Strategies and Repositioning of Internationalization: Thematic Analysis of Interviews

believed that the effort to achieve prestige was a generator of internationalization development since it could influence the growth of all the other dimensions: academic, economic, social. The latter were sure that UrFU was mostly driven by economic rationales.

The current balance of rationales was controversial as some rationales had a higher weight while others received minimum scores. The analysis of the desired situation showed that the vision of the current balance of rationales of the university leadership was matching their vision of the desired situation, whereas the same cannot be said about the middle managers’

perception. The latter indicated that the economic rationale should be the least important priority in an “ideal world” and social rationales together with academic ones should be the top priority.

4.8 Strategies and Repositioning of Internationalization: Thematic Analysis of

offices which were responsible for various aspects of the international dimension. Their personal experiences allowed me to construct the story of internationalization repositioning in UrFU during Project 5-100.

4.7.1.1 Repositioning of Doing Internationally Recognized Research: From Incredible Achievement to Routine. The research strategy had not been outlined in a separate document; the university created only a research policy that described its values.

However, based on the analysis of the literature, strategic plans and interviews, the strategy could be described according to three components:

1. Developing a core of research units which would provide achievement of Project 5-100 indicators.

2. Creating a system of support activities for individual researchers.

3. Increasing the competences of faculty members through systematic training, research visits, employment of international researchers and development of international doctoral programs.

Regarding the research development strategy chosen by the university as a response to the goals of Project 5-100, UrFU’s Vice-Rector for Economy and Development Daniil

Sandler (Sandler, 2014, p.18) wrote: “UrFU leaders firmly believe that the best

organizational strategy for UrFU is to develop Centers of Excellence”. The author also noted that an integrated research network would support the development of such individual centers.

In accordance with this strategy, the institution decided to create and support a number of so-called centers of excellence with the support of Project 5-100’s funding. UrFU conducted several rounds of selection. Finally, around 70 centers of excellence were created using three organizational forms: centers of competences (large research units which required expensive equipment), laboratories (middle-sized research units with on-going developments)

and research groups (small research units with no potential for further developments). During the interview, a UrFU’s vice-rector estimated the effectiveness of this strategy:

We have about seventy centers of excellence. Funding has been distributed on a competitive basis. The centers provide about seventy percent of all indicators (related to research, my note): citations, number of papers, volumes of R&D funding.

Somewhere this is sixty percent, somewhere it is eighty. In fact, they are the core.

They have planned KPIs, and they have to compose their work in such a way as to fulfill them both in terms of numbers and the quality of publications. Not everyone succeeds in this, but in general, this group is the key component in the sense of (research, my note) internationalization. (VR-1)

Funding from Project 5-100 allowed the centers of excellence to purchase the required equipment, organize research trips, hire domestic and international researchers with PhD degrees, and conduct workshops. Apart from the centers of excellence, UrFU also focused on the organizational and financial support for individual researchers. This included linguistic support, incentive payments for publications graded depending on the quality of the journal, incentive payments for citations graded depending on scientometric indicators of journals and performance-based contracts of employment. A senior manager described this support thusly:

These are mechanisms prompted by the support of Project 5-100, but not only with this funding. University spends its own funding on these initiatives, too. As a result, people, receiving this money, begin to rebuild their behavior and consider what else they can do to get this case. These tools also allow the University to achieve its targets. (VR-1)

A vice-rector added that some points of this strategy could be revised in the future, but unequivocally this would happen after the end of the excellence initiative. One of the most important changes could be related to the narrowing of the focus and the positioning of the university as the world leader in some specific research areas. However, such a possibility raised concerns because the university is large, the research topics were broad, and it was difficult to single out a few key areas of expertise.

Finally, UrFU had been systematically working on the development of its faculty’s competencies in order to increase their research capabilities. Some of these initiatives were estimated as highly effective during the interviews (i.e., creation of centers of excellence, financial bonuses for publication in highly ranked journals, free courses of English language, research papers’ English translation services) while others had room for further improvement, such as invitation of prominent international academics to lead UrFU laboratories, which brought significant results, but worked only for a limited number of research units (VR-1). The university had also developed a wide net of international services (see section 4.7.2.2 for details) headed by international managers who participated in the current study alongside with vice-rectors. For example, international recruitment of faculty members proved to be a difficult process:

This is a very complex topic. If we regard the involvement of international researchers as an increase in collaborations, then this, of course, has grown significantly. […] But it is also impossible that such top international researchers will work for us. […] So they sometimes come, supervise a research group here. It is difficult for them to live here […] due to conditions, climate and so on. Another story which works for us are

postdocs. […] We hire postdocs regularly. […] And Russian scientists, who have received a PhD degree abroad, are also great for us. (VR-1)

Another difficulty related to the recruitment of international researchers is that most of the recruits had personal research connections with UrFU colleagues. There were very few successful cases of international faculty members hired without personal contacts with UrFU via open vacancy: “Firstly, there were minimal responses, and, secondly, those who

responded, did not suit us according to the established criteria. They were rejected. This experience failed”. (IOM-5). A project leader from GSEM (PL-11) named a couple of exceptions: two recent postdocs who were hired in the academic unit came through an open competition. A potential explanation was provided by an international office manager: “We need, having limited funding […], to somehow compete with the USA, Europe and China for some other reasons: areas (of study, my note), research (performance, my note), some other opportunities” (IOM-6).

In other words, focusing on specific areas and their strong global positioning could become a competitive and helpful advantage for UrFU to solve this issue. However, another initiative in international research development, such as the admission of international doctoral students, was highly successful not only at university level, but also in comparison with other Russian universities:

We started to actively attract international graduate students four years ago. And now we are in the leading positions among all Russian universities. […] And, thanks to our experience, last year we already refused about thirty potential students. In the past we had no interested candidates. We are already selecting better quality postgraduate

students and some of them, after completing their studies, ask us for a postdoc position. […] Even if they leave to go work somewhere, the contacts remain. (VR-1)

A vice-rector added that this became possible due to several reasons: efforts to make postgraduate programs attractive for current international master students at UrFU who could then stay on at the university; close cooperation with Russian government agency abroad (Rossotrudnichestvo) and a “word of mouth” campaign which only started to work after several years (VR-1). Another study participant talked about two further factors. The first was the existence of English-taught postgraduate programs and a fairly large number of supervisors able to work with graduate students in English, as well as highly positive reviews by partnering recruiting agencies of the “serious” approach of research supervisors. The second factor was the availability of private rooms in a dormitory for postgraduate students (IOM-3). Similar importance was given to the fact that UrFU clearly articulated possibilities for potential postgraduate students: the university collected and presented information about specific research supervisors, their interests of study and research groups to which potential students could belong.

The quality of the admission process to the graduate studies became a top priority, so much so that the graduate studies became a model for the other degree programs on how to develop internationally recognized education. An international office manager noted that

“graduate studies have already taken this significant step towards quality” (IOM-3). This only became possible as a result of the strict requirements to admission criteria and proper

selection processes. Furthermore, such a strategy had to shift the faculty’s attitude towards doing more internationally recognized research and publishing in leading world journals.

There was undoubtedly great potential for further involvement of faculty members into research; however, an important shift had already taken place:

In general, faculty members understood that it is possible to do research even in those departments where it was previously believed that they could not do it […] Earlier humanitarians sai“: "Where can we submit our resear”h?" Now they issue hundreds of publications because we have helped them. And they win grants, because they have the background. They get extra money. Moreover, they receive very good funding compared to some other academic units. (VR-1)

Thus, UrFU’s strategy was implemented on several levels (university, academic units, research groups, individual researchers) and included a system of actions to support research output. The strategy was grounded on developing a group of research units and allocating 5-10 funding to them on a competitive basis. Following on from this, around 70 so-called centers of excellence were created in UrFU after the launch of Project 5-100 and included three types of units: centers of competences (large research units), laboratories (middle-sized research units) and research groups (newly formed small research units). The funds could be spent on purchasing equipment, hiring domestic and international researchers, holding research events and for research-oriented business trips. The development of the centers of competences was supported by additional measures for individual researchers, such as linguistic support for publications, incentive payments for publications in high-ranked journals and performance-based contracts of employment. It was important that the strategy of research internationalization was consistent from the very beginning of Project 5-100. This gave researchers a sense of footing and an opportunity to plan research activities. UrFU also managed to notably improve international research connections and avoid doing local science, thus entering instead into a global research dialogue.

Internationalization of research, and namely, performing research in collaboration with international academics, publishing in international journals and presenting research results at the prominent international conferences in the field, went from being difficult or impossible to becoming part of the faculty members’ routine. However, a number of challenges, which UrFU was still facing, were identified in this area: a substantial part of faculty members was still not involved in internationally recognized research; international faculty recruiting took place almost entirely via personal connections and it was hard to provide job conditions which would be interesting for the permanent residence of

experienced international academics in Yekaterinburg. In addition, there was still room for improvement as regards the determination of international positioning for specific areas of knowledge.

4.7.1.2 Internationalization of Education: Selected Programs in English and Global Perspectives for Everyone. In 2020, more than 90% of international students at UrFU were attending Russian-taught programs. The reason lay in the fact that all English-taught programs, except for one bachelor program in GSEM, were offered at master level.

Enrolment in Russian-taught programs became possible for students from foreign countries as a result of the Foundation program. International students were studying Russian and attending courses required for admission exams, then went through a selection process, and enrolled in the degree programs. The university was interested in the development of English-taught programs, but there was not demand for English-English-taught programs since initially these were chosen based on existing expertise only, rather than market demand:

Well, what was the approach? “We have money (from Project 5-100, my note) and we have to make a program”. We did it inside the university, but nobody needed it in the market. (Now, my note) We actually have twelve working programs out of the

forty-five programs that we financed. […] And the process of funding allocation itself is very bureaucratic. (IOM-3)

Soon after the launch of Project 5-100, a lack of faculty members speaking fluent English proved to be a serious obstacle. Thus, in addition to hard competences and existing equipment, the available programs were chosen based on foreign language skills:

The approach was based on competencies. We basically started with mas’er's

programs. And it is a fairly large amount of work to implement a program in English, it cannot be carried out by one person. There had to be a team of people who spoke English at a sufficient level, who had the necessary resources, laboratories, material base, and who were interested in investing in this, because at that time it was completely new. (IOM-3)

In 2018, a revision of all English-taught programs was carried out in order to maintain only those which met sufficient standards in terms of quality of teaching in English. If a discipline could not be taught by a current UrFU academic due to a lack of English language proficiency, faculty from other institutions should be invited in order to deliver a course. A second criterion for the selection of programs was the international market demand (VR-2). As of August 2021, 17 English-taught master programs and two English-taught bachelor programs were offered instead of the initial 45 programs. All the international office

managers noted that UrFU was generally moving towards improving the quality of English-taught programs and programs for international students. This had not been a priority during the first rounds of recruiting from the international market since, at that time, UrFU was more

focused on quickly launching programs in English and recruiting high numbers of international students:

We used to have the task of recruiting as many foreign citizens as possible. And no one asked us how many foreign citizens have received diplomas. In my

understanding, our quality is determined by how many people have graduated. They studied for two or four years and received a diploma. It is especially a challenge for the undergraduate program, where a very large number of foreign citizens are expelled. (IOM-1)

An international office manager also added that, currently, the trend of admitting a high number of international students has been decreasing slightly and has shifted towards reducing the number of programs in English, but maintaining the quality of education, number of students, and financial stability (IOM-1). During the interviews, it became clear that UrFU had paid great attention to building a working student recruitment system and making its programs attractive for the market. At the same time, the university was facing the fact that international students were a separate group of stakeholders. This meant that if the university was willing to launch similar services for international students quickly, the adaptation of programs was only in its infancy. Teachers also had to face challenges: the university invested into improving the English language skills of faculty members, but during the interviews I understood that additional training was needed in order to help the faculty staff with teaching practices for multicultural groups of students:

We invited specialists from Belgium and Germany who specialized in modern educational technologies and teaching methods. They talked about how slides are

structured correctly, how to work with an international audience, how to sustain intercultural communication in the audience, what the current trends are and how this can be related to the theory of generations. (IOM-2)

An international office manager was sure that the recruitment of international students from different world regions – which was a significant part of UrFU’s internationalization strategy – required building an intercultural student community. At the same time, this had to be accompanied by the development of an intercultural mindset among employees and the internationalization of the physical and electronical campus:

In my opinion, the intercultural community helps the development of

internationalization. If we consider an ideal example in Russia, this is RUDN University. They have a wonderful campus, events for the peoples of the world; in general, their number of foreign students [is higher], and they have a department assigned to each region. […] Strategic development of internationalization leads to [the development of the intercultural community [which] is very difficult. The first point is to increase the level of the students, the second is to increase the number of products that we offer to the international market. And [it is important] in general to improve the infrastructure of the university in terms of ergonomics for international students. […] For example, in my ideal world, all the documentation is translated into English, accountants speak English […] And it is a challenge to change the mindset of employers. (IOM-4)

As an international office manager added, UrFU experienced two waves of change that modified the team responsible for the university’s international affairs (IOM-4). This led to the restructuring of international services. This restructuring was not in line with the University 2.0 model (described in section 4.3) and, thus, UrFU did not declare that such changes were caused directly by the requirements of Project 5-100. However, the

restructuring of international services stemmed from the idea of improving their performance and increasing the numbers of international students and international faculty members, which was in line with the goals of the excellence initiative. In summary, the study

participants indicated several stages of strategy building for university internationalization:

1. Focus was maintained on quantitative KPIs. A great number of programs in English were launched. Mass courses of English for teachers were implemented.

Launch of international services.

2. Focus was kept on quantitative KPIs. At this stage, the majority of English-taught programs were deemed to be ineffective: there was a lack of demand for them, and several of them hardly took place due to the language barrier. The Foundation program was developed in order to encourage students’ enrolments in Russian-taught programs. Restructuring of international services at the university level.

3. Quantitative KPIs were achieved, and the focus shifted towards quality. A revision and reduction of the majority of English-taught programs was made, as well as a revision of the curricula of the rest of the programs. Courses on teaching in

multicultural groups, teaching methods and techniques were organized. Part of the international services were delegated to the academic units.

The university has made a big leap forward in the internationalization of education since 2013. It has achieved the planned numbers of international students and has

dramatically increased the number of faculty members teaching in English. The study

participants concluded that the latter indicator was strongly connected with the increase in degree programs in English. In 2012, a year before the launch of Project 5-100, there was no single English-taught program at UrFU and only a few courses were available in English. In 2018, during the last stage of the excellence initiative, UrFU offered 18 undergraduate and master’s programs in English, and all PhD programs throughout the university were also available in English. The rapid development of English-taught programs became possible due to the introduction of a licensed center of Cambridge Assessment English at UrFU and mass studies for university faculty members (which were free for faculty members and funded by UrFU).

In conclusion, the interviews with the study participants showed that UrFU began to raise the quality of English-taught programs and further improve the services for international students. At the same time, despite the fact that many actions had been taken towards quality improvement, a coherent strategy of quality assurance in relation to the internationalization of education has not been elaborated by the university yet. To a great extent, this was caused by the changes in the international affairs team which led to some setbacks in the international services. The university was also still attempting to address the issues arising from the English-taught programs, teaching in intercultural groups, providing services and developing infrastructure.

The change in educational strategy and the focus shift towards increasing quality led to a repositioning of the internationalization of education. At the beginning of Project 5-100, the educational strategy of internationalization was aimed mostly at increasing the number of international students, but, by the end of the excellence initiative, the university understood that it needed to build a full-fledged international community, constantly improve the

curriculum and develop faculty members’ teaching competences. However, first UrFU had to

achieve its quantitative indicators in order to change its focus towards the quality of its international education.

4.7.1.3 Regional-international University: No Contradiction in the Two

Dimensions. UrFU and both its predecessors, USU and Ural State Polytechnical University, have historically been oriented towards serving the Ural region. When the university turned to the international market, the question as to how both the regional and the international dimensions would coexist in the same university arose. At the beginning of Project 5-100, this caused controversy and debates within the university. However, time showed that their fears were not grounded, there was no conflict between the regional and international dimensions, and the regional companies benefited from the internationalization of UrFU’s education:

The region must align with the global agenda. And we must become its driver, which brings new ideas, new technologies, new research and transformations. […] I

remember that when two universities merged [in 2011, my note], there were such disputes: students, who knew English, […] would not work here and would definitely move away. Now the understanding has changed. A student who has acquired these competencies, including the language one, is already needed here, because our enterprises need such specialists. (IOM-1)

The International Office Manager also added that such understanding was shared by the leadership of the region, the Rector and Academic Council of UrFU. This was confirmed when a Vice-Rector noted that UrFU served one of the largest regions in Russia and, thus, must compete with world leaders in the quality of educational programs (VR-2).

The world has been changing and digital transformations have led to students being able to choose online courses from their universities abroad. In terms of future agenda, it meant importance for UrFU to find the niche that it could occupy for several years and thus stay competitive (IOM-1).

The current positioning of UrFU as “a point of attraction which changes the region”

made it clear that the region and domestic students could benefit from UrFU’s

internationalization. However, the question of which benefits the international students gained when studying at the university was left unanswered. Why should they choose UrFU, aside for its connections with the industrial enterprises in the Urals? What do its courses provide if they want to continue their career in another region of Russia or abroad? The answers to these questions may help UrFU to find further repositioning in the international market and search for a unique niche for both online and offline study programs.

4.8.2 Repositioning of Internationalization

This section describes how internationalization was re-positioned by university employees during the implementation of Project 5-100. It also outlines other outcomes which were brought by the excellence initiative and shows a variety of the study participants’

positions on how international services should be organized.

4.7.2.1 Impact of Project 5-100: A New Way of Thinking about International Competitiveness. Discussions on the role of Project 5-100 in the university’s

internationalization arose during each conversation with the study participants. On several occasions, the participants indicated the financial rationale as the most evident stimulus for the excellence initiative. However, the university leadership and middle managers took a contrasting position. Vice-rectors emphasized that the financial role was secondary and other benefits brought by the excellence initiative were much more important for the university's