International students recruiting as an element of Russian universities internationalization

The article falls under review category. The aim of the article is to find a solution to the problem of international student recruiting management, forming a more overall approach to recruiting management including adjacent stages. The article has been written because of the growing interest towards internationalization and foreign student recruiting as part of internationalization process. Often Russian universities see recruiting as an independent process aimed at achieving certain control numbers, whereas in the international educational space recruiting is one of the elements of interacting with foreign students. The article provides an overview of approaches to attracting foreign students both in countries having the leading position in this field (the USA, Canada) and in South Pacific countries and Eastern Europe that have recently started an active development in this area. The authors used such methods as theoretical analysis of the course, statistical data analysis, interviews with heads of departments dealing with foreign students recruiting at international educational institutions, analyzing organization of recruiting activities during international business trips. The article demonstrates that despite active state support of foreign students recruiting in the abovementioned countries, results of recruiting largely depend on activities of universities themselves. The stated goal can be reached by coherent work at two levels: state and intra-university. At the state level it means supporting continuous dialogue between universities and the Ministry of Education; at intra-university it requires using complex recruiting technology. The value of the article is in suggesting practical steps on organizing pre-recruiting, recruiting and post-recruiting activities at the university level. The article is of interest for vice-rectors on international activities aimed at foreign students recruitment, heads of international offices, and foreign students recruiting offices.