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FACTORS INFLUENCING THE ATTRACTION OF FOREIGN STUDENTS TO NRU HSE ECONOMICS AND MANAGEMENT SPECIALITIES



Contents

Introduction

1. Theoretical research on factors, influencing international students' choice of a place to study

1.1 Evaluation of attributes of a university or a country it belongs to

1.2 Personal evaluation of students themselves, their own country of origin and social position

1.3 International academic mobility in Russia

1.4 General factors that influence international students to study in Russia

2. Study of international students of the Faculty of Business and Management at HSE

2.1 Methodology of the research

2.2 The demographic characteristics of the international students studying management at NRU HSE

2.3 Reasons for applying to study management at NRU HSE

2.4 Main sources of information in use for the search of future university

2.5 Limitations of the study

3. Recommendations to NRU HSE Faculty of Business and Management on the attraction of international students

3.1 International students' satisfaction with the Faculty of Business and Management

3.2 Suggestions of study improvement by international students

3.3 Recommendations for measures of attracting international students to the faculty of business and management NRU HSE

Conclusion

References

Appendixes



Introduction

international student business management

Background. The increase in the number of foreign students at Russian universities is one of the goals of The National Priority Project “Education” ("The National Priority Project “Education”", 2020). In particular, Russian government aims to (1) have 710,000 international students studying at Russia by the end of 2024, (2) reach 2nd place in the world for the number of international students (The Moscow Times, 2019). Indeed, it is frequently mentioned that the development of student and academic mobility is necessary to make Russian education more competitive and more popular outside the country (Ryazantsev et al., 2019). Given the fact that Russian universities have improved greatly their positions in rankings ("Russia becomes one of world leaders in student mobility", 2020), increase in number of international students presents timely opportunity to further enhance the performance of educational institutions in the country.

Problem statement. NRU HSE is leading university that has always been open to international communication and cooperation in education. For instance, it was the first Russian state university to hire foreign lecturers. Currently, there are over 100 teachers from 25 countries at the university. According to the available data, the total revenue from international students to Russian economy was 116 billion rub. About ј of it comes from tuition fees, whereas the rest of revenue is expenditures on accommodation, food, etc. (Ministry of Science and Higher Education of the Russian Federation, 2018). Therefore, international students are beneficial to universities and the country in different aspects, ranging from being a direct source of income to supporting Russian business sector. According to statistics provided by Russia.Study portal, management specialities at Russian universities are among top-3 most preferable majors chosen by foreign applicants at the bachelor's or a specialist's level ("Number of applications from foreign students has increased", 2019). It is also crucial that HSE is one of the 21 universities to take part in the Russian academic excellence project 5-100. Its aim is to introduce substantial improvements to the Russian higher education in order to increase its excellence on home and global markets. A roadmap for participants of the project involves the provision of Russian education abroad. Thus, the Higher School of Economics is interested in the increase of student mobility to its faculty of business and management, one of the oldest faculties of the university.

This research aims to reveal the factors of attractiveness of Russian universities for international students and develop recommendations for NRU HSE faculty of business and management to increase the number of international applicants.

The following tasks were formulated to reach the goal of this research:

1. To identify what influences students' decision to study abroad, discussed in relevant literature.

2. To analyse the current situation at Russian education market: opportunities and challenges to attract foreign students.

3. To conduct an online survey of current foreign students at NRU HSE Faculty of Business and Management.

4. To reveal the factors that affected the decision of international students to study at the faculty of business and management according to the results of the conducted survey.

5. To suggest promotion activities for NRU HSE to attract more foreign students.

The Object of the study: factors influencing decision of foreign students to study at universities in Russia.

The Subject of the study: increase of the attraction of economics and management specialities at NRU HSE for foreign students.

Professional significance. HSE university, being one of the largest in Russia, has about 400 partnerships with international universities and research organizations, and there is a wide range of English-taught degree programmes. Yet, there are only about 3400 foreign students out of over 44000 students studying at the university ("HSE International Admissions", 2020). Greater attractiveness of NRU HSE management specialities among foreign students would help to ensure that the quality of management education at is up to date. The admission of international students supports the development of English taught programmes at NRU HSE, leading to greater variety of forms of study to choose from, for home students as well. Foreign students also provide for a more diverse cultural environment that enriches communication and critical thinking in teachers and scholars.

Methods of the research. The paper uses a primary data analysis by the conduction of a survey of 104 current or former international students of the Faculty of Business and Management at Higher School of Economics. The respondents are reached via university emails with the invitation to complete a questionnaire. The survey is conducted to test the suspected relationships between variables of interest and to gather general characteristics of the international student body of the Faculty. The choice of the survey method is explained in greater detail in the corresponding section in Chapter 2. The results of the survey are analysed with the help of descriptive statistics, visualization and inferential statistics (correlation analysis, confidence interval construction, etc.)

Paper structure. The current paper consists of three main chapters that gradually deepen understanding of the topic and allow to come from the conceptual foundation of the international students' attraction to precise measures adapted for HSE to recruit more foreign students. The theoretical part is the first one to form the basic knowledge of international students' decision making. The literature is based on a wide number of relevant publications from different fields of science, such as sociology and phycology due to the absence of researchers' consensus on the influential factors' classification. To make a preliminary classification of factors that influence students' choice to study abroad, the migration theory of Everett Lee is applied. The next chapter is dedicated to the empirical study for the Faculty of Business and Management at HSE as an attempt to gather a pool of factors relevant to the university and Russia. The final chapter involves a range of recommendations that are based on literature review, up-to-date educational market statistics and the conducted survey. The paper also consists of introduction, conclusion, reference list and appendix list. The greater description of each chapter can be found in the course of the narrative.



1. Theoretical research on factors, influencing international students' choice of a place to study

Studying abroad is one of the many options for students who make a choice of a higher education institution. In the late 20^th century, the globalization gave rise to travelling and migration, which presented young people with opportunity to consider foreign countries as their place of study. Furthermore, internationalization lead to the development of various forms of relationships between different countries and cultures, which made educational institutions open to student mobility. Universities, which aim to provide education of high quality, develop rapidly in the direction of increasing diversity, deeper communication and adherence to modern standards. Recruitment of international students has moved from being an issue limited to university-related professionals, and how it is a topic of large interest for researchers. Yet, there were no in-depth studies that fully described factors that influence the decision of international students to study abroad. The existing research of the topic has been mostly confined to a particular country or an educational institution, and there were just a few studies of the issue relevant to the Russian educational market. The following analysis of secondary information is done in the attempt to gather and systematize the existing theoretical knowledge of the topic and provide information on the foreign student body in Russia and HSE.

Short introduction into Push and Pull theory and its application to the study of international students' mobility

It appears that the factors are not easily brought into a classification, and their systematization is not always possible. Students' decision on the destination country is highly dependent on a wide range of factors, which are suggested by researchers to be adapted in each case and a searched for on a case-to-case basis. International education, in general, can be seen as a change of location, permanent or temporal. Therefore, foreign students, coming to a host country, take part in migration for educational purposes. Taking this into account, this paper suggests an approach that was used by some researchers from the field of demography. It suggests an explanation for people movement from one country to another by dividing factors into two categories: push and pull. Such a classification was firstly introduced by Lee (1966), who studied population mobility and formed the theoretical foundation for migration research. He proposed a model where a person stands between his places of (1) origin and (2) destination. The relationship between these two is complicated by obstacles and personal issues, which are often unique to a person. Yet, the characteristics of an origin and a destination may be described and applied to many migrating individuals.

Factors that are put into the push category are usually negative and give a person reasons to not stay at his current location and, instead, change it for a new place to live. These are mostly associated with the place of origin, and may be shortly described as disadvantages of home country. Factors in the pull category are the ones that seem attractive to a person and increase his desire to leave for a new location. Pull factors are mostly positive and are related closely to the destination.

The following figure demonstrates this model:

Figure 1 Lee theory of migration

What this paper suggests is to apply Lee's theory to international academic mobility. Every potential student, whilst making a decision to study abroad, is influenced by positive or negative factors. To facilitate the understanding of international students' decision making as to a university abroad, the factors are categorised according to their relation to an individual. The push factors are intrinsic, as they are associated with the features of a person's home country, whereas pull factors describe a place of relocation, and are extrinsic to a person. The following parts of literature review are dedicated to the how these types of factors influence international student mobility.

1.1 Evaluation of attributes of a university or a country it belongs to

In general, it is believed in the field of academic mobility research that foreign students make their decision according to the subjective evaluation of the characteristics of their university destination. For example, it is evident that students may choose a place to study abroad based mainly on their desire to visit a particular country. That is, if a student is indifferent between educational programmes in different countries, the decision will be made according to their tourism-related preferences (Lee, 2017). Such a finding implies that governments and universities may use landmarks as part of their marketing campaigns aimed at international students. Indeed, academic mobility is often seen as a means of personal development. For many students, study abroad is closely related to gaining new cultural experience. For instance, it was found that participants of Erasmus exchange program valued highly opportunity to understand foreign culture as a part of student mobility experience (Pokasiж et al., 2019). This suggests that universities should include cultural benefits as an advantage for students to study abroad. At the same time, research suggests that the similarities existing between home country and a place to study are a significant factor of influence. It is not limited to geographical location, but also involves language and cultural proximity. Thus, it may require less effort for a university to target students from countries “neighbouring” (in the mentioned aspects) with the home country, and a more sophisticated strategy is needed to attract students from countries farther away (Pedro & Franco, 2016). What is more, a decision to choose a university in a particular country may depend on how international students are treated there. If a person feels that foreigners in universities are believed to be useless immigrants, they are less likely to go there to study (Riaсo et al., 2018). Therefore, higher institutions should show to prospective international students that they are welcome in a country and that this country is interested in their talent.

1.2 Personal evaluation of students themselves, their own country of origin and social position

To look at the issue from the other side, the characteristics of students themselves and their living conditions also influence their decision to go abroad to study. For example, the country a student comes from is of greater importance than may have been anticipated. It was found that an economic crisis in a home country makes it difficult for students to plan for their future, which makes them risk averse. As a result, they often prefer to stay at a home university instead of applying for studying abroad (Cairns, 2017). It is reasonable to assume that for such students, foreign university marketing campaigns should offer extensive information on student life and put emphasis on opportunities existing for exchange students during their study. This assumption is reinforced by other authors, who found that students behave in different ways according to the level of economic development of their home countries. If a student comes from less economically developed countries, he is more likely to seek foreign qualification to improve this social position in the home market. Such students pay more attention to the content of the study programme as well as the ranking of their future university. To attract such students, it is beneficial to show how a foreign university can help develop vocational and academic skills, and support higher employability (Tran, 2016).

To add more information on the factors that were identified and described above, the following table presents additional information on the topic.

Table 1

More ways to categorize factors described in the research literature that influence students to choose a university abroad

	Country of interest	Proposed classification of factors	Summary of findings
Fenyves, V., (2019)	Hungary (Eastern Europe)	Geopolitics, Finance (costs), Career, Social recommendations	1. Financial factors are the most important 2. There is a high influence of country of origin
Jupiter, H., (2017).	Malaysia	Communication, Location, Social	1. It is reasonable to adjust the provided classification to each university and country. 2. Factors vary across educational systems and cultures, exploratory research is promising
Alemu & Cordier, (2017).	South Korea (Asian countries)	A broad spectrum of factors starting from culture (food, traditions, perceptions of foreigners by Koreans) and up to study curriculum	1. Students who were thorough in their search of specific information on destination country and institution may feel more satisfied with their university choice. 2. Potential students opt for neighbouring countries due to the fear of new environment
Eder, (2010).	USA	Motivational (Self-development, destination characteristics), Constraining (Visa issues, finance)	There are various motivational factors attract foreign students, and almost every university is able to and is strongly suggested to emphasize them to increase international student mobility

To sum up the theoretical foundation on the factors associated with international student mobility, it is evident that students are affected in many ways, depending on what they want to study, what their future plans are, their educational background. This paper aims to cover some research gaps in understanding willingness of foreign students to study management in Russia. In order to do this, the next step in the secondary information analysis if the overview of current situation with international mobility in Russian universities is provided.



1.3 International academic mobility in Russia

1. Challenges and opportunities

The opportunities of Russian higher education institutions to attract foreign students have been discussed on many occasions in the relevant literature. The need in the research on the topic was first realised shortly after the dissolution of the USSR. The appearance of independent states and the development of new educational systems in former Soviet republics decreased the number of young people who learned Russian as their mother tongue. As a result, Russian-taught programmes, which are dominant in Russian universities, became less popular among foreign students. It is also common for many Russian universities to accept a number of international students, but it appears that just a fraction of them actually graduates. It is associated with increased difficulties experienced by international students when they start to live in a foreign country. The so-called “period of adaptation” is relatively long for such students and involves things beyond study process, such as new culture, social connections, etc. The research, however, came to conclusion that in Russia, students from Asia are the most successful in obtaining a diploma, as their graduation rate is around 100%, whereas about one half of students from North America do not graduate from Russian universities they managed to enter (Markina, 2018). Universities can use this information to their benefit in 2 directions. Firstly, Russian educational institutions should put effort into retaining international students, thus, not limiting their support to the time before they come to Russia. Secondly, it is promising to develop marketing of Russian education in Asian countries, because students from there are more likely to complete their programmes.

Another aspect to consider is the decrease in the importance of the Russian language in the world. Due to this, it appears more often that international students come to Russia to study without prior knowledge of Russian. What is more, they are less inclined to learn the language during their stay in Russia. As a result, it is common for foreign students to live in Russia for the length of their university programmes and graduate, but they still have the very basic level of Russian (Verevkin, 2017). It implies that their professional competency is less than it would be in the case of their greater knowledge of Russian. Such students are less likely to have a successful career in the country or even stay after obtaining a diploma.

2. Current statistics

To look at the recent data, over 5.3 million students study abroad all over the world, out of which more than 300000 students chose Russia as their higher education destination, as of the year 2019. This represents the 6% increase relative to the year of 2018. It makes Russia 7th most popular country for international students. Business and Management is the 2nd most attractive field of study after engineering programmes (Project Atlas, 2019). As for the structural characteristics of international student body at Russian universities, recent data demonstrates that Russian programmes are most popular among students from The Commonwealth of Independent States (CIS). In 2016/2017, they occupied more than 72% of the total number of foreign students in Russia (Ministry of Science and Higher Education of the Russian Federation, 2018). Furthermore, there is a significant increase of 10% in the number of Chinese students in Russia (Mironova, 2020). Therefore, a question arises how universities can use the information of the nationality of foreign students to increase popularity of Russian education. It was found multiple times that students who study abroad prefer to choose universities in countries bordering their home country. On a similar note, it was found that international students that chose Russia as their study destination already had acquaintances in the country before they came there (Komleva, 2017). It explains why Russia is a common choice for students from The Commonwealth of Independent States or Asian countries, such as China or Kazakhstan. However, a potential problem is mentioned by researchers in relation to academic mobility from post-Soviet countries and China. In the recent years, a number of measures were taken by governments of these countries, including introduction of new legislation and financial investment. As a result, there is a significant improvement to educational systems of these states, which made education in a home country more attractive for students than it previously was (Chinaeva, 2017). It implies that in the future, Russian universities may face decreased demand for their educational services from international students of such countries, or, at least, there may be an increase in competition on international educational market. The prognosis appears to be more negative since the beginning of COVID-19 pandemic. Among the factors that directly affect international students' choice of universities are: (1) the introduction of administrative measures (travel restrictions, visa suspensions and more), (2) increased uncertainty (changes in application deadlines, exams cancellation, postponement of scholarships). There have been a number of survey of international students during the pandemic, and it was found that foreign students have become more risk averse and are ready to change their study plans due to health safety and other reasons. Many respndents mentioned their willingness to deter or even cancel application process to study abroad ("The Impact Of COVID-19 on International Students Perceptions | Studyportals", 2020).

3. Proposed and imposed changes in relation to Russian educational market

Overall, it appears that, as of 2020, Russian government and universities' stuff have considerable interest in increasing foreign student body in the country, yet there is no common agreement among educational institutions, and every university develops its own system of foreign students' attraction (Egorychev et al., 2016). The measures taken at the moment should be improved to effectively achieve this goal. For instance, authors find some parts of the legal system in Russia to serve as a barrier for international students to come study there (Ryazantsev et al., 2019). Law needs to be developed to facilitate recognition of foreign degrees and international students' residence permit. A number of steps has indeed been taken in this direction. There is a law proposal from the government to accelerate citizenship application for foreigners with Russian educational diplomas (The Moscow Times, 2020). This measure is expected to increase Russian universities' popularity among international students who consider a possibility to stay in the country after finishing studies.

Nevertheless, it should not be forgotten that the length of a typical university programme, that is, 4 years at the Bachelor's level and 2 years at the Master's level, is too short for significant change in the legislation. Therefore, it is reasonable to state that currently the recruitment of international students and their accommodation in the country is dependent more on the universities rather than the government.

In the last few years, it became apparent that economic specialities in Russian universities become more popular among international students. Most common reasons for this were found to be (1) the willingness of such students to become more familiar with cultural and language environment of Russia and (2) stay there to work after graduation. For example, Russian education diploma is attractive for Chinese students mainly as means to get a job in the country rather than develop knowledge of the discipline itself (Vershinina et al., 2016). The same can be said about students coming from countries that were not part of the USSR. What it implies for universities' marketing strategies is that there should be more emphasis on professional development and business experience one may obtain during their study. The latest news report that there are plans to allow international students to work without permit during their studies (The Moscow Times, 2019). This proposal may be used by universities as a cue to provide more practice-oriented events, such as soft skills seminars, information on internships, etc. Moreover, Careers and Employability services should be introduced or, if already in place, significantly improved to ensure that international students have full support in their career-related queries. In fact, the process of integration to the life in a foreign country and new education system is a primary concern for international students who consider Russia. Many of them, according to the data by some leading Russian universities, experience problems with finding required information on living in Russia, which makes them more reluctant to choose Russian higher institutions. Moreover, various studies show that international students are deterred from choosing Russian universities, as they are under impression that the infrastructure provided would be similar to the one in Soviet times rather than 21st century. This view is more common for students with no knowledge of Russian, as they fear the language barrier and have little understanding of current living conditions in Russia (Bekker, Ivanchin, 2015). To overcome this, it is reasonable to invest into improvement of living conditions in dormitories as well as to promote the increase in the awareness of future students of the measures taken to accommodate them in Russia.

HSE University Faculty of Business and Management

During the last years, the number of foreign students studying management-related sciences at NRU HSE has been on the rise, around 1/3 of the total number of foreigners at the Faculty paid tuition fees, whereas the majority received state funded education. The Faculty has 32 academic mobility exchange programmes, and 85 students participated in it to study at HSE in 2018/2019. At the moment, international students can choose from 21 higher education (Bachelor and Master) programmes, all of which offer a range of English-taught courses, with 3 programmes being delivered predominantly in English.

In 2019, 136 international students were accepted to the Faculty of Business and Management at the Bachelor's level of education, which is the 2^nd highest place among other faculties of the university. Over 90 students were accepted by the faculty at the Master's level. On a number of occasions, HSE has proven to be effective relative to its competitors on the Russian educational market. It is safe to assume that HSE is one of the most accommodating university in Russia for foreigners. For instance, HSE has already provided information on the continuation of international admissions during the pandemic, as the university has developed the possible formats of its study programmes to address the challenges of current situation. Furthermore, a variety of international student services is available for foreign students at HSE to simplify their adaptation in the university ("Ten Facts about HSE's International Community", 2018). They range from additional study opportunities (Summer University and language cources) to social and networking events (Moscow excursions, career fairs, etc.).

1.4 General factors that influence international students to study in Russia

The analysis of the relevant literature provides a significant insight into the factors that take part in students' decision to study abroad. However, there appears to be an evident discrepancy of opinions on what measures should be employed by universities in relation to the information provided by research. This is explained by the fact that there seems to be no definite classification of factors that have the biggest influence on students. This leads to both governmental and university administrative bodies to have not developed an effective plan to attract foreign students. The same can be said about Russia and its educational institutions. To improve the situation, it is necessary to determine the main factors and how they can be used in the country to attract foreign students.

One of the best ways to better understand factors of influence on international students is to divide them into two categories of external and internal nature in relation to students (push and pull factors), as was done in the review. When it comes to external (pull) factors, a student makes evaluation of a foreign country and its culture, traditions and population. According to this, a country of study destination should put emphasis on the improvement of its social image in the view of international students. Currently, the governmental measures in this direction in Russia are simple procedures for citizenship application and work during studies. These may not be enough in the future, but they are expected to be effective in the short run. The steps taken by Russian universities may be in relation to their rankings and location. It seems promising to promote Moscow universities, HSE included, as Moscow offers extensive cultural and touristic experience. As for the second group of factors (push factors), they may be used in Russia as well. When a student evaluates his own social position and the development of his country of origin, he analyses attributes that are internal to him. One of the mentioned factors of this category is the negative economic situation in the home country. It is obvious that Russian government cannot have much influence onto such factors, but the measures taken by universities may be effective. For instance, many prestigious universities worldwide have been working towards the increase in the awareness of international students of opportunities beyond educational experience. It is not surprising since universities that provide information on extra-curricular activities are expected to have greater chances of attracting foreign students (Perraton, 2017). Moreover, every university has potential to develop proper Student Services department to make international students aware of the benefits of education in a particular country. The availability of more information on vocational skills and career opportunities for foreigners is expected to draw potential foreign students to studying abroad.

Overall, there is an array of factors that affect student willingness to study abroad. The provided literature review was dedicated to description of what can be the source of influence. The given analysis of secondary information was based on up-to-date publications in the corresponding field of study. Moreover, the situation at the Russian educational market with relevant statistics on the current foreign student body in Russia was analysed. The literature review included actions already taken by Russian universities to attract international students in order to provide a better picture of the existing university marketing strategies. To assess the problem of the research in the context of international students at NRU HSE, the statistics on Russian educational market was provided, coupled with the information on the Faculty of Business and Management at NRU HSE. According to this, preliminary suggestions are made as to how universities can make use of it to attract foreigners to apply to them.

To finalise the literature review, the conclusion was made as to what factors are applicable to students studying in Russia. This is done to facilitate the comprehension of influential factors and serve as a basis for the implementation of research methods in the paper.



2. Study of international students of the Faculty of Business and Management at HSE

2.1 Methodology of the research

Hypotheses

After examining the relevant literature and statistics on international student mobility in Russia, the following hypotheses were identified:

1. Most international students who decided to apply to NRU HSE have either relatives or friends already living in Russia

2. International students considered NRU HSE being a partner university to be an important factor when they decided to apply to NRU HSE

3. International students tend to be more satisfied with their experience at HSE if they used non-official (word-of-mouth) sources of information about the university when they made their choice of the university abroad

The previous (theoretical) part made it apparent that there is not enough information on what attracts foreigners to study management in Russian universities, HSE in particular, thus the empirical part follows to get information on what affected international students that have chosen to study management at NRU HSE. This helps gain insight into what NRU HSE should include in its marketing strategy to attract more foreign students.

The research is done via quantitative approach. It includes a survey of existing international students and the Faculty of Business and Management at Higher School of Economics. The choice of a survey is explained by the need to identify most common factors of influence on students' choice of university and programme. The questionnaires were distributed to students via their university emails to ensure that each person participates only once and only actual HSE students answer. The choice of this method is explained by the need to reach a sufficient number of respondents when the offline survey cannot be conducted. A questionnaire includes a series of questions from why they chose NRU HSE to their future educational and career strategies. The answers are then analysed, and conclusions are made as to common factors that influenced the participants to come study at NRU HSE. Overall, the chosen methodology allows to reach the aim of the research by providing necessary knowledge on international students' decision to study at NRU HSE and how the university can become more popular among future foreign applicants.

An important addition to what has been said on the empirical research of the topic is that intrinsic (push) factors are highly personalised and depend on an individual's abilities, nationality and his own view of self-development. These factors are difficult to account for and are not as useful to universities as pull factors. Thus, the current paper emphasises pull factors and makes most of its conclusions on the basis of pull factors analysis.

The questionnaire

The preparation of the survey was done on the basis of (1) the research literature, (2) the conducted analysis of Russian educational market, and (3) the current resources to accommodate international students of NRU HSE Faculty of Business and Management. The following part is dedicated to the analysis of the answers received from respondents to learn more about current and past international students at the university and also assist NRU HSE in increasing international student recruitment.

The number of respondents that the author of the study was able to reach is 104. All of them are students of NRU HSE Faculty of Business and Management. The paper, however, takes into account that the conclusions made are limited to respondents' characteristics and may not be 100% representative of the whole international student body at the Faculty of Business and Management at NRU HSE.



2.2 The demographic characteristics of the international students studying management at NRU HSE

First of all, it is crucial to learn the most basic information on management foreign students. Most respondents are female (70%), whereas 30% are male. The respondents predominantly study at NRU HSE at the Bachelor's level (63,3%), with just over 1/3 of respondents being Postgraduate students.

Respondents come from different countries, comprising 2 continents (Eurasia and South America). The countries of origin include states of various economic development, geographical proximity from Russia, and cultural traditions, as presented on Figure 2. There are students from West and Eastern European countries, as well as South America. As was expected, most students come from The Commonwealth of Independent States or the former USSR republics.

Figure 2 Country of origin of respondents

The choice of study programmes and universities

International student activity in higher education institutions starts with their form of participation in the study process. The respondents were asked about this to understand

At NRU HSE, students may choose to apply to a fully-taught English programme or study management-related subjects in the Russian language. The third choice is also available and involves studying few selected subjects in English that are taught as a part of Russian-taught programme. This option is usually exercised by exchange international students who come to NRU HSE for a semester or less.

The answers given show that most international students chose to study a programme delivered entirely in Russian, as can be seen from Figure 3. Only 11,5% of respondents study at the programme delivered in English and 19,2% of students study in English too, but their subjects are part of a programme that is predominantly in Russian.

Figure 3 Respondents' choice of a language of programme delivery

Overall, 32 (12+20) respondents preferred to be educated in English. The dominance of Russian-taught management programmes in the choice of foreign student body at NRU HSE can be explained by many reasons. One of the obvious reasons may be that the Faculty currently provides only few English-taught programmes, whereas the choice of programmes in Russian is much wider. The questionnaire asked these English-educated students about their ability to study in Russian. The survey revealed that 20 out of 32 students considered only English-taught programmes. Only 12 respondents could have studied in Russian, but chose to study in English. The results show that there may be other than language-related reasons, as 37,5% were able to study Russian-taught courses, yet their choice was different.

Prior acquaintance with someone from Russia

Respondents were asked whether they have friends or relatives in Russia before they came here to study. The survey shows that ѕ of respondents answered “yes” to this question.

However, this result is based on a sample, whereas the population (in our case, all management international students at NRU HSE) may have different proportion of students with prior-to-study Russian acquaintances. Therefore, it is reasonable to construct a confidence interval for a proportion. The results are summarized in the Table 2:

Table 2

Confidence interval for the proportion of international students with prior-to-study Russian acquaintances

yes	81
no	27
sample size (n)	108
p' (proportion of "yes")	0,75 (= 75%)
q' (proportion of "no")	0,25 (= 25%)
confidence level	0,95
critical value	1,959
margin of error	0,082
lower bound	0,668 (= 66,8%)
upper bound	0,832 (= 82,3%)

The calculation of confidence interval is the example of inferential statistics performed on the obtained sample. The interpretation of the interval is we are 95% confident that the population percentage of NRU HSE management international students who have friends/relatives in Russia prior to coming here to study lies between 66,8% and 82,3%, based on the sample.

Therefore, the Hypothesis 1 (“Most international students who decided to apply to NRU HSE have either relatives or friends already living in Russia”) is not rejected.

2.3 Reasons for applying to study management at NRU HSE

Respondents were presented with a list of 10 characteristics and statements about Russia and NRU HSE, and respondents were asked to estimate their influence on their decision to study at NRU HSE. Most of these characteristics represent pull factors and may be more or less controlled by HSE, which makes the results useful for the aim of recruiting more international students (Darby, 2015). Figure 4 represents the results in greater detail, with the percentage of students who valued each factor on a scale from 1 to 5.

Figure 4 Distribution of respondent's evaluation of each HSE characteristic

To make comparison of factors simpler, Figure 5 and Table 3 show median and mean answers for each factor.



Figure 5 Mean answer for each HSE characteristic

Table 3

Descriptive statistics on the HSE characteristics

Descriptive statistics	Factors (sorted in the descending order of means)	Mean	Median	Standard deviation
	The prestige of NRU HSE diplomas	4,34	5	1,08
	Opportunity to stay in Russia for further education or career purposes	3,34	3	1,47
	Developed student union and societies	3,20	3	1,30
	Quality and location of HSE accommodation	3,16	3,5	1,46
	The cost of studying and NRU HSE and financial support it offers	3,04	3	1,28
	Opportunity to work on and off campus	2,96	3	1,26
	Location of NRU HSE (city, proximity to my native country)	2,92	3	1,46
	Availability of wide range of English-taught management programmes	2,31	2	1,36
	I know someone who lives in Russia, and I wanted to be closer to them	2,16	2	1,39
	NRU HSE is a partner university of my place of study	1,51	1	0,98

The factor that attained the highest mean and median score is “The prestige of NRU HSE diplomas”, which means that the reputation of NRU HSE was definitely taken into account by prospective international students. This finding comes in accordance with the existing literature on the topic. Indeed, a decision to study abroad is often based on a student desire to attend a well-known educational institution.

As was expected, the factor “Availability of wide range of English-taught management programmes” was not very important to international students. This may be explained by the fact that NRU HSE Faculty of Business and Management has a relatively low number of English-taught programmes, especially when compared to English-speaking countries or countries with higher education mostly in English (such as the Netherlands). Moreover, the factor “I know someone who lives in Russia, and I wanted to be closer to them” turned out to be one of the least significant for current international students to affect their decision to study at NRU HSE, even though it was shown to be true of the majority of respondents. Therefore, it implies that acquaintances had limited influence on prospective students compared to other factors.

In order to get more information on the partnerships that HSE has with other universities, students were asked to mention the name of the partner university they come from. The names of 5 universities were recorded, and 10 students out of 104 told about their association with partner universities. The following Table 4 represents the results:

Table 4

Distribution of the mentioned by respondents partner universities

University	Country	No of students
Ehess (The School for Advanced Studies in the Social Sciences)	France	2
Belarusian-Russian University	Belarus	3
Kyrgyz Economic University Named After Musa Ryskulbekov	Kyrgyzstan	2
National University of Mongolia	Mongolia	1
ESSCA Graduate School of Management	France	2
-- (Partner university not mentioned)	--	94

Yet, NRU HSE being a partner university turned out to be the least important factor for international students to choose NRU HSE. The median answer is 1, which means that 50% of respondents considered the factor of partner university to be 1 (Not important). It may be due to the Faculty having an insufficient number of partner universities or ineffective way of cooperation with them. Therefore, the Hypothesis 2 (“International students considered NRU HSE being a partner university to be an important factor when they decided to apply to NRU HSE”) is rejected.

2.4 Main sources of information in use for the search of future university

Respondents were asked about the means of getting information on their future place of study. International students were given a list of sources to evaluate on the scale from 1 go 5. Their answers are summarized below:

Figure 6 Distribution of respondents' evaluation of information sources about HSE



Figure 7 Mean and median answers of respondents' evaluation of information sources about HSE

Table 5

Descriptive statistics on the information sources about HSE

Descriptive statistics	Sources of information (sorted in the descending order of means)	Mean	Median	Standard deviation
	NRU HSE website	4,14	5	1,18
	Someone I know who studies at NRU HSE	3,05	3	1,82
	University ranking websites	3,03	3	1,68
	Someone in my home country (a friend, parent, relative, professor, etc.	2,74	3	1,68
	Online forums and blogs	2,61	3	1,59
	Events at my school	2,39	1	1,78
	Academic conferences	2,31	1	1,68
	News	2,26	1	1,49
	Education fair	2,00	1	1,43
	A government department in my home country	2,00	1	1,46
	Education agents	1,74	1	1,31
	Flyers and broshures	1,91	1	1,49

The survey demonstrated that students choose information sources about NRU HSE that are as close as possible to the university. Indeed, the sources that were considered by respondents to be of most importance (as represented with the highest mean and median score) are NRU HSE website and NRU HSE students. This was expected, as studying abroad is considered to be an important decision for a prospective student, and one wants to get hands-on information primarily from sources with close experience with NRU HSE. However, the median score for all sources except the official university website is 3 or less. It means that at least Ѕ of the respondents felt that their choice of NRU HSE was based on information mainly from HSE website and nothing else. Event-based sources, such as “Education fair” and “Academic conferences” are insignificant for international students, as their mean score are around 2. This result may be explained by a limited number of participants of such events and absence of interest in them by target audience.

Indeed, it appears to be more promising to increase presence of the university in education-related media, such as online forums, as their mean score is more than 2,5. The SMM is potentially beneficial to NRU HSE, requiring low investments and affecting a wide range of prospective students.

2.5 Limitations of the study

The conducted study aimed to simplify the understanding of what influences international students in their choice of HSE Faculty of Business and Management as a study destination. In order to understand why students decided to come to specifically to Russia to a management related programme, the study is thus confined to surveying foreign students that study at the Faculty of Business and Management at NRU HSE. The number of respondents (104 people in total) is high enough to perform a statistical analysis of the results, and it is likely that this number could not have been greatly expanded at the time of paper submission due to the online nature of communication with international students. However, it should be noted that the results may not be fully generalised to all foreign students in Russia due to participants belonging only to NRU HSE. Moreover, the author takes into account the fact that the geographical variety of respondent body may not be fully representative of all international students at HSE either, even those studying at the Faculty of Business and Management at HSE. In particular, it is apparent that the body of respondents of the current survey lacks international students from China. This is a serious disadvantage of the analysis provided, as it seems that Chinese students represent a significant part of international student body at HSE and other Russian universities. The author was not able to reach Chinese students due to several reasons, one of them being their less frequent usage of corporate email during distance learning that was established during the quarantine in the 2^nd semester of 2020 study year. At the same time, the study results may be even more useful to attract students from other countries, which is beneficial since HSE and other Russian educational institutions are less popular among non-Chinese students. Nevertheless, the author suggests further research to adjust the proposed measures for Chinese students' needs. What is more, the comparison of the conducted study and similar study at other faculties at HSE or even other Russian universities is encouraged to explore the topic in greater detail.



3. Recommendations to NRU HSE Faculty of Business and Management on the attraction of international students

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