Higher Education Internationalization Priorities in the Republic of Belarus and the Export of Belarusian Education
Authors:   Sun Yat-sen University (Zhuhai, People’s Republic of China), Lijun Guo , Pogorelskaya Anastasia M. ,   Tomsk State University (Tomsk, Russian Federation), Yun Sergey M. ,   Tomsk State University (Tomsk, Russian Federation)
Published: March 2021

The research is aimed at identifying the peculiarities of higher education internationalization in the Republic of Belarus. The research objectives included the analysis of legislative and institutional sides of higher education internationalization and the evaluation of geographical priorities of higher education services export by Belarus. The research into higher education internationalization was initiated by Western researchers, including J. Knight, H. de Wit, P.G. Altbach, B. Leask, S. Robson, and others. However, the research into Belarusian higher education internationalization has started very recently and mostly covers the results of European projects in higher education conducted in Belarus. Therefore, the peculiarities and prospects of Belarusian higher education internationalization have not yet been considered sufficiently. Having analyzed the legislation in higher education, the authors concluded that the export of higher education became the priority of internationalization. Most policy documents set the aim of increasing the number of international students by improving the positions of Belarusian universities in international rankings and networking with foreign universities. Therefore, it may be concluded that Belarusian authorities interpret higher education internationalization from a very utilitarian point of view. Thus, it is not mainly aimed at improving the quality of higher education. Having considered the international students statistics the authors identified three geographical directions of Belarusian higher education export, namely Turkmenistan (the country providing almost half of international students in Belarus), China (the country of origin for most students receiving education abroad in the world), and Uzbekistan (the country that has significantly increased the number of students coming to Belarus recently). The geographical structure of Belarusian higher education export turned out to be very unbalanced because of the dominance of Turkmen students. However, Belarusian export of higher education to this country is now endangered by Turkmen educational policy hindering the outflow of school-leavers. Since Belarusian higher education has a very low ranking at Chinese labor market, the export of Belarusian higher education to China may grow but for a little only. Taking into account that the educational cooperation with Uzbekistan has activated recently, the export of Belarusian higher education to Uzbekistan is likely to increase within the following several years. Thus, the authors forecast the changes in geographical priorities of Belarusian higher education export. However, the advantages that made international students choose Belarus, namely stability and security, are endangered by the current political situation in the country. Therefore, the future of Belarusian export of higher education depends significantly on achieving fast political settlement.