university in Russia. FENU was the first university established in the Russian Far East and was also highly respected.

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1 DRAFT:NOTFORCITATIONWITHOUTAUTHORAPPROVAL 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 23 rd -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 East 1. 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 Vladivostok 2. 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, 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), Letter Vladimir N. Saunin to Dr. Susan Aldridge April 3,

2 DRAFT:NOTFORCITATIONWITHOUTAUTHORAPPROVAL 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 The Russian partner institution taught the first two years of the program using Russian curricula and Russian language. Americans taught years 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 5 Quote from Sharon Hudgins, Beyond the Ivory Tower: The First Sixty Years (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, 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. 2

3 DRAFT:NOTFORCITATIONWITHOUTAUTHORAPPROVAL 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 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 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. 3

4 DRAFT:NOTFORCITATIONWITHOUTAUTHORAPPROVAL 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. 8 In 2007, the government amended the Law on Education to stipulate the introduction of the 2- cycle 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) 2 4

5 DRAFT:NOTFORCITATIONWITHOUTAUTHORAPPROVAL 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 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 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 5

6 DRAFT:NOTFORCITATIONWITHOUTAUTHORAPPROVAL 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. 6

7 DRAFT:NOTFORCITATIONWITHOUTAUTHORAPPROVAL 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. 7

8 DRAFT:NOTFORCITATIONWITHOUTAUTHORAPPROVAL 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 8

9 DRAFT:NOTFORCITATIONWITHOUTAUTHORAPPROVAL 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 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, Coca- Cola 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 9

10 DRAFT:NOTFORCITATIONWITHOUTAUTHORAPPROVAL 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. 9 Alma Mater, Quote from former FENU Web site that is no longer active. 11 The American Program: For and Against, Master 6 (22) (2013): ibid. 10

11 DRAFT:NOTFORCITATIONWITHOUTAUTHORAPPROVAL 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. 13 Alma Mater, Cassano, UMUC, Russia and the New Market Economy, 13 11