The service model of tutor support for international students

Abstract

In the framework of the tasks of increasing the export of Russian education, it is especially important to correctly decompose and prioritize tasks. One of the most undeservedly overlooked areas is building principles, approaches and mechanisms for intensifying interactions with international students. Currently, a somewhat simplistic approach to the deep interests of foreign students still prevails. Unfortunately, it is quite widely believed that, if international students somehow managed to come to Russia, having already overcome considerable cultural, linguistic, visa and organizational barriers on their way, then further they will self-orient well in the following aspects of their stay. In addition, educational tasks are often interpreted in the terms of diligence and hard work: those, who study diligently, would inevitably achieve high results. Metaphorically speaking, the prevailing mentality is that those, who were unexpectedly thrown into the river, will learn best to swim due to shock, stress, mobilization in the face of the need to survive. Automatically joining groups with domestic students, foreign students do not receive special and well-qualified assistance at departments and faculties, where the adaptive competencies of international service workers can no longer be applied in matters of academic facilitation and instruction. For individual cohorts of teachers in terms of their specialization, subject areas and methodological arsenal, the high quality of intercultural interaction with foreign students is a fundamental opportunity for professional growth and self-betterment. In that respect, it is necessary to focus on the full or partial employment of certain groups of teaching and scientific-pedagogical workers as specialized tutors, whose work should be supported by well-coordinated interactions with multiple administrative services far beyond the boundaries of international relations departments, as well as with interested employers. The article for the first time presents a systematic view of the directions in which a service model of tutor support can be productively formed in the context of tasks of improving internationalization of the educational system. The article presents a description of ten priority transformations of the educational environment for effective support of international students, as well as a general scheme of the service model of tutor support for international students.