By Carter Johnson, American Councils Regional Director for Russia and Moldova
How it Began
In fall 2013, as the new co-chairs of the US-Russia Higher Education Working Group, Irina Arzhanova and I met at the National Training Foundation in Moscow to identify the greatest challenges facing US-Russia cooperation in higher education. Our goal was to select a central challenge and create a project that could address it with tangible and lasting results.
By the end of the meeting, we agreed that cooperation between individual institutions in the US and Russia was by far the most pressing obstacle. The lack of university partnerships, in particular, was a clear paradox for us: over the past 10 years, Russia has embarked on an unprecedented internationalization drive for its universities. At the same time, US universities have never had as many international students on campus and international partnerships abroad; and yet, these patterns were not strengthening US-Russia university partnerships.
The question remained: why were we not seeing growing cooperation between Russian and US universities and how could our Working Group improve the situation?
An Information Gap
Following the discussions of our Working Group in Moscow and Washington, D.C., we determined that an information gap existed. Many US universities were unaware of the major reforms that were taking place in Russian higher education and the significant opportunities for partnerships this afforded.
Meanwhile, Russian universities were unaware of some key obstacles that were preventing more meaningful partnerships with their US colleagues. Through these discussions the idea for this guide, How to Develop Partnerships Between US and Russian Universities, was born.
The Working Group determined that the needs for Russian and US university administrators were quite different and that a standardized approach of one book translated into two languages would not meet the challenges we had identified. Instead, we had a different team write for each of the guide's audiences.
We had an American team, who wrote for the American higher education audience, and a Russian team, who wrote in Russian for a Russian higher education audience. Both teams were closely interlinked throughout the project, sharing ideas, resources, and results. Based on one year of research and site visits to dozens of universities in Russia and the US, the book was published in early 2015 with Mark Johnson and Erin Weeks-Earp as the primary authors.
Table of Contents
Executive Summary
Part 1: Overview of the Russian System of Higher Education
Part 2: Analysis of Motivations for Creating a Partnership
Part 3: Step-by-Step Guidelines for How to Find a Partner
Part 4: Lessons Learned in US-Russian University Partnerships
Part 5: Four Major Partnership Models
Part 6: Overview of Ways to Finance a Partnership
Conclusions and Reflections
Download the Guide
Our fundamental reason for producing this guide has remained the same: we have a profound conviction that US-Russian cooperation in higher education and research can contribute to university transformation and educational innovation on both sides, and that US and Russian educators can and should work together to confront common global challenges.
How to Develop Partnerships Between US and Russian Universities is sponsored by the US-Russia Social Expertise Exchange and was produced in collaboration with American Councils, the National Training Foundation, the Eurasia Foundation, and the Institute for International Education. The guide is freely available to download here.