Migration attitudes of the students enrolled in arctic-focused higher education programs

The Arctic is one of the priorities in the development of Russia. The concept “Arctic zone of the Russian Federation” (hereinafter – the Russian Arctic) is introduced into active regulatory circulation. Its boundaries have been defined, and now approaches and plans for the development of this macroregion are being worked out. The Russian Arctic becomes a full-fledged object of state management.

At the moment, the macroregion under consideration includes the Murmansk Oblast, Nenets Autonomous Okrug, Chukotka

Autonomous Okrug and Yamalo-Nenets Autonomous Okrug. It also includes part of the Arkhangelsk Oblast (cities of Arkhangelsk and Severodvinsk, town of Novodvinsk and four municipal entities), Krasnoyarsk Oblast (city of Norilsk and two districts), Republic of Komi (town of Vorkuta), the Republic of Sakha (Yakutia) (five districts) and three municipal districts within the Republic of Karelia1.

Human capital is one of the key resources in the development of the Russian Arctic. Without qualified specialists ready to work in difficult climatic conditions, none of the Arctic projects and none of the Arctic territories will be able to successfully operate and develop [1; 2]. However, the range of production and socioeconomic problems leads to an intensive migration outflow primarily among skilled specialists and young people. Thus, over the past 15 years the Arctic regions experience population decline due to migration (Tab. 1) .

The largest outflow of population from the regions that are fully or partially included in the Russian Arctic is observed in Chukotka and Nenets autonomous okrugs and in the Republic of Komi. Migration situation in the Krasnoyarsk Krai is relatively stable.

Migration of graduates of higher education institutions negatively affects the Russian Arctic, especially if their training has an “Arctic” focus [3]. It is for a reason that the strategy for development of the Arctic zone of the Russian Federation and provision of national security for the period up to 2020 highlights that the provision of training, retraining and advanced training of specialists in the system of higher and secondary special education to work in the Arctic conditions and the attraction of qualified personnel are important tasks of socio-economic development in the macroregion [4].

According to a sociological research conducted at M.V. Lomonosov Northern (Arctic) Federal University in March – April 2016, 30 educational institutions of the country (28 universities and two branches) were engaged in training personnel for the Russian Arctic and Arctic projects. Among them, six higher education institutions (five universities and one branch) are located directly in the macroregion, five – in the regions of the Russian Arctic, and 19 – outside it [5].

At the time of the study, on the territory of the Russian Arctic, a little more than 11 thousand university students were enrolled in the so-called “Arctic-focused” programs containing 225 fields of studies (Tab. 2) . In the regions of the Russian Arctic (that is, on the territory of municipalities that were not part of the macroregion) there were about 20 thousand students who were trained in 307 Arctic-focused fields of studies.

Research methodology and technique

The study of migration attitudes of students was conducted by the staff of M.V. Lomonosov Northern (Arctic) Federal University in the framework of the study of the factors that cause young specialists to leave the Russian Arctic. The object of the study were students enrolled

Table 1. Migration gain per 10,000 population* (people, value of the indicator for year)

Region 2005 2010 2015 2016 Republic of Karelia -115. 155 -53. 853 -11.63 -16.04 Republic of Komi -162. 798 -139. 036 -101.53 -81.2 Nenets Autonomous Okrug -20.52 -49.87 23.16 -72.91 Arkhangelsk Oblast -71.684 -82.067 -68.02 -56.29 Murmansk Oblast -169.232 -68 953 -57.37 -57.15 Yamalo-Nenets Autonomous Okrug -24.129 -87 811 -222.92 -65.24 Krasnoyarsk Krai -63. 855 -14. 642 9.62 16.82 Chukotka Autonomous Okrug 72. 549 -173 553 -116.98 -103.22 Republic of Sakha (Yakutia) -28.004 -70.823 -56.21 -43.2 * Compiled with the use of data from the official website of the Federal State Statistics Service cgi?pl=9400008.

Table 2. Training of specialists in Arctic-focused programs in the territory and regions of the Arctic zone of the Russian Federation in 2016

RF constituent entity Name of higher education institution Number of training programs Number of students, persons Territory of the Russian Arctic Arkhangelsk Oblast M.V. Lomonosov Northern (Arctic) Federal University 120 2753 Arkhangelsk Oblast Northern State Medical University 10 2360 Arkhangelsk Oblast Severodvinsk branch of M.V. Lomonosov Northern (Arctic) Federal University 16 701 Arkhangelsk Oblast Institute of Management 9 1330 Murmansk Oblast Murmansk Arctic State University 24 169 Murmansk Oblast Murmansk State Technical University 46 3867 TOTAL 225 11880 Regions of the Russian Arctic Krasnoyarsk Krai Siberian Federal University 21 2488 Krasnoyarsk Krai Siberian State University of Geosystems and Technologies 20 5506 Republic of Komi Syktyvrar Forest Institute – branch of St. Petersburg State Forestry University named after S.M. Kirov 7 1039 Republic of Komi Ukhta State Technical University 8 2722 Republic of Sakha (Yakutia) M. K. Ammosov North-Eastern Federal University 251 8752 TOTAL 307 20507 Source: Kudryashova E.V. (Ed.). Arctic – National Mega-Project: Staffing and Scientific Support. Arkhangelsk: SAFU, 2016. P. 145-189. in Arctic-focused educational programs and trained for the needs of the economy and social sphere of the Russian Arctic in educational institutions located in the Russian Arctic and in the subjects that are part of it. Arctic-focused programs of higher education are those that are implemented with attraction of resources of partner organizations working in the Russian Arctic; such programs also organize internships for students in the territory of the Russian Arctic, and the range of their disciplines includes vocational and special competences and training results, which determine the specifics of professional activity in the region.

The aim of the survey was to study migration attitudes of students, to determine the factors affecting the willingness of future young professionals to leave Russia’s Northern territories.

In this regard, the questionnaire contained a section of personal information of an anonymous nature, which included data on the level and field or specialty of education, professional aspirations, assessment of the socio-economic situation in the region, migration sentiment, and questions to determine the factors that promote or constrain migration aspirations of students.

At the stage of development of the program of sociological research in March – April 2016 we made an inquiry to educational institutions of higher education of the Russian Federation and received information about the current Arctic-focused educational programs and the number of students enrolled in them; the data allowed us to determine the structure of the general population, which amounted to 20,507 students enrolled in bachelor’s and master’s degree programs and specialist programs.

For the purposes of the survey we selected six higher education institutions and two branches. These included Murmansk Arctic State University (MASU), Murmansk State Technical University (MSTU), M.V. Lomonosov Northern (Arctic) Federal University (NArFU), Severodvinsk Branch of NArFU

(SB NArFU), Northern State Medical University (NSMU). These educational institutions are located on the territory of the Archangelsk (NArFU, NSMU, SB NArFU) and Murmansk (MSTU and MASU) oblasts.

Our sample also covered educational institutions located outside the boundaries of the Russian Arctic, but included in its regions: Siberian Federal University (SibFU), North-Eastern Federal University (NEFU), Chukotka Branch of NEFU (ChB NEFU). These educational institutions are located in Krasnoyarsk Krai (SibFU), in the Republic of Sakha (Yakutia) (NEFU) and in Chukotka Autonomous Okrug (ChB NEFU).

We have chosen these educational organizations because they have a typical range of Arctic-focused educational programs that cover engineering, economics and management, social sciences and the humanities, psychology and pedagogy, natural science, medicine, and information technology, and a great number of students are concentrated in these educational institutions.

In the selection of observation units, a nested sample was used, which included groups of students in the Arctic-focused areas of training, different courses and levels of education. Thus, in each educational organization, with the help of the two-stage method, we selected the courses or groups, within which a continuous survey was conducted. The survey was conducted mainly in the form of a group online questionnaire survey using the platform in a computer lab or classroom, using individual devices that have access to the Internet.

The information was collected by means of an online survey in October – November 2016. The survey covered 4,503 students. After the rejection of defective questionnaires, 4,024 questionnaires remained, and their data were processed using the SPSS v.17 computer program for statistical processing. Statistical sampling error does not exceed 3%.

Thus, the study involved students who are enrolled in bachelor’s degree programs (1,722 people), specialist’s programs (1,842 people) and master’s degree programs (460 people). Among all respondents, 1,562 people were final-year students. The distribution of respondents by educational organizations of higher education is presented in the Table 3 .

The main concepts of the study are “migration sentiments” and “migration intentions”. Migration sentiments can be attributed to the affective level of the personality. Sentiment is an emotional expression of consciousness, it indicates the presence in the mind of a favorable or unfavorable background for certain plans and actions. In our study, this term refers to a generalized desire to leave the current place of residence or stay there.

Migration intentions refer to the cognitive level of the personality. They are more rational and are primarily related to the plans to change

Table 3. Number of students participating in the survey

Higher education institution Number of students Murmansk Arctic State University 134 Murmansk State Technical University 141 M.V. Lomonosov Northern (Arctic) Federal University (NArFU) 1022 Severodvinsk branch of NArFU 203 Northern State Medical University 996 North-Eastern Federal University (NEFU) 1096 Siberian Federal University (SibFU) 386 Chukotka Branch of NEFU 46 the place of residence. Intentions, as a rule, immediately precede action. We agree that migration sentiments and migration intentions belong to different levels of people’s readiness to change the place of residence [6].

One of the key objectives of our research is to study the attitudes associated with moving away from the region in which students are studying and which is part of the Russian Arctic. At the same time, considerable attention was paid to the impact of Arctic-related information and education factors on migration readiness. For example, the “Arctic” focus of training and assessment of the “Arctic-related” content of educational programs, awareness of the institutionalism of the Arctic zone of the Russian Federation, awareness of the benefits and guarantees for the residents of the Far North, the ideas of shift work in the Northern conditions.

Taking into account the objectives of the study, we differentiated the directions of migration (territories of possible relocation) as follows:

– return migration (native region);

– “capital” migration (Moscow and the Moscow Oblast, St. Petersburg and Leningrad region);

– interregional migration (other regions of Russia);

– external migration (to other countries).