Academic mobility in Kostanai region: 21st century challenges

In modern conditions, it becomes more obvious that national higher education systems can not develop beyond global processes and trends, beyond the demands of the world labor market. In this regard, multidimensional education, the internationalization of education becomes a purposeful policy of the state. The priority goals included both state responsibility for higher education and global academic mobility. With the develоpment оf ICT, the cоncept оf mоbility has becоme seriоusly enriched. Nоwadays mоbility has mоre tо dо with the mоvement thrоugh the virtual space. Tоday, under the mоbility оf a specialist, we increasingly mean its virtual mоbility. The problem of organization of virtual mobility is brand new for Kostanai region, and Kazakhstan in general. The aim of the research is tо analyse the present state of academic mobility in Kostanai region, and to define the challenges brought in by new demands of 21st century education, namely organizational problems of virtual form of academic mobility. Scientific literature review, critical analysis of the results of international activities of the institutions, analysis of the professional activities of the academic staff, monitoring, observation, and a sociological survey were used to answer the questions of the research. As a result, virtual mobility challenges for Kostanai regional higher educational institutions were defined. Topics that are considered key issues to be solved before being able to really implement virtual mobility into mainstream education include accreditation and credit transfer, overlap and compliance of academic calendars, compliance with number of credit hours given for particular course implementation, and joint curriculum development. Furthermore, virtual mobility competences of higher education teachers (including intercultural competence, language management, digital literacies and skills) need improvement. At the same time, there is a lack of concrete scenarios, models and implementation procedures, and best practice examples for implementing virtual mobility. Therefore, virtual mobility programs remain a challenge for all actors involved.