Soft power of higher education: the perceptions of Russia as an educational destination by students at Rhine-Waal University of Applied Sciences

The purpose of the article was to explore how Russia is perceived as an educational destination among students enrolled at programmes of Bachelor of Arts (B.A.) and Master of Arts (M.A.) at Rhine-Waal University of Applied Sciences (Kleve, Germany) during the summer semester 2022. The research was conceived as a reflective study based on the case-oriented research design and with a single case examined. To address the research question, a mixed method was selected with Web-Internet and document-based research which was paired with a survey as a data collection technique and a content analysis as a strategy for data analysis. As a result, the survey showed that 79% of respondents would like to visit Russia when the current political situation stabilizes (results are drawn from 33 responses from a total of 7390 students—the rationale for the small sample is provided in the methodological part). However, only 18% of them may consider Russia as an educational destination. The predominant reasons for that are: (i) interests in other places; (ii) language barrier; (iii) lack of information on Russian study programs available in English and (iv) insufficient financial support for studying in Russia. In addition, the author provides policy recommendations for the development of the soft power of Russian higher education and speculates on the reasons for its unpopularity among the students at the Rhine-Waal University of Applied Sciences.