Russian and Belarusian education has huge potential abroad

The round table “The potential of the Union State in the field of education export” was held in Minsk on October 7, the correspondent of the Minsk-Novosti agency reports.

The meeting was organized by the Russian Union for the Promotion of Export of Education. The dialogue brought together representatives of the Ministry of Education, Belarusian universities - the Belarusian State Medical University, the Belarusian-Russian University, the Belarusian State University of Informatics and Radio Electronics, as well as experts and parliamentarians.

The main topic of discussion was the joint efforts of Belarus and Russia in the international educational market. The meeting participants considered in detail practical issues: how to effectively attract foreign students on a paid basis, master promising foreign markets, build work with proven recruitment agencies and involve associations of foreign graduates as ambassadors of our countries.

The moderator of the discussion, Director of the Union for the Promotion of Export of Education Sergey Kondratiev noted that the key task of the professional community is to unite the efforts of universities, conscientious recruiters and state structures on a single platform.

- Russian and Belarusian education has a huge potential abroad, but it can be fully realized together. Today we are developing three key areas. The first is to popularize education in Russian and attract foreign applicants. The second is the development of associations of foreign graduates. The third direction is the permanent systemic presence of educational organizations in the most promising and solvent markets, in particular in Asian countries. Our key area of work is China, where there are permanent foreign representative offices and work is underway to bring universities to major international educational exhibitions. Now it is important to move from isolated actions to mutual integration, Kondratiev said.

Special attention was paid to the formation of joint educational paths. Member of the Standing Committee on International Affairs of the House of Representatives of the National Assembly Alexander Shpakovsky stressed that the export of education is a strategic priority for Belarus.

- The model of the Belarusian economy is export-oriented, and the sphere of educational services plays an important role here. As of 2025, 37 thousand foreign students from 120 countries studied in higher educational institutions of Belarus, and export revenue amounted to approximately $ 200 million. At the same time, we are interested in further expanding the geography and contingent of students, Shpakovsky said.

Cooperation with Russian partners opens up new prospects, including for specialized universities.

- In Russia, this market is more decentralized, a register of reliable recruitment agencies that enjoy the trust of the state has been formed. It is important for us to adopt best practices and possibly move towards developing a unified strategy for the Union State. For example, these can be joint programs with the issuance of double diplomas, when part of the time a foreign student studies in Belarus, and part in Russia. This approach is especially promising for narrow-profile high-tech universities, such as BSUIR or BSATU. Exporting education is also a classic soft power tool. A foreign student, who received high-quality knowledge from us, retains a warm attitude to the country for many years. Tomorrow he will become a leader, an engineer, an opinion leader at home, which means that Belarus and Russia will have more reliable friends and partners in the world, Shpakovsky said.

Photo by Irina Malinovskaya