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The Evolution of Russian Higher Education: From Soviet Era to Present Challenges

Explore the key features of Soviet higher education, the reforms during perestroika, and the development of Russian higher education from 1991 to the present. Discover how Russian higher education has evolved and the challenges it currently faces.

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The Evolution of Russian Higher Education: From Soviet Era to Present Challenges

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  1. The end(ing) of an era? From Soviet to Russian higher education Dr Georgy Petrov Kingston University London Getty Montage

  2. Outline • Key features of Soviet higher education • Soviet higher education under perestroika • Russian higher education reform between 1991 and 2000 • Russian higher education beyond 2000

  3. Source: http://www.lib.utexas.edu/maps/commonwealth/soviet_union_admin_1974.jpg

  4. Soviet HE: key features • Centralised administration and control • Unitary state funding • Standardised and uniform training and curricula

  5. The 1980s Revolution? • Source: https://s3.amazonaws.com/libapps/customers/1557/images/USSRnations.jpghttp://nnm.me/blogs/ashkaa777/perestroyka-prichiny-posledstviya/

  6. HE Reform Agenda under Perestroika • Improve governance and administration at the central level • Enhance the rights of HEIs in personnel policy, academic and research matters • Introduce market-type elements in HE-industry relationships (co-funding) • Increase vocationalism and improve the ways of teaching Marxist-Leninist ideological disciplines • Subject all HEIs to quality assurance and accreditation procedures and all academics to internal evaluation

  7. ‘Up to this moment, progress has been limited to changes of small importance. There is a discernible gap between the present state of […] HE and the atmosphere of dynamism that is increasingly enveloping the country. The people sense this and are sounding the alarm. The population has become convinced that HE reform is bogged down in numerous problems’ (Ligachyov, 1988:1)

  8. Radical Change? • All-Union Congress of Educationalists (1988) • Student-centred education; • Democratisation; • Decentralisation; • Emphasis on the humanities; • De-ideologisation. • Emergence of non-formal organisations and groups

  9. From Soviet to Russian HE • Source: https://s3.amazonaws.com/libapps/customers/1557/images/USSRnations.jpgand http://www.maps-of-europe.net/maps/maps-of-russia/administrative-map-of-russia.jpg

  10. Development of Russian HE Policy, 1991-2000 • The 1992 Law on Education • The 1992 Federal HE Reform Programme • The 1993 Russian Constitution • By 1993, 73 out of 89 regions of Russia developed their own HE reform programmes • The 1996 Law on Higher Education • The 1997 Federal HE Reform Programme

  11. Russian HE Survival and Expansion 1991 2000 • Public HEIs • 519 HEIs • 2.8 mln. students • Private HEIs • None • Public HEIs • 607HEIs • 4.3 mln. students • Private HEIs • 358 HEIs • 470,000 students SCS (2001)

  12. HE Finance: 1991-2000 • Federal government to allocate no less than 3% of the federal budget on HE in the form of block grants • In reality, less than 2% was allocated between 1991-2000 • Only ‘protected budget items’ could be guaranteed • Only 70% of the ‘protected budget items’ were paid and were often paid very late • Public HEIs started to admit fee-paying students and generate income through entrepreneurial activities

  13. Academic matters: 1991-2000 • Changing the degree structure • Development and introduction of ‘state standards’ for HE (80% / 20%) • General requirements • Lists of fields of study and specialisms • Requirements for the minimum content • Quality assurance procedures (input based) • Creation of new academic units, courses and programmes

  14. Russian HE beyond 2000 • The 2000 National Doctrine of Education • The 2001 Modernisation of Russian Education programme • National Priority Project for Education (2005) • 2006-2010 Federal Programme for the Development of Education • Project 5-100 (2013) • Source: http://www.trbimg.com/img-531e3b37/turbine/la-oe-gessen-putin-russia-ukraine-20140311

  15. Modernisation of Russian HE • Since 2000 the increase in the level of federal funding for HE, but stricter financial controls • New university admission procedure (Unified State Examination) • Joining the Bologna Process in 2003 • Revised more outcome-based ‘State standards’ (50% for Bachelor programmes, and 75% for Masters programmes) • More streamlined institutional assessment • Closing and merging HEIs • Private HEIs now have access to public funds • Greater differentiation between HEIs (Federal, National Research, Innovative Universities)

  16. Current challenges • Threat of economic and financial crisis • Making Russia less dependent on natural resources and building an innovative, knowledge-based economy • Russia’s academic system still informed by outdated Soviet thinking • Lack of academic mobility, ‘academic inbreeding’ • Enhancing productivity and competitiveness of Russian HE • A fundamental change of culture takes a long time…

  17. MANY THANKS... E-mail: g.petrov@kingston.ac.uk

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