RUSSIA: Modernising the higher education system

On 24 August, at a meeting of the Russian Rectors' Union, Prime Minister Vladimir Putin called for the urgent modernisation of Russia's higher education system. In particular, Putin proposed to allocate RUB70 billion (US$2.4 billion) to support higher education, especially federal and national research universities, to promote their role in economic and regional growth, and launched a RUB12 billion project to attract top international specialists to universities. What are the implications for Russian higher education?

The calls for the modernisation of higher education are not especially new. During the 1980s, 1990s and 2000s higher education was lauded by the government as a source of innovation, economic growth and regional development.

But its funding was heavily dependent on the economic situation. During the severe recession of the 1990s, higher education spending as a proportion of gross domestic product (GDP) fell from 1.2% to 0.4% between 1992 and 1998, alongside market-orientated reforms and mass expansion in student enrolment.

Conversely, in the 2000s modernisation of higher education became prominent through reform initiatives such as the "Conception for Modernisation of Russian Education for the Period up to 2010" and the "National Priority Project: Education" (NPPE). These reforms took place during a phase of rapid and sustained economic growth averaging 7% per annum between 2000 and 2008.

Although the global financial crisis has slowed GDP growth in Russia, it is still outperforming other developed countries. If Russia manages to weather the crisis, the outlook for implementing the higher education plans is promising.

Financial resources have been a long-standing concern for Russian higher education. At a time when education is more global than ever, Russia's spending on education is still below Western levels.

In 2008-09 while Russia's GDP by purchasing power parity was about a fifth of that of the US, Russia was spending around 16% of per capita GDP per student enrolled in higher education, compared to US spending of around 25%.

Given the financial pressures facing the Russian higher education sector, an extra RUB82 billion investment through the two projects (0.001% of 2010 GDP) is a welcome development.

Internationalisation of higher education

The internationalisation of higher education has become a pressing issue over the past two decades. Russian universities do not feature prominently in global university rankings such as that of Times Higher Education, which are influential in contributing to global perceptions of which universities are 'world-class' and which are not.

Low numbers of publications in (predominantly English language) top-rated international journals is also a cause for concern. Russia's average annual number of publications has remained almost unchanged since the early 1980s, whereas Brazil and India have shot up rapidly.

Russian higher education has been engaging with internationalisation and financing. For example, Russia is participating in the Bologna process of educational comparability and compatibility through adopting an Anglo-American model of higher education, and working together with international researchers, among other reforms.

The new proposals are advances in the same vein, with the aim of improving economic performance, developing scientific and technical expertise and building the reputation of Russia's universities at the global level.

Creating federal and national research universities and contributing to their development is part of Russia's strategy to develop 'world-class' institutions with a good international reputation.

Seven federal universities were created within the NPPE, based on the amalgamation and restructuring of existing higher education institutions in the seven federal districts, with the aim of developing links between universities and their regional economies.

Federal universities are expected to provide effective teaching, and to concentrate research in particular priority areas identified as strategically important for the region.

National research university (NRU) status was conceived in 2008, within the higher education modernisation framework, and was awarded to two institutions by presidential decree. In 2009-10, 27 other universities won NRU status through a competition involving their proposed development programmes.

Although the national research universities are spread throughout Russia, they are concentrated in Moscow and St Petersburg. Their role is a mix of research production (both fundamental and applied) and its marketisation, as well as intensive education and training of high quality postgraduate personnel.

The proposal to support federal and national research universities to promote their role in economic and regional growth could have a positive effect by strengthening the research backbone of Russia's universities and raising their international profile, en-route to developing 'world-class' institutions.

The main challenges that will have to be considered are the low mobility of academic staff, high levels of regional inequality and the organisation of the recently-created federal universities.

In Russia, internal mobility is partly restricted by the bureaucracy and residential permit requirements for living and working. High variation between regional GDP and infrastructure tends to promote an outflow from poor regions to richer ones.

It is also difficult to assess the extent to which federal universities have fulfilled their aims, as they have only existed for a short period of time. Integration of the administrative apparatus, course content and delivery, student mobility and academic research output, will have to be taken into consideration.

Despite the above challenges, highlighting these 36 selected federal and national universities as priority recipients of allocated financing would concentrate resources, make a useful contribution to these universities and enhance their role in regional and economic development.

Inviting foreign experts to work in Russia's universities is another way in which the country is dealing with the internationalisation of higher education.

Although the immediate effects of this plan would be the outputs of various cutting-edge research projects, for the foreign experts to make a lasting contribution to the higher education system they should work together with existing staff, share ideas about research and teaching and their experiences of working in Western universities.

It would be a good idea to develop exchange programmes so that more Russian experts teach at foreign institutions and learn from their own experiences.

But it is important to address the issues of staff wages and faculty composition in the wider higher education system.

Historically, in the Soviet Union and in Russia, wages for workers in education were below the national average, although university staff were paid more than school teachers. Higher education wages were about 80% of the national average from 1985 to 2001, but have since then improved to be roughly equal to it towards the late 2000s.

Russia also has a problem of an ageing faculty, with little room for young researchers to move up the career ladder. Together with low wages and limited job prospects, it is not surprising that Russia experienced a large degree of brain drain of academics during the 1990s and that there is a perception of a lack of dynamism in the higher education system.

If implemented well, international participation in higher education at the expert level could revive that dynamism, and help Russian universities develop their research and teaching practices.

Conclusions

While the calls for the 'urgent modernisation' of Russian higher education are not new, the key question is whether recent reforms will have a positive impact on the sector in the current economic and social climate.

Russia has been striving to make up the loss in higher education that occurred during the severe recession during the post-Soviet transition period. Although a number of initiatives have been implemented, such as the creation of federal universities and national research universities, expenditure on education as a percentage of GDP has not changed considerably since 2005 and remains below the OECD average.

But today, international pressures are contributing to the urgency of the need for reforms.

Concentrating finance on developing flagship universities could alleviate regional higher education inequalities and provide resources to strategic research initiatives, as well as setting them on the road to becoming internationally prominent institutions.

Similarly, by inviting international specialists to its universities, Russia will be able to not only boost its research profile but also engage further in the internationalisation of higher education.

However, attention should be paid to the development of other, non-status universities and to the quality of working conditions for teaching and research staff in the higher education system.

Whether the proposed plans for Russian higher education will turn into reality will depend on the implementation of these reforms and on Russia's economic situation. The outlook seems positive.

* Daria Luchinskaya did her MPhil on Russian higher education reforms at the University of Oxford and is now undertaking a PhD at the University of Warwick's Institute for Employment Research.