Russian-American MBA partnerships: the Cal State East Bay experience

Review of Business Research, Jan, 2008 by Gary Wishniewsky

10.5. Extra Credit

With over twenty years teaching in the American university system and after twelve years teaching in Moscow, I've observed an interesting difference in educational philosophy and practice between the two systems. This personal experience has been supplemented by numerous conversations with Russian students. Shekshnia (1992) also noted the characteristics of American behavior:

"In particular, there is the individualism of Americans, something that is totally uncharacteristic of our culture, a trait that is manifested literally in everything--behavior in classes, communication, daily life, and so on. Reliance on one's own powers, the basic motto in American life, is very hard for people who have been brought up in a society that has long and firmly established collectivist traditions."

Generalizing liberally, one could say that the Russian educational process is based on "socialism" and student behaviors of collectivism. That is, according to students, the behavioral focus is on making sure that your "group," whether it be a circle of friends or an entire class, make it through an academic program to graduation successfully. Yet at the same time, there is room for individualism when a student is deficient on an assignment or in a course. According to Russian students, it is possible to request and receive an individual extra credit assignment to improve one's grade, even though this opportunity is not made available to all students in the class.

Generalizing again, one could say that the American educational process is based on "individualism" and student behaviors of striving to be the best, to earn the highest GPA, to be first in the graduating class. For after all, it's the student with the highest GPA, class ranking, and test scores, who gets the scholarships, the graduate fellowships, and the best job offers. Yet there is also a practice of socialism and collectivism in American education. That is, if one deficient student requests an extra credit opportunity to raise their grade, generally speaking the practice of most educators is to consider that If one student gets an extra credit opportunity, all students must get same opportunity. This poses an interesting challenge for American faculty teaching in Moscow who are approached by Russian students for the individual extra credit assignment.

10. 6. Punctuality

The expectation of the American professor arriving to his or her classroom is that students will be punctual. Students are expected to know their commute time from dorm, home or office, plan their Starbucks stopover accordingly, and be on time for class. In general Russian students have good intentions, plan to arrive in class on time, but are often side-tracked by traffic, weather, Metro delays, lack of parking, buffet lines, coat check lines, random traffic police stops, or unexpected business meetings. Lack of adequate advance planning is another contributing factor, as is the lack of some company support for MBA program participation manifested in a reluctance to let employees leave the office early.