Virtual academic mobility in higher education

Abstract

The pandemic has intensified the processes of digitalization in academic culture, which was manifested in the form of intensive development of digital platforms in education and in the request for virtual academic mobility (VAM). The advantages of academic mobility (AM) include accessibility of the scientific and educational environment of other universities since the medieval universities and since the beginning of the Bologna process, and VAM makes educational programs accessible from anywhere in the world, including asynchronous interaction. Due to the pandemic, academic exchange educational programs have switched to the VAM format, according to a survey conducted by the authors of the article. The participants of the academic communication named financial and language problems, socio-cultural differences and difficulties with IT-support among the main difficulties of the AM. These factors make the national AM in demand, which will increase the interest of graduates in the regions as a place of work. It is necessary to create a digital platform for VAM, to solve communication, organizational, managerial and technical problems. It is necessary to take into account the properties of virtual reality, the features of the educational process and the culture of academic communication between participants when designing a platform.