INTERCULTURAL COMMUNICATION AND RUSSIAN STUDENT COMMUNITY IN THE CONTEXT OF GLOBALIZATION (ON THE EXAMPLE OF IWEB RUDN UNIVERSITY)

Globalization as a phenomenon can already be considered as an accomplished fact. Blurring of state, national, cultural and other borders takes place in full view of everyone that gives rise to a new reality, to which various institutions and social group of all ages have to adapt. The modern universities don't stand aside of this process. They pretend to have a global status ant create a highly competitive market for educational services. They act as “factories for the production of knowledge” and aggregate intellectual resources from various countries. Universities create a special multicultural environment in which, on the one hand, a dialogue of cultures takes place, and on the other, there is a unification of communication and language practices. In this context, expected questions arise about the readiness of the Russian educational system to compete with the dominant AngloSaxon model. In our opinion, this set of issues is still open. In this regard, the purpose of this study is to assess the potential for the development of intercultural communication in the leading Russian universities with a subsequent increase of internationalization indicators. The subject of study is the student audience as a part of communication and an owner of a number of demographic, psychographic and behavioral characteristics. In view of this, in December 2016, there was conducted the survey of 170 Bachelor's and Master's degree students of the direction “Advertising and Public Relations” in the Institute of World Economy and Business of the Peoples' Friendship University of Russia (IWEB RUDN University). They were asked to answer anonymously the questions of the survey, which contained several meaningful modules, including describing formal demographic and behavioral characteristics. After the information processing of the survey's result we noted the key takeaways that allow us to conclude that the part of the Russian students among the respondents demonstrates a high level of opportunities, but a low level of interest in developing their intercultural communication skills.