Academic mobility or the Russian style networking?

Abstract

Academic mobility facilitates interactions of different scientific schools and collectives, influences formation of academic relations and indirectly affects positions of universities in academic rankings. Mobility helps establish networks of professional contacts, and that might have a positive impact on the level of research, allowing efficient academic collaboration, access to results of different studies and collected data. Mobility is an important issue not only for universities, but also for researchers because their collaboration with the colleagues and participation in joint projects characterize them for other members of the academic community, and that increases the value of academic networking. However, the way of evolution of the institution of networking raises various questions about the objectivity of the recruiting process and advantages that some candidates get over their rivals. The purpose of this article is identification and analysis of those factors that force the institution of mobility in the Russian academic reality to work against general social interests and the interests of universities.