Russian Education for the Countries of the Global South

Over the past few years, Russia has taken systematic steps to promote the prestige and accessibility of Russian education worldwide, particularly in the Global South.

Under Decree No. 309 of May 7, 2024, “On the National Development Goals of the Russian Federation for the Period up to 2030 and for the Future up to 2036”, the number of international students at Russian universities is expected to increase to 500,000. This is the minimum target. However, a year earlier, the Russian Ministry of Education initiated a project to create a network of Open Education Centres and promote Russian language instruction abroad.

In 2023, the year the project was launched, centres opened in approximately 50 countries. By 2024–2025, their number has increased to over 60 countries, and the number of sites has nearly tripled. These include centres in Benin, Nigeria, Cameroon, Algeria, Tunisia, Turkmenistan, Serbia, Belarus, and in Middle Eastern countries such as the UAE and Saudi Arabia. Since 2024, the operator of this network has been the “My History” Foundation for the Support of the Humanities, following a decision made at a meeting of the Russian Language Council under the President of the Russian Federation. Locally, the project is often implemented by Russian universities, which act as country operators. They develop methods, select teachers, and establish relationships with local partners, such as universities and Russian Houses. The centres are typically established at local institutions of higher education, but they welcome anyone who wants to learn or refresh their Russian language skills.

Bridge Awards winner in the Education and Philanthropy category, former Ambassador of Benin to Russia, and current holder of the title “Ambassador of Russian Education and Science” Anicet Gabriel Kotchofa has already helped open centres in Benin and Cameroon. This fall, he is opening his fourth centre in Nigeria, Africa’s most populous country. According to him, these open education centres have great potential to become popular throughout Africa.

In addition, more than 40 Russian World resources centres have been established in many countries under the Russkiy Mir Foundation, within the philology departments of universities and non-profit organisations. These centres also offer Russian language classes, and foreign Russian specialists receive teaching materials, exchange experiences, and undergo training.

All of this primarily works to promote the popularity of the Russian language; some students choose Russia as their next destination for further education.

More pressing, in my view, is the task of teaching Russian in schools or as part of the children’s supplementary education system. This is the focus of another Russian Ministry of Education project, “Russian Teacher Abroad,” which was launched back in 2017 primarily in post-Soviet countries, which has suffered from a longstanding shortage of Russian-language teachers.

However, in the aforementioned projects, institutions of higher education typically act as partners for Russian organizations abroad. Meanwhile, the potential of Russian diaspora communities remains largely unexploited. Yet, it is precisely those from the USSR or Russia which most actively support their culture and the Russian language in their countries of residence. Russian schools and various private educational and cultural centres organized by our émigrés gather a motivated local community, often consisting of mixed families with children, who are genuinely committed to maintaining socio-cultural ties with their historical homeland.

While Russian Houses (Rossotrudnichestvo representative offices abroad)—with their schools—and major universities are located in national capitals, the cultural and educational centres established by our compatriots are scattered across various parts of various countries, bringing them as close as possible to ordinary people. Their staff or volunteers can be involved in basic instruction in Russian as a foreign language and in integrating local children into the cultural and value system of Russian civilization. After several years of attending such centres, parents and children have a much better understanding of the opportunities offered by learning Russian and receiving a Russian education. This means their future choices will be not only be pragmatic, but also value-based.

Furthermore, members of the Association of Graduates of Soviet and Russian Universities could be more actively involved in promoting the Russian language and education. These people are very happy to support initiatives seeking to involve them, and they never miss the opportunity to speak Russian or interact with Russians. Almost all of the former graduates I’ve spoken with say that if basic Russian language training is offered in their home countries, the number of future international applicants seeking to study in Russia will increase significantly. After all, the costs of preparatory courses (tuition, accommodation, and airfare) in Russia itself are not affordable for everyone who wants to study at Russian universities: reducing the costs of even one year of study abroad reduces the amount of loans a family takes out for their child’s education.

In the post-Soviet space, particularly in Central Asia, where the bulk of international students have come from for years, the decline in the number of Russian speakers (in addition to the active recruitment of foreign students by countries such as Turkey, the UAE, and China) is a significant obstacle to the growing popularity of studying in Russia. Today, Russian speakers predominantly live in large cities, while rural areas are rapidly losing their bilingual culture. We are all well aware of the systemic problems associated with this. But Russia is certainly capable of partially addressing one of them.

This concerns public and school libraries. Most of their Russian-language collections have not been updated since the mid-1980s. These aging collections, falling into disrepair, are regularly written off, and new acquisitions are virtually non-existent. Given the widespread shortage of Russian-language school teachers, poor and large rural families are losing the opportunity to introduce their children to Russian literature and, consequently, to the Russian language. By taking systematic measures to replenish the book collections of public and school libraries, Russia will significantly address the problem of Russian language familiarity outside the larger cities of Central Asia.

Interest in high-quality and affordable (compared to the West) Russian education is growing year by year in the countries of the Global South, and we will undoubtedly exceed the target set by our president. However, in the pursuit of numbers and profits, our universities must not forget about the quality of teaching. The desire to profit from international students and earn praise from ‘management’ could conflict with the prestige of earning a university degree in Russia. This cannot be allowed to happen.