ASU rector shared experience on online work with foreign students

Astrakhan State University trains more than two thousand students from 51 foreign countries. This year, due to coronavirus pandemic, the largest university in the region was faced with the fact that some students could not arrive for their studies on time. "The previous practice of online platforms based on Internet solutions and integrating digital education has helped us adapt to new conditions of organizing the educational process," ASU rector Konstantin Markelov said during an expert online discussion on the results of recruiting campaign for foreign students in the academic year 2020/2021.

The event was organized by IPR MEDIA in cooperation with Saint-Petersburg State University. The meeting continued the seminar "Attracting and retaining: best practices in working with foreign students". The seminar brought together more than two thousand employees from higher educational institutions in Russia in June this year.

The videoconference was attended by heads of leading universities involved in the implementation of the priority project "Export of education", including the universities of Astrakhan, Bryansk, Moscow, Novocherkassk, St. Petersburg, Tomsk and Ufa.

During the conversation, the colleagues summed up the results of the recruitment of foreign students for bachelor, master and pre-training programs, exchanged experience in organizing training, adapting and building conditions for foreign students to live in new environments.

ASU rector spoke about the priority projects of the university that help students from abroad to continue studies in a remote mode, in case they were not able to come to Astrakhan by the beginning of the academic year. Thus, one of the positive practices was the project "Global online against COVID-19", which turned from a series of lectures into an educational course for students in different specialties.

In addition, Konstantin Markelov highlighted the increasing demand for virtual academic mobility programs, as well as double degree programs during this year. The rector also stressed that traditional full-time internships in other countries were transferred to a remote format for ASU students during the holidays in the form of online summer schools with partner universities.