COVID-19 and Distance Learning: International Doctoral Students' Satisfaction With the General Quality of Learning and Aspects of University Support in Russia

Since this catastrophic crisis began, learning at universities has changed to distance mode to reduce person-to-person transmission of the virus. Using a survey, the article compares the experiences of international doctoral students in this COVID crisis with the general quality of learning and their experiences with various aspects of university support. The descriptive results suggest that the overall satisfaction with the general quality of learning was quite high among both Russian-speaking and English-speaking students. There were no statistically significant differences between English-speaking and Russian-speaking doctoral students. However, there was a statistically significant difference in fields of study, with international doctoral students in medical sciences being the most dissatisfied with the general quality of learning. After comparing international doctoral students' experiences with various aspects of university support, the results further reveal that English-speaking international doctoral students were dissatisfied with access to laboratory equipment, software for working on a dissertation, and library services the most. The article advocates that universities provide and improve their support systems, especially by making laboratory equipment, software for working on dissertations, and library services more accessible to English-speaking international doctoral students during this pandemic, to give them a positive learning experience.