"When you see the wind, change direction." Pavel Moiseev, Rector of Derzhavin Tambov State University, on the international activities of a regional university in modern realities
Universities in the System of International Coordinates
Knowledge today is more international than ever, and interest in studying in Russia is definitely high. Education is one of the most important areas of public diplomacy and, more broadly, the "soft power" of the great states, promoting their positive image in the international arena and in the socio-political elites of those countries from which international students come to study. I would like to note that in the days of the Soviet Union, this was very well understood and students from more than 150 countries of the world were taught. The peak came in the 1960s and 1970s. In the last decade and a half, a real renaissance has taken place in Russia: more than 3,000 students from 67 countries of the world are currently studying at Derzhavin Tambov State University. Over 2 thousand international students from five continents have already graduated from Derzhavin University. They take back home with them not only knowledge in their specialty, but also impressions about this country, its people and culture, Tambov State University, the city of Tambov and Russia with all its diversity and originality.
The transformation of Russia's foreign policy priorities sets the context that determines both the actions of Russian universities in the international educational space today and the framework for strategic planning for the future. Obviously, Russian universities have different status and, accordingly, different opportunities. At the same time, the scale of changes for me, as the rector of the only classical university in the Tambov region, a relatively small Russian region, inevitably raises a number of questions that are important for goal setting. What is the place of a regional university in all this flow of international politics? What are the prospects and growth points for our university community? What can we, as a community, for our part, contribute to the significant geopolitical turn that Russia is now undertaking?
Geopolitical Turn: Form and Content
The geopolitical turn to the East and the South is the most important direction of Russian foreign policy. It will continue this way in the coming years and probably decades. As the priority development of relations with the growing non-Western centers of power represented by the People's Republic of China, India, the BRICS countries, Iran, Saudi Arabia and a number of G20 countries, President Vladimir Putin personally and the Russia’s leadership see various opportunities for solving economic problems and a resource for modernization. As Dmitry Trenin, one of Russia's leading foreign policy experts, rightly noted, this means a rejection of the foreign policy orientation predominantly towards the West, inherited from the state policy of the late 1980s and 1990s. The same can be said about the sphere of higher education. I do not mean here the two-level model of training "bachelor-master": in my opinion, it needs not to be abolished, but to be further adapted to Russian conditions. I am talking about the priority of building relationships with dynamically developing educational centers in Asia, Africa and Latin America. At the same time, academic contacts with Western researchers and universities, developed in previous years, need to be maintained where possible. This is not only scientific and educational cooperation, but also bringing the Russian point of view to the processes taking place in the world, the fight against Russophobia and the “cancel culture” in relation to Russia and everything Russian, and so on.
Universities in New Conditions: "Chinese Vector"
Recently updated key documents in the field of national security and foreign policy of Russia set regional and country guidelines for the international activities of Russian universities. Priority number one is, of course, the People's Republic of China. In cooperation with China, Russia is aimed at further strengthening the relations of comprehensive partnership and strategic interaction and prioritizes the development of mutually beneficial cooperation in all areas. In China, there is now a growing interest in both Russian technical education and education in the humanities. This is a point of growth for Derzhavin University: for more than 15 years, students from a dozen of our partner universities in China have been coming to Tambov to study Russian language and literature, and international relations.
We try to rely on models that have proven themselves well for foreign universities, and not only Russian ones, to enter the Chinese educational market. For example, Derzhavin University has been using the double-degree program for the preparation of bachelors in philology for more than five years together with the Binhai School of Foreign Affairs of Tianjin University of Foreign Studies. In November 2021, TSU signed a framework agreement with Henan Open University on the implementation of joint educational programs. As part of the agreement, the New Silk Road Institute was established on the basis of partner universities. This makes it possible to implement joint educational programs for students of Derzhavin University and universities in Henan Province, to teach Chinese and Russian languages using remote technologies, and to cooperate in the field of academic exchange of students and teachers. In general, I consider the intensification of ties with our Chinese colleagues on a broad front as a strategic task for our university for the coming years. After the recent lifting of COVID restrictions in China, we have all prerequisites for that.
I agree with Anatoly Torkunov, Rector of Moscow State Institute of International Relations, that when positioning a university in the educational and, more broadly, socio-political space, it is important not only to follow expectations, but also to set trends. In this sense, at Derzhavin University, we set ourselves another strategic and ambitious task – to become a conduit for the formation of platforms where subjects from various fields of activity located in the Tambov region would interact with Chinese partners. This includes not only education, but also entrepreneurship, trade, tourism, socio-cultural ties, and so on. The primary task is to show the possibilities of cooperation with China and open the Celestial Empire to the region. We have a wonderful and authoritative partner in this venture – the Russian-Chinese Friendship Society, with which we held China Week in Tambov in early June 2023. This is part of the contribution of Derzhavin University to the development of the Tambov land.
I dwelled in such detail on relations with Chinese partners in the educational sphere and the prospects for their development, because, in my opinion, they are of fundamental importance for understanding how, in the current world realities, it is possible and necessary to build the international activities of a regional university.
India: Friendship from Gandhi to Modi
The geopolitical turn to the East is not only the development of relations with Chinese partners. Expansion of the presence in the educational market of India is another priority in the international activities of Derzhavin University. This is dictated not only by the strategic objectives of Russia's foreign policy. Historically, political ties between our countries have been strong and mutually beneficial, and in 2010 they acquired the status of a privileged strategic partnership. In recent years, relations have been actively developing in the areas of economics, trade, technology and education. Already today, India has become the largest country in the world in terms of population. Millions of young people are interested in receiving high-quality and demanded higher education in their country. India does not have enough own resources for this, and the flow of Indian youth wishing to study in Russia is only growing. For several years now, it is young people from India that have been the largest group among foreign students at Derzhavin University.
The vast majority of them chose the profession of a doctor. I strongly believe that the increase in the number of students from India is one of the points of development of international relations not only for Tambov State University, but also for many Russian universities. In part, this process is hindered by the fact that the peoples of our countries and representatives of the business and intellectual elites do not know enough about each other, about the trends and tasks of the development of the two countries, and contacts at the humanitarian level do not correspond to the level of political dialogue and current economic interaction. For example, the number of general educational programs for Russian and Indian universities is not that great, and this number lags behind similar interactions with Chinese universities. I hope that the sharp increase in trade between Russia and India in 2022-2023 will quickly lead to an increase in contacts in the humanitarian, educational and academic fields. A large area of activity here opens up specifically for regional universities, and the Chernozem region (Black Earth Region of Russia) where Derzhavin University is located is distinguished by definitely convenient transport logistics. The search for new partners in India is already an urgent task today for Derzhavin University.
Africa: New or Well-forgotten Old?
The 2010s became the time of Russia's return to Africa, both to the Arab north of the continent and to the countries south of the Sahara. Citizens of more than 30 African states have a degree from Derzhavin University. The greatest interest in our education is shown by the youth of Morocco, Algeria, Tunisia, Nigeria, Ghana, Zambia, Zimbabwe, Botswana and a number of other African states. Close academic cooperation has been established with the universities of Algeria and Mozambique. In 2023, we plan to conclude cooperation agreements with two Tunisian universities. In addition to medicine, African students are largely interested in higher education in international relations. These students plan their careers quite carefully and connect them with the ministries of foreign affairs of their countries or representative offices at major international organizations, including the UN, the African Union, ECOWAS, etc., Knowledge of the Russian language in addition to English and French is an important competitive advantage for them.
In general, in my opinion, a significant number of African students in Russian universities, including TSU, testify that we are actively expanding the areas and geography of cooperation with the countries of the Black Continent, which were developed by the Soviet Union in the 1960s-1980s. Historical memory also plays a positive role in promoting the image of Russia and its higher education. We are not just regaining our former positions. We are taking on new frontiers and solving the problems of cooperation and development that are important in the conditions of the 21st century. Thus, not only Russian corporations, but also regional businesses, for example, Tambov producers of agricultural products, are actively showing interest in Africa today. Derzhavin University is ready to render them any possible assistance.
Toward New Frontiers: On Priorities and Prospects
I also consider the countries of Southeast Asia to be a promising direction for the Russian export of educational services. So far, we have had just a few graduates from this area. But I proceed from the thesis I spoke about above: good political relations and trade should lead to humanitarian and educational ties. Vietnam is of particular interest. The history of relations between Moscow and Hanoi and a similar view of current processes in the world also play in favor of the development of relations. As in the case of China, Vietnamese students choose philology and international relations as their areas of study, enrolling mainly in master's programs.
Of course, each university has its own approaches on how to organize its international activities. As for Derzhavin University, I can venture to say with confidence that we are ready for new challenges and competition. We are willing to explore new spaces both in the field of education and in terms of geography. We have something to offer our foreign partners. We have been actively and for quite a long time working in the countries of the World Majority. At the moment, Derzhavin University has more than 102 cooperation agreements with various universities and research centers from 15 countries of the world. Young people come to TSU to receive medical education, knowledge in the field of the Russian language and philology, in the field of international relations. I consider these priorities of our foreign students deeply symbolic. There is a great need to treat and overcome diseases, to better understand different cultures and traditions, and to spread knowledge about the complexity of the modern world, its multi-polarity, about the opportunities for equal and mutually beneficial cooperation for the sake of peace and prosperity in the 21st century. And there is a huge interest in Russia, its people, culture and achievements.
We also have new areas for potential cooperation with foreign educational institutions, and fields for training students from abroad. Derzhavin University is the only participant in the Priority 2030 program among the universities of the Tambov Region. We are interested in the development and promotion of university products and curricula on the international educational market in such areas as information technology, environmental and agricultural microbiology, production of biological products (biofungicides and biofertilizers), creation of new materials and medicines, etc.
Russia today is not only concentrating, as the great diplomat, Chancellor Alexander Gorchakov, said a century and a half ago. It is actively changing. These dynamic changes pose new challenges for Russian higher education, including in its international dimension. For a regional university, this opens up opportunities for developing and updating training programs, building new relationships with foreign partners. So, as the Chinese proverb says, "When you see the wind, change direction."
