Cross-border Cooperation in the Sphere of Education: Murmansk Region Youth Views

The article analyzes cross-border cooperation in the aspects of educational sphere, focuses on the analysis of cross-border educational cooperation impact on young Murmansk region inhabitants’ understanding of specific northern territorial development, while the northern identity is treated as a factor of interethnic unification. The authors emphasize that the transboundary region, including the European and the Russian segments, presupposes cooperation on the basis of effective competition between two heterogeneous systems: on the one hand - Russian, and on the other hand – belonging to all other states of Barents Euro-Arctic region: Finland, Sweden and Norway. The approach underlying the idea of the Barents Euro-Arctic region existence implies the emphasis to cultural and educational resources in the enlarged sense of the word. The authors pay special consideration to the phenomenon of academic mobility and the role of academic mobility programs in the process of forming the northern identity. Migration of academically oriented youth is considered by the authors to be the central link of the world system of higher education. The article presents the materials of the research, which reflects the perception of the border phenomenon by the youth of Murmansk region. As a result of the analysis of the questionnaire data collected from young residents of the Murmansk region, it was found out that the border has always been and remains a kind of barrier for Russians, but the desire to overcome this barrier is obvious. According to the authors of the article, the "barrier"-like perception of the border can be substantially removed by the participation of the region's youth in various programs of academic mobility and by the "inclusion" into the dialogue of cultures.