A declining great power in HE? Russia as a HE provider for Kyrgyzstan and Kazakhstan after Russia’s invasion of Ukraine

• In Event: Gender equality in higher education in Eurasia

Proposal

This paper discusses the position of Russia as a higher education (HE) provider from the perspective of Kazakhstan and Kyrgyzstan. On the one hand, Russia has been the main destination for study abroad for Kazakhstani and Kyrgyzstani students, and on the other hand, Kazakhstan and Kyrgyzstan have been among the main ‘source countries’ for international students in Russian HE since the collapse of the Soviet Union (see e.g. Mäkinen 2022). In addition, they make up part of the geographical space represented as a priority in Russia’s foreign policy. Among other things, Russia’s invasion of Ukraine in February 2022 has also made Kazakhstan and Kyrgyzstan to re-think their relations with Russia. This study asks how (if at all) Russia’s position and image as a HE provider in Kazakhstan and Kyrgyzstan changed after Russia intensified its war against Ukraine in February 2022.

First it will be discussed whether Russia’s own narrative as a global HE provider has changed. For this purpose, I analyse materials from the website of the Russian Ministry of HE and Science and the Telegram channel of Russkii dom, Russian houses maintained by Rossotrudnichestvo, a public diplomacy agency under the foreign ministry. Second, the paper will analyse how push and pull factors for studies in Russian HE have developed in Kazakhstan and Kyrgyzstan. The change is studied based on the comparison of the findings from the semi-structured interviews with HE experts based in Kazakhstan and Kyrgyzstan conducted by the author in 2017-2018 and 2022-2023. In addition, I use the materials from the website of the Ministry of HE in Kyrgyzstan and the Bologna Centre in Kazakhstan, and some media materials. Thirdly, the paper addresses the question how the given potential changes are linked with the world political situation and in particular, Russia’s aggression against Ukraine. Here I will study previous studies, media materials, and public opinion polls, such as Central Asia Barometer.

This paper draws on (international) HE studies as well as from Central Asian Studies. It has been argued In HE studies, Central Asia has been “under-researched and under-represented” (Sá et al., 2021, 53). There are notable exceptions though. These studies have addressed the development of HE systems or policy (see e.g. Ahn, Dixon and Chekmareva 2018; Shadymanova and Amsler 2018). In addition, there are studies that look at international collaboration in research or the position of Central Asian scholars, incl. discussion on coloniality, such as Silova and Niyozov, 2020; Kuzhabekova, 2020; Sabzalieva, 2017, 2020; Jonbekova, 2020. As for Western scholarship on Central Asia, security and governance agendas have been prevalent (Cooley 2021).

More specifically this paper applies literature on education diplomacy (Mäkinen 2016, 2021, 2022) for understanding Russia’s motivation for engagement in HE in Kazakhstan and Kyrgyzstan. Education diplomacy refers to ‘an activity in the internationalization of education in which the education provider has a political motivation and goal when promoting its HE abroad, when recruiting international students, or engaging in international academic collaboration’ (Mäkinen 2022, 26; see also Mäkinen 2016; see Knight 2023 for discussion of science diplomacy and related terms). Education diplomacy aspires to socialize future elites of foreign countries, to make them friends of your country, to build a long term connection with them, and perhaps even to make them dependent on your country. I will also apply the push-pull model (adapted e.g. from Mazzarol and Soutar 2002) for exploring national/systemic-level factors that make Kazakhstani and Kyrgyzstani students interested in studies Russia. This study differs from previous studies studying push and pull factors because the main interest and focus is on the role of one country/its HE in HE of the given two source countries in the context of their state-to-state relations and world political situation. The interest is in the level of states, their foreign relations, national higher education systems as a whole, and, not limited to any particular group of students or particular institutions.

The paper argues that Russia’s position as a higher education provider will weaken, however, it will continue to maintain part of its influence in HE in the given countries in the near future, in particular, in Kyrgyzstan, but also to some extent in Kazakhstan e.g. due to several Russian branch campuses. Strong economic and also political and cultural dependencies between the given countries and Russia will also support Russia’s position in the field of HE.

Author

• Sirke Melina Mäkinen, University of Helsinki