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

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.