Russian Universities In the Educational Markets of Central Asia: Public Diplomacy, Cooperation and Competition

The article analyses the role of universities in the promotion of Russian soft power in the post-Soviet republics of Central Asia. The universities in Russia need to enroll more students from abroad to increase revenue and raise their public status by the diversification of their campuses. At the same time, being state-owned entities they have to follow the government’s educational policies, which, in their international aspect, are much dependent on the foreign policy guidelines. The promotion of higher education programmes with Russian as the primary language of instruction and the international student recruitment in the Commonwealth of Independent States is the area where the interests of the Russian government and those of the universities overlap. The article briefly reviews the development of Russian state-run scholarship programmes for international students and shows the growing role of the Rossotrudnichestvo (Federal Agency for the Commonwealth of Independent States, Compatriots Living Abroad and International Humanitarian Cooperation under the jurisdiction of the Russian Ministry of Foreign Affairs), now the leading Russian public diplomacy agency in charge of networking between universities and their target groups of international public. Dealing with populations that still share close cultural values and political habits, Russia is maintaining its political influence in Central Asia and the Caucasus by placing public diplomacy, including education exchanges and scholarship programmes, in the context of assistance development and economic integration. The CIS countries now represent the biggest and closest transboundary market for Russian universities, due to geographic proximity, economic interdependence and the wide dissemination of the Russian language as the medium of communication. Besides, the Russian government perceives the competitive environment of international education in the post-Soviet countries in terms of geopolitical rivalry and securitization and therefore encourages state-owned universities to recruit students and establish partnerships in this strategic region to oppose competitors like the US, EU member states, China, or Turkey. Thus, dealing with Central Asia and the Caucasus, Russian universities do not only work for their own economic interest and reputation, but also act as public diplomats, supplementing and substituting for the activities of official institutions.

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