russian specialists in the USA.