Tutoring as a form of support for the adaptation of foreign students at the university

Introduction. Strengthening globalization processes leads to the expansion of international cooperation in the field of education. This is especially reflected in the growth of international mobility of students in higher education institutions, in particular, Russian universities. And if the first students of the beginning of the large waves of mass educational migration were proficient in the Russian language and were familiar with Russian culture, then the students who followed them were much less proficient in the language and cultural code. And, since the internationalization of education remains a prerequisite for the existence of universities, and long-term adaptation of foreign students to learning conditions worsens the quality of their training, there is a need to organize their psychological and pedagogical support in the first years of study. The purpose of the article: to specify the main problems of adaptation of foreign students to the conditions of study in Russian universities and to justify the need to organize their tutor support. Materials and methods. The study involved 556 international students of the first and second years of study of three Tatarstan universities (Kazan National Research Technological University (KNRTU-KICT), (Kazan); Kazan National Research Technical University named after A. N. Tupolev (KNRTU-KAI), (Kazan); Elabuga Institute of the Kazan (Volga Region) Federal University (EI KFU) (Elabuga). Research results. The results of the study confirmed the presence of adaptation problems among foreign students. The main ones are difficulties with the Russian language (41%) and acclimatization (21%). It takes 46% of students about a year to get used to the learning conditions, and 23% – more than a year. The main learning difficulties they identify are awkwardness when speaking in public in front of an audience (23%) and teachers’ underestimation of their educational results (20%). More than half of the students see older compatriots as a source of help in overcoming cultural and educational barriers; The help of a supervisor turned out to be effective only for 15% of respondents. Taking into account the results obtained, it is proposed to organize the training of future tutors from among foreign senior students who have undergone appropriate psychological and pedagogical training. Conclusion. While maintaining the institute of curatorship, it is necessary to create a tutoring institute in universities that train foreign students. The main functions of tutors, which are absent from the curators of academic groups, should be to help foreign students overcome barriers to socio-cultural adaptation and insufficient proficiency in Russian, promote the acceptance of foreigners by their new environment, help in building effective interaction with the university administration and teachers, study students' personalities, monitor the results of their educational activities, help in professional identification, monitoring of newly emerging difficulties of students, strengthening cooperation between Russian and foreign students.