Comparative Education Bulletin - Faculty of Education - The ...

found what they were really missing, and it is not necessarily the
rationale to earn more money, which stands behind those dual degree
initiatives, even for us. I clearly see that not only Chinese students
receive what they would never receive in their home institutions in
China, but our people on both sides, who are related to running these
programs, compare leadership and administration style, curricula,
student life, etc. and know not only how to run the programs with
the partners together, but also how to switch on different thinking “as
those Chinese would do”.
These findings represent a new but in increasingly common
phenomena whereby the changes that are believed to be caused by
globalization is more rapid in practice than any theory explaining
the processes. But since ‘comparative thinking’ is quite common
for the human nature, the results, perceived in the atmosphere of
collaboration, could be impressive as well. As Kubow and Fossum
(2007) point out, comparative thinking is an essential skill. This gets
developed alongside one’s ability to think deeply and comparatively
about political, economic, social and cultural landscape affecting
education, as well as education’s influence affecting the landscape. The
development of comparative thinking as such and the ability to use
relevant analytic frameworks will probably remain on the agenda in
the years ahead.
The dual degree programs between Chinese and Russian
partnering institutions represent such a comprehensive agenda
for the transnational region they serve. Since the students in the
programs simultaneously receive two bachelor degrees recognized
by the states, their tuition inevitably involves utilization of the
comparative advantages of both educational systems under the notion
of substitution and mutual filling in. Since the market they serve
upon completion of their education is transnational and dynamic in
nature, the students as well as the institutions and their leaders are
obliged to take into account all the complexities and fluctuations of the
local economies. Since many of the actors or stakeholders contribute
to re-gaining mutual awareness under the notion of being ‘cultural
ambassadors’ to each other, their actions, publications and verbalized
discourse will enrich the picture of political determination, possibly
affecting both nations’ policies across the border, especially at lower
levels that are unfortunately untouched by the ‘big’ diplomacy. This is
certainly heavily dependent on what course the politicians might be
taking, but the presence of many of those who were ‘dually educated’,
gaining power under strengths of receiving education abroad (which
is a common case for China), may contribute to decision-making even
at the central political level. From this point of view, the list of the
graduates given to the researcher by one of such partnering institutions
78