Pursuing goals of sustainable development and internationalization in higher education context

摘要

The article concerns internationalization of higher education as a factor for pursuing sustainable development goals by developing university students’ global competences. A review of modern research on internationalization processes in different national contexts allowed to highlight the main challenges of interaction between domestic and international students as well as discuss possible solutions. Analyses of survey results, aimed at identifying the factors preventing effective cross-cultural communication in a non-linguistic Russian university, confirm the demand for students’ development of intercultural competence, which is considered to be most effective through the study of a foreign language. The paper shows significance of involvement of Russian and international students in joint classroom and extracurricular activities, which can become the basis for their future international cooperation in the field of implementation of innovative technologies and foster sustainable development goals. The leading role of university foreign languages departments in tackling issues of university internationalization is emphasized.