Reflections by German and Finnish educators on the suspension of partnerships with Russia following the Russian invasion in Ukraine

• In Event: Highlighted Session: Higher Education in Times of Crises: Institutional Responses and Resilience During and After Conflict

Proposal

Relevance:
This research contributes to the field of geopolitics and higher education scholarship and shows how higher education institutions can cope with the termination of partnerships in times of political crises. We will share how German and Finnish universities have transformed their internationalization strategies in response to the suspension of collaborations with Russia. Our research presents personal reflections of administrative staff and academics on the impact of the war on students, faculty, and university administrators, the first steps undertaken by institutions after the war started, the possibility of collaborations with Russia in the future, academic boycotts, and the role of international education in promoting understanding in times of political conflicts. The findings from the interviews may provide insights to other institutions worldwide that experience the same issue of breaking of ties with Russia and other countries in conflict zones.
Context:
The Russian invasion of Ukraine on February 24, 2022, brought about a profound shift not only in global geopolitics but also in international higher education. Before the war, Russia was a close partner of EU institutions. The partnerships included short-term and long-term student mobility, summer schools, joint scientific projects, joint master’s degrees, double-degree programs, triliteral master’s degrees, faculty exchanges and teaching Russian as a second language. Before the war, Russia, being a part of the Bologna process, used to be an active player in academic collaborations with Europe which is also proved by the statistics. Russia was the fourth host country in the EHEA after the UK, France, and Germany, accepting a substantial number of incoming students from both inside and outside the EHEA. Concerning outbound mobility, Russia was in top-5 countries sending students abroad, with 84% of them being sent within the EHEA (European Commission, 2018). However, now Russian academia is facing severe criticism and cutting off academic partnerships by the West (Mäkinen 2023; Voorde 2022; Yudkevich 2023; Johnson et al., 2022).
Mode of inquiry:
Although it is still in an early stage and the future is difficult to predict, it is relevant to study the impact of the suspension of academic relations for European higher education. The questions addressed in this study are: what are the main challenges for European universities as a consequence of the suspension? What alternative choices they have made for replacement of their Russian partners? And what perceptions do they have on the future of cooperation with Russian higher education, and under which conditions?
Overall, we interviewed administrators and academics responsible for cooperation with Russian higher education in universities in Germany and Finland to understand and compare how European institutions navigate the suspension of partnerships with Russia. Overall, 8 participants from 6 universities, comprising 3 German and 3 Finnish institutions, took part in our research. The interviewees hold different level positions and have different experience in their current roles, ranging from 2 to 20 years.
The selection of countries is based on the Most Similar Systems Design (MSSD). In line with the MSSD approach, researchers choose systems that exhibit maximum similarity, varying in the aspect they intend to evaluate the effects of. Germany and Finland are similar in that, firstly, they are both among the top ten destinations for outbound student mobility among Russian students. Secondly, in addition to cooperation within the EHEA, Germany and Finland have funded partnerships with Russia on an individual state level by having state scholarships such as DAAD from the German side and FIRST+ from the Finnish side. These factors make them stand out among other EU members and imply that these countries might have experienced the suspension of partnerships more intensely than other EU nations. Thus, we compared two similar systems that yield different outcomes in how they respond to the cessation of partnership with Russia.
Findings:
While some German and Finnish universities have found ways to continue providing their students and faculty with the necessary skills without Russian partners, others are still negotiating how to reorient their internationalization strategies. Both German and Finnish institutions have been trying to find replacements of Russian partners to ensure their students and researchers have opportunities to receive international experience in their fields. While German universities mainly target Caucasian and Central Asian countries, Finnish institutions refocus on the Baltic and Eastern European bloc. Solidifying academic relations with Ukraine and building new partnerships is another strategy. The finances that were previously allocated for partnerships with Russia are now invested in developing new academic collaborations. However, at present, these exchanges are one-sided, involving either assistance to Ukrainians with the digitalization of their curriculum or hosting Ukrainian students and researchers to their campuses. Officially, academic exchanges between Russian and European universities are no longer possible; however, on the research side, the restrictions seem more flexible, and in certain cases, a limited amount of collaborative work is tolerated. Unfortunately, some collaborations were entirely terminated, resulting in job losses and a lack of international experience for students and researchers. With the programs not being active any longer, some administrative staff overseeing partnerships with Russia lost their primary jobs while students and researchers lost a subject of their studies.
Contribution:
There are predictions on how internationalization strategies of Russian universities will be changing and aimed at post-Soviet Union countries, South Asia and Africa due to the loss of European partners. However, there is a lack of research on how the suspension of collaborations with Russia has affected EU institutions. This research addresses this knowledge gap by demonstrating possible solutions that German and Finnish institutions have undertaken. In the future, this research is planned to be extended to include interviews with representatives from other countries and surveys as a means of gathering information. The goal of the future study is to create a comprehensive model for universities to demonstrate how internationalization mechanisms can be adapted in times of political turbulence.

Authors

• Nina Balandina, Graduate School of Education and Human Development, GW

• Bernhard T Streitwieser, George Washington University