This article studies the salience of internal university stakeholders in collaborative degree programmes from the perspective of the sustainability of such programmes. In terms of academics and administrators involved in Finnish-Russian collaborative degrees, the article explores what contributes to their salience, and their effects on the implementation of internationalisation policies at individual, partnership and programme levels. In order to deepen understanding of collaborative degree sustainability as a particular case of internationalisation activity, the article addresses the attributes of the stakeholders' salience as revealed during their interplay in Finnish-Russian double degree partnerships. Based on this analysis, the article highlights why the stakeholders in Finnish and Russian universities attribute their respective salience differently, identifies these differences, and assesses their impact on double degree sustainability.