The New Silk Road Implications for Higher Education and Research Cooperation between China, Central Asia, and Russia

• In Event: Internationalization and student mobility in higher education

Proposal

The dominant understanding of globalization is still based on the idea of the Western influence – a “one-way road”. Nevertheless, it is impossible not to notice significant transformational changes in the landscape of internationalization of higher education in the world: the New Silk Road clearly demonstrates that the globalization of education is becoming a “two-way road”. The emergence of a conceptually new idea proposed by China provoked a number of shifts in the global communication landscape, including in the field of higher education. The announced initiative of the “New Silk Road” is not only an important infrastructure project but also, by large, is an important geopolitical phenomenon. The first countries that have joined this project are the countries of Central Asia (for example, the Secretary-General Xi Jinping in Kazakhstan announced the creation of this project).
The proposed paper answers a question: what is the influence of the New Silk Road initiative on the higher education in post-Soviet countries that are neighbors of China?

The methodology of this study is determined by an interdisciplinary approach, and methods and methods of the proposed research include the analysis of statistical data, case study method, retrospective analysis, comparison, etc.


China receives three types of partnerships in Eurasia: the countries of Central Asia (excluding Kazakhstan) mainly as an economic partner, and higher education in China’s politics there plays a minor role; Kazakhstan, which develops all the possibilities of interaction with China, incl. in higher education, and adapts to the new paradigm proposed by China, resulting in a reorientation of the education system of Kazakhstan to China.; Russia, where China does not yet use specific tools for the development of cooperation in higher education, but there are prerequisites for this.
China often uses various educational tools to attract students to the educational component at the time of the emergence of a new partner: Confucius Institutes and Classes are opening up in almost every partner country. This approach has already proven its effectiveness: many countries, including The United States, Europe, Russia and Central Asia have the opportunity to send their students to study in China.

It is worth noting that in spite of the economic interaction of countries, cooperation in the social and humanitarian sphere leaves much to be desired. In the packages of documents that were signed by the countries in the bilateral order of Central Asia, an important role was assigned to social interaction, including the development of higher education. However, since the entry of the Central Asian countries into the “New Silk Road” project, practically nothing has been done in the field of humanitarian cooperation between the countries. The study shows that despite the huge financial investments in the region of Central Asia, China did not do much to influence higher education in the countries of this region except Kazakhstan.

Confucius Institutions are key points through which China “enters” into a partner country, which open in universities. And, subsequently, with the positive development of relations between the two states, Confucius Institutes are beginning to play a significant role in attracting foreign students to study in China (language courses, internships, grants for graduate studies, etc.). However, in the case of Central Asia, China, for some reason, did not intensify the activities of the Constitutional Institutes, although partner countries in Central Asia had been waiting for this. Such ambiguity calls into question the effectiveness of the interaction of partners in the context of social and humanitarian relations stated in the New Silk Road treaties.
However, along with this there is another trend that stands out against the background of the general interaction of China and Central Asia. Kazakhstan is a fundamentally different partner for China: from the moment Kazakhstan joined the initiative, Kazakh universities received and implemented the opportunity to cooperate with top universities in China. Moreover, in the wake of China, Kazakhstan was able to enter into such cooperative associations as "International Association of Universities", and "University Alliance of the Silk Road (member of the Executive Council), where nowadays it plays an important role.
Interaction in higher education of China and Russia is conceptually different from the Central Asia’ case. As Russia refused to become part of the New Silk Road project, humanitarian cooperation between China and Russia began to develop in other directions. In Russia today, the idea of educational "reversal to the East" is being actualized. The intensification of cooperation in this area has already led to the fact that large foreign companies are creating new jobs in Russia and require specialists with knowledge of Chinese, Japanese, and Korean languages. Such specialists are of particular interest to China, and China is trying to attract such students as much as possible to raising the level of education directly in China. As practice shows, Russian students who have received a master's degree and higher in China, do not return back to Russia. The Chinese direction among Russians has an extremely actual demand: every year the flows of students leaving for higher education in China become larger, and, conversely, Chinese students often choose Russia for higher education. Statistics data provided by both countries demonstrate obvious positive developments in the field of cooperation in higher education between the two countries. But, with respect to Chinese students in Russia, there is a different trend: after graduation from the Russian University, Chinese students most often return to China that is a serious omission for the Russian economy.

Authors

• Nadezhda Kuchma, National Research University "Higher School of Economics"

• Isak Froumin, Institute of Education HSE