Benchmarking as an international students' recruiting instrument

The aim of this article is to look into new instruments of enhancing Russian universities' competitiveness at the international educational services market, namely benchmarking of main educational programs of the leading international universities and using results for improving quality of educational programs of Russian universities taught in English with the aim of increasing foreign students recruiting numbers. The article includes aim-setting; short review of literature on the topic; description of the problem requiring the use of benchmarking; justification of reference international universities choice on the basis of target group educational migration (using the example of India); comparative analysis of educational programs structure and content; examples of practical application of the conducted research (educational program structure); conclusions and practical recommendations. Тру Ñ onducted research allowed for identifying the best practices of leading international universities with the aim of pinpointing main characteristics for developing innovational policy and concrete innovations in teaching foreign students in order to enhance university competitiveness (using the example of Tomsk Polytechnic University) at the international educational services market. The authors have identified several difficulties of introducing benchmarking into educational system: necessary financial costs for research and updating teaching, methodic and staff support of the program; insufficient understanding of importance and efficacy of this method for international educational development demonstrated by the Russian universities. Practical recommendations deal with introducing changes into different aspects of developing and supporting teaching programs in English (updating teaching and methodic materials, program advertisement, upgrading qualification of lecturers). The conclusions define the perspectives of benchmarking international educational programs of the leading international universities with the aim of upgrading recognizability and attractiveness of Russian educational programs read in English at the international market, which is particularly important in recruiting international students. This article for the first time presents systematic data on educational migration of students from India (including geographical, university and program spread) which allows for choosing matching reference universities for benchmarking research. The article contains results of comparative analysis of educational programs of leading international universities which allows for making conclusions concerning main differences between these educational products and the Russian educational system products and formulate practical recommendations for altering programs in order to improve their recognizability, attractiveness and competitiveness at the international market.