The module «International academic cooperation and challenges to international security» (hereafter – the Module) is included into the academic course “The main areas of the HEI’s international activities”. The course is taught as part of the Master’s degree program “Cross-Cultural Communication in International Academic Area”. The purpose of the course is to provide students with the knowledge of the principles, main areas and indicators of the effectiveness of the HEI’s international activities in the aspect of internationalization and the international integration of Russian higher education institutions (HEIs). The course structure and workload: total academic hours (hrs) – 108, including contact hrs – 26, ECTS credits – 3, lectures – 10 hrs, seminars and discussions – 10 hrs, student’s independent work – 61 hrs; language instruction – Russian, assessment – oral exam, competencies to obtain by students:

• — ability to carry out oral and written business communication for the purposes of international academic cooperation
• — ability to use communication technologies to implement academic interaction at a cross-cultural level.

The Module objectives and needs

To mainstream and diversify EU-related subjects throughout the curricula and to promote excellence in teaching in European Security, the Module focusing on the role of academic cooperation in strengthening security on a global and regional scale has been introduced. Its objective is to deliver to audience the importance of the role of international academic cooperation to strengthen international security in the framework of creating a European Higher Education Area.

Methodology

The module is delivered by interactive lectures complemented with case-studies and group discussions. They are based on issue-enquiry and problem-based learning approaches. Bottom-up practices that allow students and the teacher to be creators of learning content are widely applied.

Syllabus

The Module consists of two parts.

Part 1 – International academic cooperation: new instruments and trends

New instruments and trends are understood as the main ones of the Bologna process as a driver of internationalization. Despite the fact that the Russian higher education system was transformed into the Bologna model back in 2010, most students and teachers hardly understand the role of the Bologna process, as well as internationalization for Russian higher education. That’s why, the lectures and seminars topics focus on the following issues:

• — The impact of the internationalization process on the educational systems of different countries.
• — Models of internationalization and the instruments of the Bologna Process: problems of implementation and prospects of development.
• — Academic mobility as an effective means of improving the quality of education.
• — Cross-border education.
• — Joint educational programs (double- and multiple-degrees) as a reliable mechanism of integration of different curricula.
• — Promotion of educational technologies and programs to the international education market.
• — Intercultural communication in the academic environment and overcoming cross-cultural conflicts.

Pat 2 – The role of academic cooperation in strengthening security on a global and regional scale

The issues of education, culture and national security have always been interrelated. Ensuring the security of mankind in the conditions of an arms race, the emergence of new challenges and threats, the expansion of the zone of regional conflicts and the intensification of terrorist activities is becoming an urgent and extremely important problem of any country. From this point of view, the role of international academic cooperation in strengthening security on a global and regional scale is becoming indisputable.

The exchange of intellectual resources, advanced technologies, educational and cultural traditions is ensured through interstate and inter-institutional cooperation agreements, which should be based on parity and mutual respect. So, this part of the module touches such topics as:

• — Principles of concluding agreements on academic cooperation (equality, parity and mutual respect of partners).
• — Strengthening national security through the sister-cities cooperation (Krasnodar has 8 sister-cities and 3 city-partners, KubSU has 8 agreements of cooperation with the HEIs of these cities).
• — International cooperation in science implies:
  •  joint research in the field of international security (f.i. comparative analysis of research approaches to the problems of global and regional security);
  •  holding international scientific conferences - to seek mutual interests based on a joint analysis of experience;
  •  identifying the best options for solutions and best practices in various fields.
• — Interstate policy of education export: problems of migration policy.

Impact and benefits

The learning outcomes of mastering the Module are as follows:

Upon the completion of the Module students are expected

• — to gain understanding of opportunities created by academic cooperation to manage threats to EU security;
• — to increase awareness of educational and research platforms for joint cooperation with European universities;
• — to identify ways of delivering common response to threats by academic community.

The benefits of mastering the module can be both short-term and long-term, namely:

• — boosted dialogue in cross-cultural environment that is of vital importance to gain common response to the security threats;
• — increased interest in participation in joint research and educational projects;
• — acquisition by the academic community of the more active position in the fight against security threats.

Case study as an example of discussion assignment

Case study is regarded as a detailed examination of a particular case within a real-world context. Students are welcome to solve the case titled “Conflict prevention”. To solve the case requires to take three steps:

The first step is a description of the situation. One of the partners of KubSU is a university from the country of Central Asia, the former republic of the Soviet Union. The five-year cooperation affects various aspects of joint activities, including double-degree program initiated by the partner university of KubSU. A special agreement, including an integrated curriculum, has been developed for almost 2 years. Finally, the texts of the agreement and 4 annexes – as its integral part - have been agreed and approved by both parties. KubSU is the first to sign the treaty and its annexes, and send the documents to the partner party for singing. In turn, the university of the partner party signs and sends back only the agreement, while its annexes remain unsigned. Thus, according to the laws of the Russian Federation, the treaty cannot enter into force without the annexes signed. KubSU sends messages to the international department of the partner university with a question about the reasons for not signing the annexes to the agreement several times, but never receives any answer.

The second step is the assignment for students:

— Imagine you are an officer of the KubSU International department responsible for the development of international cooperation. Your task is to make the procedure of signing all the documents that are the integral parts of the agreement completed. At the same time, it is very important to prevent any conflicts with the partner university.

The final step offers students to make decision themselves, i.e. they should answer the following question:

— What are you going to do next? Justify your actions in writing and download the information to the Moodle account of the course.

Reading material and references

This course does not have one textbook. Instead, participants are responsible for reading various materials that are annually announced at the beginning of the Module/ There are some of them:

• 1. Bologna Process: Integration of Russia into the European and World Educational Space: [text book] / А. I. Gretchenko, А. А. Gretchenko; International Business Training Institute. – Moscow: KNORUS, 2017. –425 p. – ISBN 978-5-406-05664-6;
• 2. Ilya Polonsky. High school is under threat! The" internationalization " of education entails serious problems. Available at: https://topwar.ru/77953-vysshaya-shkola-pod-ugrozoy-internacionalizaciya-obrazovaniya-vlechet-sereznye-problemy.html;
• 3. National interests and regional development issues in the system of priorities of international activities of Russian universities: collective monograph / Edited by. S.О. Kramorov, N. V. Pelikhov, V.I. Skorobogatova. – Moscow: РИОР, 2021.– 266p. – DOI: https://doi.org/10.29039/02084-5 ISBN 978-5-369-02084-5;
• 4. Rayushkina I.V. West-East: European experience for Russia // The role of universities in the development of a safe environment in the context of mass migration. West – East. 2019, no. 12, pp. 118-130. DOI: 10.30914/2227-6874-2019-12-118-130;
• 5. Smolin O.N. Education and National Security of Russia Available at: http://www.smolin.ru/node/43009.

Personal data:
Dr. Irina Rayushkina – Deputy Director of International Affairs Dept;
Associate Professor of Aplied Linguistics and Modern IT Department at Kuban State University
(Krasnodar, Russian Federation)
E-mail: irina.rauishkina@yandex.ru