Educational cooperation in the Eurasian economic union: problems and prospects

The aim of the research is to identify the reasons for the refusal to grant the competence in the area of education policy to the Eurasian Economic Union (EAEU) through the 2014 Treaty on the EAEU and to give recommendations for the promotion of educational cooperation between EAEU member states outside the treaty framework. The paper also stresses the significance of educational cooperation in the EAEU as a precondition and driver for the development of economic integration and analyzes relevant Russian initiatives. The author used mainly treaties dealing with educational cooperation between EAEU states and official statistics about the number of students from EAEU states enrolled at Russian universities. The research reached the following conclusions. For the Eurasian Economic Union being a project of deep economic integration, the area of education is potentially significant in terms of creating and regulating a common labor market and a common market for education services, as well as training specialists in Eurasian integration for the EAEU institutions, member states and businesses. Back in 2009, the members of the Eurasian Economic Community, the predecessor of the EAEU, signed an agreement on educational cooperation, however, national governments' view has changed since then and the 2014 Treaty has not conferred competence in the area of education to the EAEU. Education was not included in the list of sectors to create the EAEU common market for services either. The only thing about education the EAEU member states agreed on was to secure the mutual recognition of diplomas. The key reason for the refusal to have a common education policy was Kazakhstan's reluctance which can be explained by the significant outflow of school graduates to Russia and the strive for the integration into the global English-speaking educational area. After the Treaty on the Eurasian Economic Union entered into force, Russia invited EAEU member states to establish a Eurasian Network University for monitoring the common labor market, training qualified personnel, promoting relevant research, and to set up an Advisory Council for Higher Education. However, both proposals did not receive support from all EAEU states. The recommendations for the Russian government are to launch the Advisory Council for Higher Education, even with a narrower membership, to lobby the Eurasian Network University project involving the EAEU Business Council, to use Rossotrudnichestvo's quotas for training foreign students to finance academic mobility within the EAEU, to carry out an audit of the overall system advancing Russia's educational cooperation with third countries.

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