Clashing rationales for international student mobility? The case of the EU and Russia

ABSTRACT After 2014 student mobility between the EU and Russia has remained high. International academic mobility (IAM) is an important part of the internationalisation of higher education, and the EU and Russia have multiple rationales for it – academic, economic, political and social, among others. This article analyses the rationales of stakeholders at institutional and individual levels. The article focuses on the cross-cultural experiences of European and Russian students, and compares their rationales to stakeholders’ rationales at the (supra)national level. The article applies an interpretive approach to analyse students’ narrations collected with semi-structured interviews. The study confirmed that the EU had succeeded in its political and economic rationales with regard to European and Russian students. The Russia's rationales had been met only partially. The study revealed complex rationales of individual stakeholders that partially corresponded with the rationales of institutional stakeholders. Although the political and economic rationales of stakeholders at the institutional level are ‘driving forces’ for the continuing internationalisation of higher education, including IAM, individual stakeholders succeeded in realising economic, academic and social rationales that were important for their professional and personal development. The later contributed to better understanding at a people-to-people level, which could have a long-lasting effect in terms of improving EU-Russia relations.