Many governments invest significant funds to promote their national higher education systems in the global education market, and Russia is no exception. In 2013, the government launched the Russian academic excellence 5-100 Project “to maximize the competitive position of a group of leading Russian universities in the global research and education market” and to attract international staff and students from all over the world. Although Russia is currently in the seventh place for international students globally, it has one of the fastest growth rates compared with its previous position in the global market. Existing literature on the motivation of international students who choose to study in Russia is minimal. To fill this gap, this study uses the results of interviews with international students to discover what brought them to Russia. The conclusions drawn highlight the need for the Russian government to improve its migration policy for international students as well as to publicize the quality of Russian higher education.

许多政府投入大量资金来促进其在全球教育市场上的国家高等教育系统，俄罗斯也不例外。2013年，俄罗斯政府启动了“俄罗斯学术卓越5-100项目”，“以最大化领先的俄罗斯大学集团在全球研究和教育市场上的竞争地位”，并吸引来自世界各地的国际工作人员和学生。尽管俄罗斯目前在全球国际学生中排名第七，但与之前在全球市场上的地位相比，它是增长最快的国家之一。关于选择在俄罗斯学习的国际学生的动机的现有文献很少。为了填补这一空白，本研究使用对国际学生的采访结果来发现将他们带到俄罗斯的原因。