Double Degree Programmes in Global Higher Education Integration

International cooperation greatly enriches the university activity; broadens the sphere of interests and practical results in science, teaching and methodical work, and personnel training; and promotes the team’s involvement in the world culture. Double degree programmes are of interest to both students and employers, primarily large international companies, and one of the ways of attracting foreign students to universities. These programmes allow universities to create a unique, high-quality educational product by combining efforts with partners-leaders in educational services. The success of double degree programmes is explained by meeting the labour market requirements and demand for international programme graduates from Russian and international companies. Effective studying process organizing means the compliance of the international educational programme with partner-universities development strategies in global higher education integration, quality and quantity efficiency indexes, the identity of educational approach, using IT, regular curriculum updating, smooth administrative support of international cooperation, and teachers’ academic mobility. For partnership, it is necessary to identify the main directions and objectives of interaction, the means of their achievement, the stages of implementation, and the prevention of factors that can become a barrier to all of the above mentioned. The research aims to describe basic trends of international cooperation development at the current stage, define factors that provide Double degree programmes success, analyze the stages of the programs at Peter the Great St. Petersburg Polytechnic University and Emperor Alexander I St. Petersburg State Transport University – some of the leading engineering universities in Russia.