Peculiarities of foreign students primary adaptation in Russian universities (on example of KUBSTU)

The article analyzes the process of foreign students primary adaptation to new educational environment of the Russian university. The relevance of this problem in context of Russian universities integration into international educational process is substantiated. The analysis of primary adaptation peculiarities, its success factors and types of adaptation behavior is made. The preparatory faculty of Kuban State Technological University (KubSTU) contingent characteristics are described. The results of sociological research of students of preparatory faculty for foreign citizens in KubSTU are presented in the article. Based on the analysis of survey results, reasons for choosing Russia as a country for education admitting and the main difficulties associated with inclusion to a new educational and socio-cultural environment are described, the main characteristics of students relationships are presented, ways of ethnocultural identity maintenance are described. The conclusions that the main difficulties of primary adaptation are physiological (new food, climate), psychological (cultural distance), social (language barrier, new social roles and social circle) are made. The success of primary adaptation process is identified as a result of friendly relationships between foreign students and between foreign and Russian students, their feeling of comfort in new environment and maintenance of cultural identity.