Demographic policies in universities: 
international experience of corporate solutions 
in the context of national strategies

The purpose of the study is to examine the efforts of universities in Anglo–Saxon countries to support student parents in the context of national pro-natalist strategies. This study focuses on the motivations, approaches, and outcomes of corporate demographic policies in foreign — specifically Anglo-Saxon — countries. These policies are examined in relation to national pronatalist models. This is a review article. The author uses discourse analysis to structure and interpret scholarly publications and expert reports by American, British, Australian, and Canadian researchers who have analyzed the situation of student parents in their respective countries, as well as university and national policies concerning this category of students. A comparative approach is employed throughout the study. The author considers international experience in the context of the development in Russia of a new type of university corporate demographic policy — one that envisages the involvement of universities in the implementation of a national policy. The publications reviewed are generally based on empirical data obtained through sociological instruments (surveys, focus groups, in-depth interviews). These instruments are used to identify the social problems of student parents, as well as to determine the nature and extent of the impact of university and/or national demographic policies on this category of students. In the countries analyzed, university efforts to support student parents appear fragmented and do not form part of, or serve as an extension of, their national demographic policy. Universities that support student-parents are motivated by commercial considerations consistent with the idea of providing equal educational opportunities to all categories of students. These corporate policies are not aimed at supporting student families or at reversing the trend toward an increasing maternal age at first birth. The practical significance of this study is in the clarification of the prospects of an inertial scenario for Russia, according to which the only driver for the adoption of support measures by universities is commercial motives: to reduce dropout rates among students with children. Also of practical utility is a summary of the challenges faced by student parents. These challenges appear to be, to some extent, universal, and addressing (or mitigating) them constitutes an important objective of demographic policy.