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Sociodynamics
Reference:

Profiles in the social network of university students as a source of migration data (on the example of RUDN University)

Chernyshev Konstantin Anatolevich

ORCID: 0000-0003-3543-4776

PhD in Geography

Associate Professor, Department of Regional Economics and Geography, Peoples' Friendship University of Russia (RUDN University); Leading Researcher, Institute for Demographic Research of the Federal Research Sociological Center of the Russian Academy of Sciences

6 Miklukho-Maklaya Street, Moscow, 117198, Russian Federation

kochern@rambler.ru

DOI:

10.25136/2409-7144.2023.10.44063

EDN:

LOUXAJ

Received:

18-09-2023


Published:

06-11-2023


Abstract: The subject of the research is the territorial origin of students and graduates of the Patrice Lumumba Peoples' Friendship University of Russia. The purpose of the work implies the study of the internal Russian educational migration of persons who entered the university in question at different times. The research method was the analysis of digital traces of users of the VKontakte social network. The information basis of the work covered data on the regions of origin indicated in user profiles. It is indicated that the study of educational and youth migration based on social network data is becoming widespread in Russian science. Migration processes in specific regions of the country or the participation of certain universities in the organization of educational mobility are investigated. The novelty of the work is associated with the use of an unconventional source of information about migration processes. It is shown that, despite the positioning of the RUDN as an internationally oriented university, the students of the university are mainly Russian citizens. As a result of studying the profiles of VKontakte users, it was revealed that most of those who indicated RUDN as a place of study are natives of Moscow. Among the persons who marked other regions of the Russian Federation as origin in VKontakte profiles the largest number of students and graduates of RUDN are from Chukotka and Yamalo-Nenets Autonomous Okrugs, the Moscow and Magadan regions, several national-territorial subjects of the Russian Federation. The main factors determining the origin of educational migrants' are the territorial accessibility of the university city and the insufficient level of higher school development in the regions of educational migrants.


Keywords:

educational migration, internal migration, regions of Russia, RUDN University, digital footprint, VK, Moscow, higher education, social media, Russians

This article is automatically translated.

Thanks. The ublication was carried out within the framework of the project

No. 060508-0-000 grant support systems for scientific projects of the RUDN

 

Acknowledgements.This publication has been supported byproject  

¹ 060508-0-000? (RUDN University Scientific Projects Grant System) 

 

Introduction

Currently, there is an increasing interest in the study of educational migration, which makes a significant contribution and redistribution of human capital and labor resources between countries and regions of different types [1] and the level of development [2]. The location of educational institutions, primarily large universities, plays an organizing role in the formation of the educational space of the country and the flows of educational migrants [3]. Territorial analysis of the role of universities in the organization of migration flows related to education and the development of human capital of regions and countries is possible from two positions – it is the study of the areas of collection of applicants or the geography of the distribution of graduates [4].

To a considerable extent, the formation of intra-Russian interregional migration flows is facilitated by the continuing differentiation of the subjects of the Russian Federation in terms of income, opportunities for professional self-realization, availability of social benefits, the state of the environment, and other parameters of socio-economic development [5]. Admission to an educational institution located in a more attractive subject of the Russian Federation for a young person is an educational migration. However, it is obvious that when choosing a city of study, a combination of socio-economic factors is crucial: the comfort of the urban environment, the cost of studying and living in the university region, prospects for further employment, and others [6].

In this paper, we propose to study the territorial structure of the exit regions of students and graduates of the Patrice Lumumba Peoples' Friendship University of Russia (hereinafter – RUDN), a large university located in Moscow – the main center of attraction for educational migrants in the country.

 

Methods

The study of migration processes is usually based on the use of statistical data, which primarily include current migration records and the results of population censuses. Traditional sources can be supplemented by departmental statistics (for example, the results of the Unified State Exam) [7] or sociological surveys [8]. In this paper, it is proposed to use the analysis of digital traces of users of the VKontakte social network as the main method. The study of educational and youth migration based on uploads of user profiles of this network is becoming widespread in Russian science. Traditionally, migration in certain regions of the country is studied [9] or the participation of specific universities in the organization of educational mobility [10].

The VKontakte social network is one of the most popular in Russia, and also has an open API (Application programming interface), which allows you to access the user base and upload them for research purposes. Another advantage for studying educational migration using VKontakte data is the ability to find out the geographical location of users. So, when registering on a social network, a specific locality is indicated in the profile in the "hometown" field ("home_city"), on the basis of which the social network forms an entry in the "home region" field ("home_region"). The prevalence of this network in Russia makes it suitable for the analysis of internal migration. The main criterion for inclusion in the resulting sample for studying the migration of VKontakte users who are studying or have completed their studies at the RUDN was the indication in the "univ_name" field of the values "RUDN" or "Peoples' Friendship University of Russia". An additional criterion was the indication of age in the profile: the sample included users 17 years and older. User profiles closed by privacy settings were excluded from consideration, as well as profiles for which it is impossible to find out the user's native region. The paper analyzes only intra-Russian migration, and therefore the profiles of foreign network users (born abroad) were not included in the sample.

During the formation of the upload of VKontakte users, the period of study and the year of graduation from the RUDN were not taken into account, and therefore it reflects the native regions of both those studying at the RUDN at the time of data collection and those who studied at this university in the past (graduates).

The upload was carried out in February 2022 using the Social Network Data Collection and Processing Platform of the University Consortium of Big Data Researchers, the copyright holder of which is Tomsk State University. If, at the time of unloading, the user had filled in the profile fields necessary for migration analysis, then this information was considered reliable, and the data about the user fell into the database used in the work. At the same time, it is obvious that the source of information used has disadvantages, since it involves studying not the migration itself, but only records in user profiles. It cannot be unequivocally stated that the user of the VKontakte network, who indicated in the profile of studying at the RUDN, is a student or graduate of this university.

 

Discussion and results

Since its establishment in 1960, RUDN has been positioned as an international university designed to train specialists primarily for developing countries in Asia, Africa, and Latin America, which desperately needed qualified personnel for the development of their countries [11]. The University still holds a leading position among Russian universities in terms of the share of foreign students. However, currently the overwhelming majority of university students are citizens of Russia (Table 1). This makes it necessary to consider the characteristics of Russians studying and graduating from this university, the territorial structure of the collection of applicants of the RUDN.

 

Table 1. The share of the number of Russian and foreign students of RUDN studying under bachelor's, specialty, master's degree programs in the total number of students (the given contingent), %

 

2019

2020

2021

international students from the CIS

17,1

18,9

19,2

international students from foreign countries

11,5

10

9,6

russian students

71,4

71,1

71,2

Source: Characteristics of the higher education system in the Russian Federation. Access mode:https://monitoring.miccedu.ru/?m=vpo&year=2022 (Accessed: 12.08.2023)

 

The upload made it possible to analyze information about the routes of interregional educational migration of students and graduates of the RUDN using information about the users' home region. The criteria for the formation of unloading corresponded to 7990 VKontakte profiles, the geographical analysis of which made it possible to determine the regions of birth of students and graduates of the RUDN.

The study analyzed the profiles of students and graduates of the main university (in Moscow), excluding branches of the RUDN (active and closed). The unloading covered all regions of Russia, but the representation of the regions was extremely uneven (Table 2). The user base was formed to perform research tasks, primarily to identify the territorial characteristics of students and graduates of the RUDN. However, the information obtained also revealed the gender of the network users studying or studying at the RUDN: 38% of them are men. 

 

Table 2. Territorial structure of VKontakte users who indicated training at the RUDN

Territory of birth

Number of analyzed profiles

Share of the total, %

Central Federal District

6035

75,5

including:

 

 

Moscow

4429

55,4

Moscow oblast

905

11,3

North-Western Federal District

215

2,7

Southern Federal District

349

4,4

North Caucasus Federal District

239

3,0

Volga Federal Circle

496

6,2

Ural Federal District

212

2,7

Siberian Federal District

273

3,4

Far Eastern Federal District

171

2,1

Total

7990

100,0

 

In more than half of the profiles studied, users indicated the city of the university's location as their place of birth, which does not allow them to be classified as migrants. The share of local students is close to the values identified in studies using uploads from the VKontakte social network, conducted on the example of other Moscow universities – Lomonosov Moscow State University and the Higher School of Economics [1-0]In general, more than three-quarters of VKontakte users studying or graduating from the RUDN (including Muscovites) were from the regions of the Central Federal District. The representation of other parts of Russia in the sample was significantly lower.

 

 

 

Fig. The number of VKontakte users who indicated RUDN as a higher education institution, by 1 million inhabitants.

 

Representatives of Russian regions are covered to varying degrees by migration related to obtaining higher education at the university in question. The figure for each subject of the Russian Federation shows the ratio between the number of VKontakte users who are students or graduates of the RUDN, who indicated the region as their native (February 2022 upload), and the number of residents of this region at the beginning of 2022 (taking into account the results of the All-Russian Population Census of 2020-2021). The largest number of VKontakte users from RUDN in relation to the population of the region was found in the city where the university is located (340 users per 1 million inhabitants). The high value of the indicator under consideration was revealed in regions geographically close to the capital: Moscow (106), Kaluga, Tula, Smolensk regions. In general, the regions of Central Russia are characterized by a higher representation among students at the RUDN. There is also a large number of users who indicated RUDN as a place of higher education for people from Chukotka (316) and Yamalo-Nenets Autonomous Okrug (118) – regions where there are no higher educational institutions. In addition, the population of the Magadan region and the national republics of Kalmykia, Sakha (Yakutia), North Ossetia-Alania, Kabardino-Balkaria are characterized by an increased interest in studying at the RUDN.

The smallest number of VKontakte users who indicated RUDN as a higher education institution, in relation to the population of the regions, was found in the Leningrad, Kurgan, Sverdlovsk, Tyumen (without Khanty-Mansiysk - Yugra and Yamalo-Nenets Autonomous Okrugs) regions, Altai and Primorsky Territories, the Republics of Crimea and Chechnya. In these subjects of the Russian Federation, the value of the analyzed indicator was less than 10 people per 1 million inhabitants.

 

Conclusions

The use of information extracted from social networks to study migration processes is very promising. The digital footprints that VKontakte users leave on the Internet are a relatively new source of information about educational migration. 

RUDN is an internationally oriented university, a significant part of its students and graduates are foreign citizens. At the same time, the university participates in the formation of flows of internal Russian migration associated with higher education. Due to the greater prevalence of the VKontakte network in Russia, this article analyzes the migration of immigrants from the regions of the Russian Federation.

Judging by the profiles on the social network, the majority of Russian students of RUDN are not educational migrants, since they indicate Moscow as their hometown. The largest number of students and graduates of the RUDN compared to the population of the exit regions is typical for the regions close to Moscow, as well as the Chukotka and Yamalo-Nenets Autonomous Okrugs, the Magadan Region, individual national-territorial subjects of the Russian Federation. In our opinion, the key factors that determined the territorial structure of the collection zones of RUDN applicants are the geographical proximity of the university and the insufficient level of development of higher education in the regions of the exit of educational migrants. 

A possible direction of the educational policy of the university would be to promote in the regional markets of educational services and attract applicants from densely populated, but poorly represented in the structure of the contingent of students, regions of Russia. This goal is feasible if there is a sufficient housing stock in student dormitories, so its implementation may conflict with the key task of the RUDN for teaching foreign students from abroad. In addition, in a number of Russian regions with low representation in the structure of students and graduates of RUDN (St. Petersburg, Rostov and Sverdlovsk regions, Primorsky and Krasnoyarsk Territories) there are also "strong" universities.

References
1. Kurbatova, M. V., Donova, I. V., Kranzeeva, E. A., & Leukhova, M. G. (2022). Educational Migration in Resource-Extracting Regions. Universe of Russia, 31(1), 91-112. doi:10.17323/1811-038X-2022-31-1-91-112
2. Kapshuk, E.A., Kostina, E.Yu., Orlova, N.A., & Tseren, G. (2022). Educational migration in modern Russia: trends and issues. Theory and Practice of Social Development, 3, 26–32. doi:10.24158/tipor.2022.3.3
3. Katrovsky, A.P., & Vatlina, T.V. (2021). Spatial organization of the higher education of Russia. Vestnik Moskovskogo universiteta. Seriya 5: Geografiya= Lomonosov Geography Journal, 5, 3-13.
4. Zamiatina, N. Iu. (2012). The method of studying the migration of young people on these social networking Web: Tomsk State University as «a center of production and distribution» of human capital (according to the social online network “VKontakte"). Regionalnye issledovaniia [Regional studies], 2(36), 15-28.
5. Buranshina, N.A., & Smirnykh, L.I. (2018). The human capital of migrants and the convergence of wages in the regions of Russia. Voprosy Ekonomiki, 12, 121-138. doi:10.32609/0042-8736-2018-12-121-138
6. Zakharova, I.V. (2019). The Role of Universities in Curbing Interregional Educational Migration. Vysshee obrazovanie v Rossii = Higher Education in Russia, 28(7), 71-84. doi:10.31992/0869-3617-2019-28-7-71-84
7. Dozhdikov, A.V. (2023). Educational Migration in the Republic of Mordovia. Russian Journal of Regional Studies, 31(1), 182–198. doi:10.15507/2413-1407.122.031.202301.182-198
8. Karachurina, L.B., & Florinskaya, Y.F. (2019). Migration Inten âûáîðêè íàñòîëüêî âíóøèòåëüíû tions Of School Graduates In Small And Midsize Towns Of Russia. Vestnik Moskovskogo universiteta. Seriya 5: Geografiya= Lomonosov Geography Journal, 6, 82–89.
9. Chernyshev, K. A., Mityagina, E. V., Chernysheva, N. V. & Petrov, E. Yu. Incidence and directions of educational migration of Tuvan youth. New Research of Tuva, 2, 70-83. doi:10.25178/nit.2023.2.5
10. Gabdrakhmanov, N.K., Orlova, V.V., & Aleksandrova, Yu.A. Migration behaviour of Russian university students based on digital footprint data. Vestnik Tomskogo gosudarstvennogo universiteta=Tomsk State University Journal, 467, 106–114.
11. Wijayadasa, S. (2020). Russia’s prodigious gift of higher education to the developing world. Ethnodialogues, 2(60), 104-111. DOI: 10.37492/ETNO.2020.60.2.00

First Peer Review

Peer reviewers' evaluations remain confidential and are not disclosed to the public. Only external reviews, authorized for publication by the article's author(s), are made public. Typically, these final reviews are conducted after the manuscript's revision. Adhering to our double-blind review policy, the reviewer's identity is kept confidential.
The list of publisher reviewers can be found here.

Despite the wave of sanctions from the Euro-Atlantic community, our country pursues a policy of openness and good-neighborliness, which is manifested, among other things, in the educational sphere. By the way, the authorities of the Primorsky Territory are putting forward the idea of exchanging school students with the DPRK, and the mutually beneficial interest of Russia and China is only increasing as anti-epidemic measures are lifted. At the same time, Russia has a serious experience of educational migration: These are not only the envoys of Peter the Great, but also, of course, the P. Lumumba Peoples' Friendship University. In this regard, it is important to carry out a territorial analysis of higher education institutions in the organization of migration flows. These circumstances determine the relevance of the article submitted for review, the subject of which is the profiles in the social network of university students as a source of migration data. The author sets out to determine the possibility of using information extracted from social networks to study migration processes, to analyze the results of studying the profiles of RUDN students on the VKontakte social network. The work is based on the principles of analysis and synthesis, reliability, objectivity, the methodological basis of the research is a systematic approach, which is based on the consideration of the object as an integral complex of interrelated elements. The scientific novelty of the article lies in the very formulation of the topic: the author seeks to characterize the territorial structure of the regions of exit of students and graduates of the Patrice Lumumba Peoples' Friendship University of Russia. In total, the author studied 7,990 VKontakte profiles, "the geographical analysis of which made it possible to analyze the regions of birth of students and graduates of the RUDN." Considering the bibliographic list of the article as a positive point, its versatility should be noted: in total, the list of references includes 11 different sources and studies. Among the studies used, we will point to the works of N.Y. Zamyatina, A.V. Dozhdikov, A.P. Katrovsky and T.V. Vatlina, which focus on various aspects of the study of educational migration in Russia. Note that the bibliography is important both from a scientific and educational point of view: after reading the text of the article, readers can turn to other materials on its topic. In general, in our opinion, the integrated use of various sources and research contributed to the solution of the tasks facing the author. The style of writing the article can be attributed to a scientific one, at the same time accessible to understanding not only to specialists, but also to a wide readership, to everyone who is interested in both educational migration in general and the possibilities of studying it in particular. The appeal to the opponents is presented at the level of the collected information received by the author during the work on the topic of the article. The structure of the work is characterized by a certain logic and consistency, it can be distinguished by an introduction, the main part, and conclusion. At the beginning, the author determines the relevance of the topic, shows that in the work to study migration flows, "it is proposed to use the analysis of digital traces of users of the VKontakte social network as the main method. It is noteworthy that "over three quarters of VKontakte users studying or graduating from the RUDN (including Muscovites) were from the regions of the Central Federal District." In addition, as noted in the reviewed article, "there is a large number of users who indicated RUDN as a place of higher education for people from Chukotka (316) and Yamalo-Nenets Autonomous Okrug (118) – regions where there are no higher educational institutions." As the author rightly notes, "the factors that determined the territorial structure of the collection zones of RUDN applicants are the geographical proximity of the university, as well as the insufficient level of development of higher education in the regions of educational migrants." The main conclusion of the article is the prospect of using information extracted from social networks to study migration processes. The article submitted for review is devoted to an urgent topic, is provided with a drawing and 2 tables, will arouse readers' interest, and its materials can be used both in training courses and in the framework of studying educational migration. At the same time, there are comments to the article: 1) It is necessary to read the text from the point of view of the Russian literary language. Thus, the author's text reads: "The University currently holds a leading position among Russian universities in terms of the proportion of foreign students", "digital footprints left on the Internet by users of the VKontakte network are a relatively new source of information about educational migration", etc. 2) The question arises as to how VKontakte, as a Russian social network, can show the geography of foreign students. The author did not indicate the answer to this question in the text. After correcting these comments, the article may be recommended for publication in the journal Sociodynamics.

Second Peer Review

Peer reviewers' evaluations remain confidential and are not disclosed to the public. Only external reviews, authorized for publication by the article's author(s), are made public. Typically, these final reviews are conducted after the manuscript's revision. Adhering to our double-blind review policy, the reviewer's identity is kept confidential.
The list of publisher reviewers can be found here.

The subject of the study is the territorial structure of the exit regions of Russian-born students and graduates of the Patrice Lumumba Peoples' Friendship University of Russia. The not very successful formulation of "exit regions" can be replaced, for example, by "regions - suppliers of educational migrants". The relevance of the work is related to the choice of a new, increasingly popular methodology for analyzing big data as a source of social information. Modern universities actively use social media (social networks, microblogs, macroblogs, photo and video hosting, etc.) to attract applicants, increase the loyalty of the target audience, promote their own brand and study the target audience.The use of data mining methods makes it possible to enrich and complement the classical research methods of social sciences: observation, experiment, survey, document analysis, and also serve as an information base for evidence-based management of an educational organization. Using the example of the analysis of the territorial and geographical affiliation of the RUDN graduates, the article reveals the possibilities of using digital traces to solve research problems. The scientific novelty lies in the application of a new methodology to the analysis of the traditional problem of educational migration for sociology. The research methodology is the analysis of digital footprints of users of the VKontakte social network using the Social Network Data Collection and Processing Platform of the University Consortium of Big Data Researchers. The limitations of the method of analyzing digital traces of social networks include the fact that not all users indicate correct personal data or do not indicate them at all. The text of the article does not indicate how the data was preprocessed, the culling of obviously implausible category values was carried out. Given these limitations, the authors of the article should have compared the data obtained with other sources (departmental statistics, survey results, etc.). The article has a clear structure, divided into semantic and methodological parts.The "body" of the article is 10 thousand characters, which does not meet the minimum volume of the journal Sociodynamics. Perhaps it makes sense for the authors to expand the content of the article by comparing the data of their own empirical research with other sources of information, as well as analyzing the gender and age structure of former and current students of the RUDN. Based on the results of the study, it would also be possible to make recommendations on improving the educational policy of the RUDN, promoting the brand of the university and attracting nonresident applicants. The article is written in a scientific style, the terms and definitions in the text are used correctly. The results of the empirical study are visualized in tables and a heat map, which contributes to a better perception of the material and generally gives a positive impression of the article. The bibliography corresponds to the subject and is presented quite fully. At the end of the article, correct conclusions are drawn about the prospects of big data analysis tools in the study of educational problems, as well as that the majority of Russian students of RUDN, judging by their profiles on the social network, are not educational migrants. The article will undoubtedly arouse the interest of the readership.

Third Peer Review

Peer reviewers' evaluations remain confidential and are not disclosed to the public. Only external reviews, authorized for publication by the article's author(s), are made public. Typically, these final reviews are conducted after the manuscript's revision. Adhering to our double-blind review policy, the reviewer's identity is kept confidential.
The list of publisher reviewers can be found here.

The subject of the research in the presented article is the profiles in the social network of students of an educational organization of higher education as a source of migration data. As a methodology of the subject area of research, this article used the analysis of digital footprints of users of the VKontakte social network as the main method, and also applied methods for processing the data obtained during uploading. The relevance of the article is beyond doubt, since, firstly, the publication was carried out within the framework of project No. 060508-0-000 of the grant support system for scientific projects of the Patrice Lumumba Peoples' Friendship University of Russia (hereinafter - RUDN), and, secondly, social networks in the processes of virtualization of society and digitalization of many spheres of public life become a real source of incomeI am information and collecting various relevant data. The scientific novelty of the study consists in studying the territorial structure of the regions of exit of applicants and students to RUDN, a large university located in Moscow – the main center of attraction for educational migrants in the country by analyzing the profiles of students of the specified educational organization of higher education on the VKontakte social network. The article is presented in the language of scientific style with the competent application of terminology and definitions on the research topic. The structure is clearly designed taking into account all the requirements for writing scientific articles, namely it includes such basic structural elements as introduction, methods, discussion and results, conclusions and bibliography. The content of the article reflects its structure. Especially valuable in the content of the study should be noted the above visual materials, presented in tabular form and in the form of a picture, which greatly facilitates the perception of the information used for analysis in the study, characterizing such indicators as the proportion of the number of Russian and foreign students of RUDN studying undergraduate, specialty, master's degree programs in the total number of students; the territorial structure of VKontakte users who indicated their studies at the RUDN; the number of VKontakte users who indicated the RUDN as a higher education institution. The bibliography contains 11 sources, including Russian periodicals. I would especially like to note the novelty of the periodicals used, which indicates the constant updating of current trends in the studied issues within the framework of working with the grant and writing this scientific article. Since the presented research is of a search and analytical nature, this article provides a discussion and an appeal to the points of view of modern authors studying the issues of educational migration in Russia as a whole and in its individual regions. The presented study contains brief conclusions concerning the subject area of the study, namely, the article notes that in the current conditions of educational migration, a possible direction of the educational policy of the university, in this case RUDN, would be to promote regional educational services markets and attract applicants from densely populated, but poorly represented in the structure of the contingent of students, regions Russia. This goal can be achieved if there is a sufficient housing stock in student dormitories, therefore, its implementation may conflict with the key task of the RUDN for the education of foreign students from abroad. The materials of this study are intended for a wide range of readers, they can be interesting and used by scientists for scientific purposes, teaching staff in the educational process, management and administration of educational institutions of higher education, employees of executive authorities at various levels, employees dealing with migration of foreign citizens, state and municipal employees in the preparation of reference materials and explanatory notes on the stated topic. As a disadvantage of this study, it can be noted that the relevance and novelty of the study are not clearly defined in the structure of the work, although they are not in doubt and the very content of the study confirms them. However, this remark does not detract from the quality of the presented research and its undoubted high theoretical and practical significance, but is more of a recommendatory nature. The article is recommended for publication.