Indian Students in Russia: Sociological and Statistical Profile

Background/Objectives: The article considers the main trends in the training of specialists for India at the higher schools of Russia since the 1950's to the present day. Method: The authors used statistical and sociological methods in their research. The statistical method included the systematization and analysis of departmental statistics concerning the training of Indian students at the Soviet and Russian universities in the past 70 years. The sociological method included questionnaire survey of 306 Indian students. Findings: The authors cover such topics as the geography of study, studied special fields, academic programs of the Indian students and the dynamics of their numbers at the Soviet and Russian higher educational institutions and their preferences for some universities. The article also contains information on the socio-demographic composition of the Indian students in Russia, tuition fees and daily expenses, level of satisfaction with the quality of the obtained occupational training. The revenues brought by the Indian students to the Russian economy have been determined. The article was written based on the archival data of the Ministry of Higher Education of the USSR, the statistics of the Ministry of Education and Science of the Russian Federation and the results of the pilot sociological study (N = 306), conducted by the author in May 2015. The conclusion is made on certain stagnation in the interest of the Indian youth to study in Russia. Improvements: In this regard, a list of measures aimed at strengthening and expanding the Russian-Indian cooperation in education and increasing the flow of Indian students to Russian universities is proposed.