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University of Maryland University College Dual Degree Programs with Irkutsk State University
and the Far Eastern Federal University:
Successes and Challenges
Muriel Joffee
History:
2014 marks the 23rd-anniversary of University of Maryland University College’s [UMUC] dual
degree programs with Irkutsk State University [ISU] and the Far Eastern Federal University
[FEFU]. In January 1991, UMUC signed agreements with Irkutsk State University and the Far
Eastern National University [FENU] to offer dual degree bachelor’s programs in management
studies. FENU was one of the four universities merged together in 2010 to create the new federal
university in Vladivostok. These partnerships brought together one of the 11 accredited, degreegranting institutions in the University System of Maryland with two of Russia’s leading and
oldest universities in Siberia and the Far East1.
The UMUC–ISU and UMUC–FEFU partnerships were the first dual degree programs
established between Russian and U.S. universities and have a remarkable history.
Contacts between the three schools grew out of study tours in the late 1980s and early 1990s of
students from UMUC’s Asia Division to Irkutsk and Vladivostok2. The visit by U.S. military
servicemen in uniform to Soviet Russia, especially to cities in Siberia and the Far East was an
extraordinary event. At the time of these first visits, Vladivostok was still a “closed” city to
foreigners and few Americans travelled to Siberia and the Russian Far East during the final years
of the Soviet Union.
The success and longevity of these partnerships owes much to the pioneering vision of the U.S.
and Russian university administrators at the time. The selection of business education as the
focus for the UMUC degree recognized the value of U.S. business education as a lever for
economic development at a time when such education did not exist in Russia. Already in March
1989, Vladimir N. Saunin, the Vice-Rector for Evening and Correspondence Education at ISU
and Professor Gennady N. Konstantinov, Head of the Section of Systems Analysis in the
Mathematics Faculty created an interuniversity group to think about how to develop management
education. This led to conversations with UMUC Asia’s Division.3 From the beginning, the
partnerships sought to prepare Russian university students for careers in the emerging market
economy. In 2008, Saunin, who remained the key figure in the establishment and success of the
Irkutsk program until 2012, wrote to then UMUC President, Dr. Susan Aldridge, “The leaders of
our universities realized that the new market-driven economy of Russia required a new
generation of young, competitive and internationally qualified managers.”4 Vladimir I. Kurilov,
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1
'ISU is the oldest institution of higher education in eastern Siberia and a highly ranked
university in Russia. FENU was the first university established in the Russian Far East and was
also highly respected.
2
UMUC’s Asian and European Divisions provide education to U.S. military personnel abroad.
3
Alma Mater. Irkutskii klassicheskii, A. Gimel’shtein, ed., (Irkutsk: Vostochno-Sibirskaia
Izdatel’skaia Kompaniia, 2003), 226
4
Letter Vladimir N. Saunin to Dr. Susan Aldridge April 3, 2008.
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former Rector of Far Eastern National University and now Vice-Rector for International
Relations at FEFU, who has played an equally pivotal role at FEFU expressed a similar view. He
stated that the university’s primary goal was “to educate a free, undogmatic individual capable of
creative activity, self-development and global thinking.”5 Benjamin Massey, UMUC President
seized the opportunity for cooperation with Russia and successive UMUC Presidents also
recognized the innovative role these partnerships have played in expanding international
awareness among UMUC faculty and students.
Program Structure
The new dual degree programs at ISU and FEFU differed in terms of curriculum but not in
structure. ISU students pursued both a UMUC degree in management studies and an ISU
specialist degree in management. In Soviet Russia the 5-year specialist degree was the terminal
degree in higher education. It remained the degree most highly valued by Russian employers
until it was recently phased out.6 The students at FEFU also pursued a management degree from
UMUC but a specialist degree in international economics. This meant that a different set of
courses was articulated into the UMUC degree from each Russian university.
To accommodate these new programs, new structures were adopted at both universities. In
Irkutsk and FENU no department taught management at the time. In 1991 the Siberian-American
School of Management was established within the Baikal Educational Center, what is now the
Baikal School of International Business [BIBS]. 7 At FENU, the Russian-American Faculty was
established. Until 1999, UMUC sent 5–6 faculty per year to teach in the program. UMUC paid
their salaries but the Russians provided housing and a stipend. The local administrations
contributed financially and the Soviet Federal Duma allowed tuition to be charged. Students
paid several thousand dollars, partially in dollars and partially in rubles. Some students were
sponsored by Russian business enterprises or regional governments. Each university appointed a
Russian Dean to administer the program and to make sure that everything ran smoothly. UMUC
had its own designated administrator for the Russia programs.
The initial curriculum model was 3 + 2. The Russian partner institution taught the first two years
of the program using Russian curricula and Russian language. Americans taught years 3 + 4.
Although the students earned a UMUC degree after year 4, to earn the specialist degree Russian
students needed to complete an additional year of study. In the U.S. the dual degree programs
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5
Quote from Sharon Hudgins, Beyond the Ivory Tower: The First Sixty Years 1947-2007
(Adelphi: University of Maryland University College, 2008), 205. For a brief history of the
UMUC – Russia Programs, see Chip Cassano, “UMUC, Russia, and the New Market Economy,”
Achiever Spring 2012, 10-13 and UMUC in Russia, Innovation in Education (Adelphi: UMUC
2012).
6
All students who started their studies before or during 2010 had the opportunity to pursue a
specialist degree.
7
'The Baikal Educational Center was established in 1990 to support the development of
management education at ISU.
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had to receive approval from UMUC’s accreditation agency: The Middle States Commission on
Higher Education.
The Russia programs grew moderately in the 1990s but attracted the attention of local
businessmen and governments and earned a positive reputation in the U.S. Ninety-three students
graduated from the programs in 1996 and slightly less, 87, the next year. Between 1995 and
2000, 255 students graduated from the program in Irkutsk and 191 in Vladivostok. Despite the
financial crisis in the late 1990s, the local administrations and Russian businesses continued to
provide some modest support for the programs. At the same time, taking advantage of U.S.
government funding for programs with Russia available in the 1990s, UMUC received a grant
from the United States Information Agency to bring business professionals and faculty from
Irkutsk for internships in Maryland businesses. These interns returned to Russia and served as
trainers in a series of World Bank/UMUC/USIA-sponsored seminars.
In 1999 the serious financial crisis in Russia led UMUC to reevaluate the Russian programs.
Another factor influencing UMUC’s changing perspective was the fact that at UMUC distance
education was emerging as the dominant form of instruction. By 2000, UMUC offered almost
50% of its courses online and the number of courses online grew rapidly. UMUC decided no
longer to send U.S. faculty to Russia and in 1999 changed the educational model. Starting in
2000, the first two years remained the same. Russian faculty began to teach year 3 but used
UMUC curricula provided to them. UMUC faculty taught Russian students in year 4 online.
The decision to move UMUC’s method of instruction to online format laid the basis for the
program as it exists today. Instead of a 50-50 distribution of courses between the Russian
universities and UMUC, the new MOUs signed in 2003 and most recently, 2012, stipulated that
UMUC would accept 90 credits in transfer from our Russian partners and their students would
take 30 semester hours with UMUC. The latter was the minimum required for students to earn a
UMUC degree, consistent with state regulations. In articulating the new agreement and in all
subsequent agreements UMUC has reviewed Russian curricula from the partner universities.
And the Russians, if they choose, can review UMUC syllabi.
Since 2003, the UMUC-Russia Partnerships increased as graduate programs were added. In
2008, UMUC and ISU introduced a Master’s Degree in Management with Concentration in
Marketing. In 2012, the two schools added concentrations in Financial Management and Project
Management. The MSM is a UMUC degree only but Irkutsk faculty teach part of the courses.
In 2013, UMUC and FEFU inaugurated a dual degree Master’s Program in Management. FEFU
students pursue an M.S. degree in Strategic Management and a MSM degree with Concentration
in Project Management at UMUC.
The dual degree bachelor’s programs have undergone a number of changes since 2003. Some of
these are curricular and reflect changes in legislative regulations in education and/or curricula in
both countries. Some of these are administrative. Many of them are linked to changes in
UMUC’s online learning model. Establishing graduate degree programs also faced similar
issues. Together with UMUC’s decision to offer its program online in 1999, these changes
highlight the challenges and opportunities of dual degree programs.
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Regulations Governing Education and Curriculum Development
One of the biggest challenges in establishing and sustaining dual degree programs is the creation
of an academic curriculum that satisfies the requirements of both parties. Some of these
requirements are regulatory or legislative. The overall requirements for a UMUC degree are
defined by the State of Maryland as we are a public state institution. The requirements for both
Russian schools are regulated by the Ministry of Education and Science although FEFU has
additional requirements because of its status as a “federal” university. In the past ten years a
number of changes have been introduced into Russian higher education although the pace of
implementing these changes appears to differ from institution to institution. In 2003, the Russian
Federation joined the Bologna Process. By signing on to Bologna, Russia began to introduce a
number of significant changes in its higher education system including the tripartite system of
degrees used in Europe: bachelor’s, master’s and doctoral degrees.8 As a result the Russian
Ministry of Education and Science began gradually to phase out the specialist degree and
Russian universities have focused on creating new bachelor’s curricula although again the
process differs from university to university.
Another change related to the Bologna Process is the very slow introduction of a credit system
into Russian higher education. Traditionally student workload in Russia has been defined in
terms of a very high number of hours and it is this basis that is still used by credential evaluation
agencies in the United States to determine equivalencies between Russian degrees and U.S.
degrees. The credit system that is gradually being introduced into Russia today is designed to fit
in with the European Credit Transfer System used in European countries governed by the
Bologna Process. However, the ECTS credit system is different from the credit system used in
the U.S. In short, there are no simple equivalences to determine student load and course value
between U.S., European and Russian higher education systems as well as within Europe and
among institutions in Russia. This is true in general globally. Quite simply, institutions have to
try and create their own equivalencies the best they can. The general rule of thumb in the United
States is that one academic year of study in one country equals one academic year of study in
another. The academic year of study in the U.S. is 30 semester hours.
Curriculum content at the course and program levels is another important factor that needs to be
considered when forming articulation agreements. Russian universities follow the federal
education standards. Currently Russian universities operate under the third federal standard. It
represents a framework of requirements for the structure of the educational program. In general,
the standards define a common core for Russian educational programs in a specific area, e.g.
management and stipulate what topics must be covered and the amount of time for each. The rest
is left up to the individual university.
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8
In 2007, the government amended the Law on Education to stipulate the introduction of the 2cycle degree system (Bachelor and Master’s degrees). Law “On Amendments to Certain Legal
Acts of the Russian Federation Within the Part Concerning the Establishment of Degrees in
Education” (N232-FZ, 24 October 2007) http://international.ntf.ru/p55aa1.html, 2
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UMUC also has to follow regulations on degrees and programs. In the U.S., an undergraduate
degree consists of three different sets of requirements, general education, the major, and
electives. General education requirements are the foundation that provides students with the
intellectual tools needed by an educated person, including critical thinking, oral and written
communication skills, literacy in informational technology, and mathematical and quantitative
reasoning skills. In addition, they are also linked to the concept of liberal learning that assumes
an educated person has understanding and knowledge of key principles and concepts across the
major disciplinary categories: humanities, sciences, social sciences, mathematics. To some extent
these requirements do find a match in some of the core courses listed in Part VI of the Russian
federal standards. But our requirements are broader and this often presents a challenge in
articulations as many countries do not understand why these courses should be taken at the
college level. However there is no exception and dual degree programs must include these
subjects.
Majors are the means by which students master a considerable body of knowledge in a specific
academic subject area or group of related subjects. In 2010-11 UMUC did a thorough study and
redesign of its entire undergraduate curriculum so that it is an outcomes-focused curriculum from
the program to the course level. Everything in the course is aligned with the outcomes, including
concepts, issues, skills, learning activities and assessments outcomes. Program outcomes were
developed to bring education closer with the requirements of students for employment. Every
course was reexamined; majors were redesigned and undergraduate courses were shortened to 8
weeks. However, even though the length was shortened there was no decrease in the amount of
content and work.
Because of the changes in the bachelor’s degree in Russia and the new undergraduate curriculum
at UMUC, the latter together with its partner institutions in Irkutsk and Vladivostok worked out
new articulations for their dual degree programs in 2012. On the U.S. side the new management
studies major had many more specific requirements than the previous major that was fairly openended. In addition, there were certain new courses introduced that the students had to take. This
required a great deal of back and forth with our partner institutions as there was some resistance
to some of the newly required subjects. As long as the Russian students took 50% of the major
with UMUC there was some room for substituting Russian courses for U.S. courses in the major.
At the same time the Russians needed to make sure that their curricula, including our courses,
met the federal standards. Consequently, each side requested course syllabi or course
descriptions as needed. One should keep in mind that course equivalencies apply to all courses
accepted in transfer.
Course content proved easier to evaluate than credit equivalences. This remains a work in
progress. Each of our partners approached the issue of credits differently. Irkutsk told us there
would be no changes in the courses that we included in our degree. FEFU said it was trying to
implement the recent federal standard that defines 1 unit in Russia (zachetynaia edinitsa) as equal
to 36 hours. But as already explained credit equivalents do not really exist. The best way we had
to work through these issues was not to adopt some kind of firm mathematical equation but to
look at the entire content of the program and the syllabi. It is not clear how U.S. universities will
evaluate the new Russian transcripts mandated by the most recent “Federal State Educational
Standards.” In 2014 Russian institutions are to issue diploma supplements showing credits for
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bachelor’s degrees. We will have to wait and see. UMUC and FEFU faced the same challenge
with credits this past year as we created a dual degree at the Master’s level in Management.
Clearly the key to successful articulation of curricula is communication, a willingness to look for
solutions rather than obstacles, and a great deal of patience. UMUC has excellent partners at ISU
and FEFU with whom we work collaboratively to solve problems. Granted the difference in time
zones and communication styles can sometimes prove difficult but you work through it. For
those without any fluency in the other language or knowledge of the other’s educational system,
articulations can be a slow process.
Distance Education
The introduction of distance education presented a number of unique challenges. First, the
students had to master the new technology. When UMUC began to introduce online courses
there really were no commercially available learning management systems. So UMUC built its
own proprietary online learning platform, called Web Tycho. In addition to this technology,
students also had to learn how to use our digital library that enables our students to have full-text
access to professional and scholarly journals, periodicals, and books. Classes taught on Web
Tycho reflected UMUC’s “interactive” learning model: frequent interaction between teachers
and students; frequent interaction among students, including guided group activities and
assignments; learning directed by teachers; and small class sizes. There was less reliance on
multimedia as many UMUC students did not have access to such technology.
UMUC is currently in the process of transitioning its courses to a new commercial learning
management system. UMUC’s new Learning Experience Online [LEO] uses Desire to Learn.
This is a commercially available LMS that contains many features that did not exist when Web
Tycho was created and that serve UMUC’s needs today. One of the important features of D2L is
its ability to gather big data from which to analyze student behavior and develop solutions to
increase student success. LEO maintains the important characteristics of our previous learning
model: faculty engagement, student collaboration and communication, active learning, frequent
and prompt feedback, time on task, high expectations and respect for diverse talents and ways of
learning. But it also allows us to analyze how we meet these goals and what challenges students
face.
Despite Russian concerns that their students, particularly undergraduates, would not adapt to the
new technology, they did. But in some ways UMUC’s online learning model proves challenging
for Russian students who are more used to working at their own pace and having success or
failure in a course weighted more heavily on the final exam. This is not the typical U.S.
educational model where grades are based more on work distributed throughout the year and
class participation is an important part of a grade. It is definitely not the case in UMUC’s online
classrooms. The students are expected to master topics weekly, to post comments in the online
classroom weekly and frequently to complete various assignments. Russian alumni of the online
program since its inception frequently refer to the “cruel” deadlines imposed by the U.S.
professors.
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Another challenge for some students is that in our online classroom there is no official lecture
per se or explanation of the text. Instead there is faculty directed applied learning in which the
professor develops assignments that demonstrate what the student is learning and also allow the
professor through interaction with the student to provide needed feedback and assistance.
Although this learning model proved challenging at first for Russian students their overall strong
performance in UMUC courses shows how well they adapted. When asked what they learned
most in the UMUC program, many students have replied: self-discipline.
Another critical feature of the UMUC online system is the use of the Web site and in particular
the student portal to guide the student throughout his or her education at UMUC and to direct the
student to all the services and resources the university has created to support student learning.
The Web site posts information on class schedules, registration dates, deadlines for withdrawal
and tuition refunds, application dates for graduation. MyUMUC, the student portal developed in
2005, includes not only the help desk for all technological problems, but the university resources
developed to facilitate student success: the Center for Student Success, the Effective Writing
Center, research skills and orientation courses. It is also where students can go to register for
courses or graduation and check their grades.
Unfortunately many students in the dual degree partnerships do not use these resources. As
mentioned, when the programs were first set up, an administrative structure was implemented to
make sure everything worked smoothly. Much of its emphasis was on assisting the UMUC
faculty abroad. Today each school has its own coordinator in place to facilitate contact and
resolve issues. The Deputy Dean of the Siberian-American School of Management at ISU, the
Director of Dual Degree Programs in the School of Management and Economics at FEFU, and
the Executive Director of International Programs at UMUC are the primary administrators
responsible for all MOU-related issues for the bachelor’s programs, including student issues that
cannot be handled by the student his or herself. (There are different administrators on the
Russian side for the graduate programs.) Although UMUC’s system encourages the students to
be responsible for their education, the Russian students continue to rely heavily on personal
requests to the Russian coordinators, even for basic information such as when should we register
for graduation or, how do we correct the spelling of our name in the system. Ultimately all of us
work together to resolve the student issues but the overall reliance on personal requests can delay
the resolution of time-sensitive issues such as technological problems. It also reduces the
students’ level of experiencing an American-style education.
One of the expectations of studying in another country is that students will experience a different
educational culture. What you study in a foreign country and how classes are taught are only
part of the differences students experience. Another is the academic culture. Traditionally the
academic culture in the U.S. has been based on individual responsibility. It is expected that
students individually will manage their educational trajectory and resolve problems, including
those related to academic integrity. Of course this is not true of all American students. However,
in distance education, foreign students experience the different pedagogical and educational
approaches in the classroom but may have more difficulty experiencing the same academic
culture outside the classroom, even though the two are linked. This is true of American students
abroad.
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A major challenge for the Russian institutions and UMUC is to encourage greater individual
responsibility on the part of the student. Because most of UMUC’s students work full time, the
university has to provide all the support services students need virtually. But this is not true of
our foreign students. UMUC has a cooperative agreement with the University of South Africa
and even though this is considered an Anglophone country, some of the students, who are
actually faculty, do the same thing as their Russian counterparts and go to their administrator for
assistance rather than using the services available virtually. One of the important things that
ISU, FEFU and UMUC have been discussing, especially during our face to face meetings, is
how to enhance the student experience and integrate them more with the U.S. students and the
university. This can take the form of participation in clubs, academic honor groups, or the alumni
organization. It is something that we should do to maximize the students’ positive experience
during their studies with UMUC. At the same time, UMUC needs to think carefully about how
students in our dual degree partnerships interact with our systems. We may need to develop
simpler forms of communication or package information in a somewhat different format. This
perhaps is one of the reasons why each of the participants has a coordinator in place to trouble
shoot and it is one of the functions that we have assumed.
Overall, however, the arrival of e-learning and distance education has broadened the
opportunities offered to students to experience another country without physically travelling.
This is true for UMUC’s U.S. students who really cannot travel but who benefit from the
presence of Russian students in their classes. The introduction of distance education also saved
the dual degree partnerships at a time when the programs were no longer financially sustainable
in the previous model. UMUC’s model of online learning is also much more financially
reasonable than some other models of distance education that rely on synchronous, video-taped
courses.
Financial and Administrative Issues
Financial issues are quite complicated and a thorough discussion of them is beyond the scope of
this paper. However, the success of a partnership depends on its ability to create a financial and
administrative model that sets tuition at a level that makes the program accessible to students
without financial risk to either institution. In the 23-year history of our partnerships revenue has
been affected by a number of factors: economic crises in Russia exacerbated by a serious
demographic crisis in in the past decade, changes in the UMUC revenue base and competition in
Russia. The three universities have worked very hard to resolve these financial issues in a way
that allows the programs to grow.
Related to the financial model is the administrative structure of the program: how much does it
cost each partner to operate the program. What kind of administrative model works best? The
move to distance education reduced personnel costs associated with sending faculty abroad. The
new MOU signed in 2003 took care to delineate responsibilities between the partner universities
in terms of publicity, student services, and financial administration.
In reviewing the reports of site visits and meetings between administrators since 2003, there are a
number of persistent themes related to how the program has been administered. These include:
the logistical problem of getting textbooks to Russia, registering students, tracking financial
payments, and resolving student issues. For a while, the problem appeared to be more on the
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American side as there was no single point of contact responsible for the Russia programs. At the
same time Russian students were unable or unwilling to use the technology to register for their
courses. These issues have been resolved and there is a single point of contact at all three
institutions who handle basic issues such as invoicing and payments and student registration.
These contacts facilitate problem-solving; however, students must be responsible for following
the basic processes that all UMUC students use when confronting problems with technology,
grades, and academic honesty.
The resolution of thorny issues is made possible by the willingness of all parties to make the
program a success. Communication between parties is not always easy especially given the
enormous time difference between the countries. Different communication styles and email
protocols also can be challenging. All in all, however, UMUC has been very fortunate to work
with dedicated and talented partners devoted to making the program a success.
Successes and Opportunities
Despite the challenges described above the UMUC-Russian partnerships have been very
successful. Between 1991 and 2013 we have had almost 1000 graduates from our bachelor
programs, 527 graduates from Irkutsk and 434 from Vladivostok. The numbers of students
enrolling in the master’s program are small. These degrees are relatively new particularly at
FEFU and there are much cheaper programs competing with our degrees, including Russian
degrees.
The ISU-UMUC and FEFU-UMUC partnerships have attracted considerable attention in Russia
and also among U.S. government officials since their inception. From the beginning graduates of
the program have found managerial positions in prominent Russian businesses as well as
international corporations. In 1998, for example, a report prepared by the Siberian American
School of Management shows that its graduates worked for local banks, joint-stock companies,
and joint-venture enterprises such as Proctor & Gamble, Panasonic, and Nestle Foods. Some
worked for regional governments or went to graduate school in the U.S. In the same 2008 letter
that Saunin wrote to Dr. Aldridge, he stated that 10%-12% of ISU alumni receive grants for
Master’s and Doctoral programs in the most prestigious universities in the world. Some continue
to study in Russia. Many of them have highly ranked positions in state government institutions.
Others work for large Moscow or international companies in senior level positions: chief
financial or chief executive officer, head of a marketing or strategic planning department. Today,
four graduates of the dual partnerships at the bachelor’s and master’s levels now teach at BIBS
and some have their own very successful businesses.
This pattern of success also characterizes FEFU’s graduates. In a 2007 presentation, RAF
provided this information about some of the places where its graduates worked: the U.S.,
Australia, Great Britain, Germany, Japan, Korea, New Zealand, as well as Moscow and St.
Petersburg. Other reports indicate that profitable firms such as Price, Cooper, Waterhouse, CocaCola and RUSAL, the world’s largest producer of aluminum hired FEFU graduates. In 2007, at
least 50 graduates had already earned MBAs abroad and three taught in the UMUC-FEFU
program.
What is it that led to these successes? First one must remember that the value of the education
students received in these partnerships is not because of one educational model, e.g. the
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American or the Russian but because of a combination of the best of two systems. The
development of managers capable of success in the global economy brought together the rich
theoretical base provided in the Russian programs and the applied focus of the U.S. model. As
Alexander V. Diogenov, the first Dean of the Siberian American School of Management,
explained, in the Russian program the emphasis is on the teacher who gives information to the
students; in the American model learning is self-directed and it is up to the student to acquire the
knowledge and skills needed.9
Second, both Russian university faculty and administrators agree that the success of the Russian
graduates from the dual degree partnerships is their fluency in English, mastery of contemporary
information systems, and knowledge of international business practices. Students agree. In one
interview, a graduate of the FEFU program in 2001 stated: “When I was studying at the Russian
American Faculty it was an exclusive educational product in the Far Eastern Federal District that
provided its students with the most advanced knowledge in all subjects: excellent linguistic
preparation; “fresh” research ideas and pedagogical methods; the possibility to communicate
with foreign teachers and consequently to learn from their knowledge and experience.” This
graduate went on to describe his classmates as “interesting and creative experts with a wide
variety of skills and knowledge to work in diverse environments” who as graduates could begin
their professional or academic careers in Russia or internationally. (2001)10
The dual degree partnerships also contribute to the development of important competencies. In
interviews with graduates of the program and in my own personal conversation with graduating
seniors at ISU and FEFU, the first attribute that students mention as one of the most important
things they gained from the programs is self-discipline. In a recent interview published in ISU’s
journal Master, Egor Moskvitin, ISU-UMUC 2010 graduate, explained: “In my opinion, the
most important thing is that the American program disciplines and teaches personal
responsibility for one’s own results. This is accomplished because of the ‘cruel’ deadlines, work
in an autonomous regime (1000 miles away from the faculty) and serious volume of material
studied. At first such a system of instruction leads to panic, but then it is very motivational.”11
Another competency mentioned among graduates is team-building. As Moskvitin noted in the
same interview, in the American program one quickly begins to feel part of a team.12 In recent
studies, employers have identified as one of the most important attributes they find in students
who have studied abroad is their facility to work in teams.'
The dual degree partnerships also assisted the introduction of new master’s degree programs in
Russia. Because of the specialist degree, Russia did not have many master’s degree programs.
When the UMUC program began in 2008 at ISU, BIBS already had master’s degree programs.
The School of Economics and Management [SEM] at FEFU, however, had few. Expanding the
dual degree program to the master’s level at FEFU is helping the school meet its federal mandate
to increase the number of graduate programs at the university and to introduce programs in
English. Graduates of the UMUC-ISU cooperative master’s program are extremely pleased with
their education and many of them are faculty at BIBS.
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9
Alma Mater, 235
Quote from former FENU Web site that is no longer active.
11
“The American Program: For and Against”, Master 6 (22) (2013): 13
12
ibid.
10
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The success of the dual degree partnerships and introduction of distance learning was mirrored in
the expansion of programs offered by the Russian universities at home. Both universities
recognized the need to expand their offerings to Russian businessmen in addition to the
education provided in the dual degree programs. As Saunin noted, because of globalization, one
cannot just work for Irkutsk. Education needs to be connected with practices that change every
day. 13 In 1998, the School of Business and Management was established at BIBS. The school
provides professional training to managers with a bachelor’s or other equivalent university
degree who also have managerial and entrepreneurial experience. Both universities place great
emphasis on serving the local economy. Faculty and students at ISU and FEFU regularly consult
with Russian businesses. As a “federal” university, FEFU is expected to serve as an engine of
development in the Asian-Pacific Rim. Despite initial concerns about distance education, both
universities have created their own distance education facilities to reach Russian businessmen
and to an extent foreign students.
Finally, the Russian partnerships continue to play an important role in UMUC’s effort to provide
quality education to all. These partnerships are still the largest international program at UMUC.
The presence of Russian students in the classroom offers UMUC’s American students the
opportunity to learn from other cultures and to gain knowledge about the global economy. Even
in the early period of the partnership, surveys of UMUC students highlighted the contribution of
Russian students in the classroom to students’ international awareness. Although the Russian
undergraduates do not have yet the professional experience of their U.S. counterparts they do see
the differences between business practices and express them. One of the graduates of our
master’s program in Irkutsk, wrote me that “It was extremely interesting to communicate with
American professors and Americans students. Sometimes, our opinions were contradictory or
even fighting, but the truth or consensus was always born in these discussions.”
UMUC faculty are equally impressed with the Russian students. Al Raider, Director of the
Master’s of Science in Management Program at UMUC stated, “These are outstanding students.
They’re very smart; their English is excellent and they’re motivated. I think it is a terrific
experience for them, but also for the American students who study with them online. Part of the
reason the program interests me so much is because of the quality of the students it attracts.”14
Ultimately, the value of dual degree international partnerships is their ability to bring people
together, to engage in a common endeavor and to promote innovation. This lesson is enshrined
in the graduation speeches offered by our Russian partners and UMUC leaders at the Russian
graduations of our students.
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Alma Mater, 231
Cassano, “UMUC, Russia and the New Market Economy,” 13
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