Forming of the scientific and innovative potential of a university: foreign citizens in Russian postgraduate studies

The article analyzes the main indicators of the activities of the Russian postgraduate studies in the period from 2014 to 2018, analyzes the dynamics of the number of organizations involved in postgraduate training. One of the criteria for raising the status of a higher education at the international level is the development of academic mobility of students. Since 2014, the increase in the number of foreign citizens in universities has been significantly growing. This entails the need to introduce and implement measures to revise organizational policies regarding the activities of the postgraduate departments of higher educational institutions. The article provides the reasons why foreign citizens choose Russia postgraduate programs, what was revealed by means of a survey. The organization faces difficulties, mainly due to flaws in the organization of scientific and educational activities of foreign postgraduates. Academic mobility, as an indicator that brings the university to a new quality level, requires special attention. The efficiency of postgraduate studies as per the existing methods does not take into account the peculiarities of training foreign postgraduates. According to the analysis of official ranking agencies, the leading universities in Chelyabinsk were identified and analyzed as per four key criteria of the efficiency of postgraduate studies. The results of the analysis emphasized the need to revise the organizational policy of an educational institution in terms of the activities of the postgraduate department. Attention is focused on the key problems of the head of an educational organization and suggests appropriate solutions to problems. As an additional criterion for assessing the efficiency of the postgraduate study activity in the framework of the development of academic mobility, an additional indicator “Accessibility of Postgraduate Education for Foreign Citizens” has been proposed and considered.