Publications

Human capital is produced primarily by the education system. Today it is the most important factor in the development of economy and society. By investing in human capital, economic growth rates above the average world-level can be achieved, which is necessary in order to strengthen Russia’s positions in the context of increasing global competition. The report proposes 12 projects, aiming not only for the development of education, but for making a decisive contribution to the “breakthrough” of the country in economic, social and technological development by activating the creative potential of the Russian population as a whole and self-realization of each individual. The ultimate result of all the proposed 12 solutions will be a steady increase in the quality of life of the Russian people.

Despite the differences in political, social, economic, and cultural histories, Brazil, Russia, India, and China share the common characteristics. The BRIC countries are very large in terms of population, territory, and economy. Each country has great economic and political influence in the regions, as well as dominance in education sphere (Altbach et al. 2013). They are emerging markets as their economies have been rapidly growing for the last decades while remaining lower middle income or upper middle income countries (World Bank 2016). The experience of these countries is critical for understanding the higher education system dynamics in large countries with limited resources.

Higher Education in Federal Countries: A Comparative Study is a unique study of higher education in nine federal countries—the United States, Canada, Australia, Germany, Mexico, Brazil, Russia, China and India. In this book, leading international scholars discuss the role of federalism and how it shapes higher education in major nation-state actors on the world stage. The editors develop an overarching comparative analysis of the dynamics of central and regional power in higher education, and the national case studies explain how each federal and federal-like higher education system has evolved and how it functions in what are highly varied contexts.  

The book makes a major contribution to higher education studies and defines a new field of comparative analysis. It also provides important insights into comparative governance and the study of federalism and federal arrangements, with their particular historical, political, legal and economic dimensions.

Russia (Russian Federation) has the largest territory in the world and extends over 11 time zones. As a federal state, Russia has 85 regions. Over 146 million people (FSSS 2016) are unevenly distributed throughout the country. About 77% of the population lives in the more urbanized European part of the country, whereas the Asian part of the country occupies more than 76% of the total area. The youth population is declining. Although there are around 180 different ethnic groups in Russia, most of the populations (78%) are ethnic Russians (Statdata 2017).

The Russian economy is based heavily on natural resources. As of 2015, it was the 13th largest economy in the world by nominal GDP (World Bank 2017a) and the sixth largest by purchasing power parity (World Bank 2017b).

The Constitution of the Russian Federation guarantees the right to free higher education on a competitive basis for those obtaining it for the first time. General and vocational education is free and available to all.

The social and economic landscape has been rapidly changing in Russia during the last quarter of a century. After the collapse of the USSR in 1991, Russia experienced many changes, including: • The movement to an electoral democracy and a market economy • The rejection of a planned human resources policy relating to the main economic sectors • The decline or elimination of a number of key industries (OECD 2007)

The chapter examines how the Russian federal government has been driving international student recruitment with attempts to force the modernization of higher education (HE) and promote soft power interests. We provide an overview of Soviet policies related to international student mobility, scrutinize the cyclic and multi-rational educational transformation that has been taking place since the 1990s, and reflect on the implications for the future. We explain the rationale of HE internationalization in contemporary Russia and show that the government’s reforms have focused on the political rationale inherited from Soviet times, combined with the heavy-handed modernization policy to fit in the context of global competition. This curious combination encourages higher education institutions to fixate on meeting government-led performance indicators, preserving the current structure of student mobility concentrated in a few institutions, and creating constraints for the development of academic excellence in Russian HE.

This Appendix consists of the statistical data that is considered to be the most important for the study of Soviet and Post-Soviet higher education. Here we talk about general trends and aggregate numbers that provide a broad view on higher education changes. The Appendix contains three parts. The first part includes data on higher education in Russian empire (until 1917). Second part covers Soviet period (1917–1991): statistics on higher education institutions (HEIs), numbers of students by field of education, forms of studies and across the USSR Republics as well as age cohort participation in the Republics. The third part consists of post-Soviet changes of HEIs in state and non-state sector, student body, privatisation of costs (fee-paying students) and participation in higher education. The Appendix includes not only tables but also brief comments on data sources, major points that should be considered for data analysis and descriptions of key facts.

We hope that this study will make one more step in the gradual movement towards opening up opportunities for research on the post-Soviet space built on transparent data and keen academic interest. The demand for a thorough grasp of post-Soviet higher education transformations in each former Soviet Republic seemed natural at the start. Basically, we assumed that national higher education systems reflect changes in societies and the economic and political environment. The institutional landscape of higher education, the structure of the system and the set of ‘rules of the game’ can tell us a great deal about the society in which they are rooted.

This study is aimed at identifying contemporary problems of socio-economic and demographic development of the rural population in one of the regions of Russia. The high economic potential of rural areas of the Republic of Tatarstan is revealed in the work. The rural population in Tatarstan is decreasing quite rapidly, and the potential of rural areas is not always properly used. In this study, the example of the Republic of Tatarstan shows how the socio-economic development of a region depends on demographic parameters. All this makes relevant the research aimed at the study and analysis of the reasons for the reduction of the rural population. The study of demographic processes in Tatarstan, using geographic and demographic features at the grass-root territorial level, made it possible to identify stable zones which composition included several regions of administrative regions differing in the course of their demographic processes, what would allow this experience to be used in other territories. The analysis and elaboration at the level of an individual constituent entity made it possible to identify regional features and develop practical recommendations for the transition to regional sustainable development. For a better disclosure of the topic under study, the comparative data of urban and rural populations are used in many ways. 

Abstract: The paper analyses the role of vocational education in formation of professional trajectories of Russian employed population during the period 2005-2015. Based on longitudinal data we explore the differences between career paths of workers that had the experience of vocational training and workers without such experience. We contribute the debate regarding vocational training and its role in innovation and economic development utilizing methodology of sequence analysis and Markov chains with long memory (mixture transition distribution models (MTD)). MTD models suggest the analysis of categorical data sequences instead of quantitative data that is standard for this kind of research. Such methodological approach allows not only estimating casual effects of participation in vocational education programs on the wage level, but exploring how vocational training influences the whole career path. Our findings suggest that those workers who participate in vocational training have lower probability of different negative events in their careers including job loss. Moreover, mixture transitions distribution models suggest that for such workers the current career status determined by longer history of previous career events than for those employees that had not any experience of participation in vocational education programs. These results give the evidence that vocational education is important factor of success on the labour market, providing greater flexibility of career paths that is crucial in innovation development of the labour market and economy as a whole. Findings of the study also have important policy implications. Importance of vocational training on individual level suggests that investment in vocational education on societal level will bring positive returns. This kind of education provides the flexibility of individuals on the labour market, through vocational training workers obtain new skills and knowledge that allows them utilizing new technologies and innovations. Development of vocational education may be considered as policy-making instrument that can generate positive economic outcomes.

This research studies the short-term effects of the Russian Excellence Initiative Project 5to100 on participating universities. To trace the effect, we develop a quasi-experimental econometric methodology. A control group of universities comparable to the Project 5to100 universities at the starting point of the program’s implementation was singled out using propensity score matching. Data envelopment analysis was conducted, and the Malmquist productivity index was calculated to trace how and why the efficiency of the “participants” and “non-participants” of the Project 5to100 has changed due to the project. We also investigate the direct impact of the policy on the research productivity of universities, using the average treatment effect, and difference-in-difference approaches. The final step consists of an explanatory analysis of the factors apart from the policy potentially affecting efficiency scores. We find statistically significant positive effects of the policy both on the productivity and on the efficiency of the participating universities.  

In this article authors describe formation of the concept "soft power" and its place in the modern world. Authors come to a conclusion that tourism is that element of "the soft power" which can promote more effective and competent positioning of Russia as benevolent country. Today the tourism industry is a key milestone of applying "the soft power" concept, plunging in particular countries, in particular cultures, in particular national life, the tourist recreates a true picture of the events in the state. Authors note that the Russian Federation needs creation abroad of positive image, for the purpose of applying the "the soft power" concept in the solution of diplomatic questions. In turn, tourism is one of the main methods of the "the soft power" concept and in any a case it is impossible to diminish a tourism role in permission of international issues. Development of the tourism industry promotes not only to increase in a tourist stream and attraction of investments, but also allows creating a positive image of the country and its subjects in the opinion of foreign tourists. Investigating value of the "the soft power" concept, authors came to a conclusion that tourism represents a secret platform for realization of national and public interests on the international scene. 

This paper analyses the link between the efficiency of regional higher education systems and the rates of regional economic development between 2012 and 2015 in Russia. The efficiency scores are calculated at the institutional level using a double-bootstrap data envelopment analysis (DEA) procedure, taking into account the different internal characteristics of universities which may affect their production process, and the scores are then aggregated at the regional level. We formulate a regional economic growth model that considers the efficiency of regional higher education systems as one of the explanatory variables. As an econometric method, we employ a robust GMM estimator. The model also includes spatial interactions between regional economies and between regional higher education systems in neighboring regions. The findings highlight a positive, substantial and statistically significant effect of HEI efficiency on the regional economic growth rate. We also found negative spillover effects indicating that efficient regional higher education systems may extract resources from neighboring regions.

This article is aimed at identifying distinctive features of the educational policy of university mergers—their main stages, types, and declared goals. We analyzed cases of university mergers and acquisitions (M&A) from the 1990s to the present, which allowed us to identify and describe four Russia-specific waves of educational policy. Based on the authors’ classification, basic characteristics are attributed to each wave: Universitization, Federal Universities, Optimization, and Flagship Universities. The grounds for classification include such possible forks as similarity of the academic profiles of institutions of higher education (IHEs), the formal hierarchy of the organizations being merged, remote geographical locations, and, importantly, the body that makes decisions about mergers. The article also introduces such concepts as “mobilization,” “optimization,” and “repositioning,” to describe the basic motives of university reorganization. We also show the prevailing motive behind each of the merger waves. The results of this research can be used in planning potential mergers and evaluating completed university reorganizations.

Mergers are common practice in higher education systems around the world, and merger-related aspects, such as the transformation of organizational and administrative structures, the impact on internal funding allocation mechanisms or changes in academic strategies and profiles, are well researched. Besides the issues of funding after a merger or organizational structure transformation, one of the most common problems is the “human factor.” It includes differences of university cultures in merging universities, protests before the mergers and conflicts afterwards ignited by university staff and especially students. But the role of students in university mergers and their understanding of these processes are hardly investigated at all. So, research is necessary to find better managerial decisions during merger processes and to understand actual students’ interests in contemporary universities overall. The first step is to clarify the most sensitive changes for students during university mergers.

This article is designed to draw attention to such phenomenon as academic diversity of students within universities and specify a research agenda for studying this phenomenon and its relationship with university management. A review of existing literature and statistics on the example of Russia allows for a) identifying the range of possible reasons for the growth of academic diversity in higher education institutions and b) offering basic prerequisites for defining its level. For the first time the article analyses the academic diversity as a contextual variable and the organizational characteristic of higher education institutions, and justifies its significance for university governance and management. Also, the authors provide a range of theoretical framework through which university governance can be analysed in the context of high academic diversity. The continuation of this work will be a more detailed study of practices at such universities. The results of this work can be used to expand the current research agenda in the field of higher education, as well as to analyse and plan the activities of specific universities.

This paper evaluates the rate of educational assortative mating and its impact on income inequality in Russia. We use data from the Russian Longitudinal Monitoring Survey – Higher School of Economics (RLMS-HSE) for 1995–2015. Our findings suggest that the Russian marriage market is characterized by positive assortative mating at all levels of education. It means that marriages occur among individuals with the same level of education more frequently than it would be expected under random matching with respect to education. The level of educational assortative mating has not changed in the last two decades: the observed decline is statistically insignificant. The lack of a strong trend of assortative mating can be explained by substantial heterogeneity in developments across education sub-groups. Assortative mating has been declining over time for university graduates, whereas individuals with low level of education had growing incentives to sort themselves into educationally homogeneous marriages. Changes in assortative mating had little effect on the level of household income inequality. The effect has been increasing over time but still remains below the estimates obtained for developed countries. If marriages were formed randomly across time the counterfactual Gini for couples’ incomes would be lower than the actual one on average by 1,3%. The effect has been stronger and inequality-enhancing at the top of the distribution. At the same time, educational assortative mating had neutral or even equalizing for couples at the bottom of the distribution. Economic shocks were found to amplify the effect of assortative mating on inequality in both parts of the distribution.