International Framework, National Legal Discourse on Educational Rights and Students’ Perceptions: Comparative analysis in Russia and France

Abstract

The research aims to study the features of the French and Russian laws of education, to identify the common and distinctive factors in two types of discourse and the concept of human rights of the higher education institution students, as well as to determine the position of the student community of both countries on this issue. The research sample includes academic papers on the topic under study, legislative texts in the field of educational laws of Russia and France, other official data on French and Russian educational systems, and evidence of Russian and French students on their perception of rights within education field. The comparative nature and the selection of particular countries are due to practical purposes as Russian Higher Education Institutions in General and RUDN University in particular has long standing collaboration with their French partners. The methodology integrated inductive, comparative, and generalizing techniques, thematic analysis through manual coding, and distributional analysis with regard to text layout and key semantic concepts verbal representation.  The research methodology also included a survey through respondents’ written replies to questionnaire and statistical data processing techniques. The findings provide the evidence that there is an undoubted similarity of the educational systems of both countries, the identity of the thematic blocks on human rights recorded in the national educational laws, as well as the correlation with the text of the Declaration of Human Rights. The data also revealed some specifics with regard to both systems and legislation and differences in Russian and French students’ perceptions of their rights. The research results can be used as the recommendations to advance Charters of higher educational intuitions in line with legislation and student expectations. The shaped methodology can be applied to enhance studies of discourse on/of human rights concept and its implementation.