Challenges and Opportunities of Education Reforms: the case of Russia Dr. Yaroslav Kuzminov, Rector

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Challenges and Opportunities of Education
Reforms the case of Russia  Dr. Yaroslav
Kuzminov, Rector State University Higher
School of Economics MoscowRussia
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Challenges and Opportunities of Education
Reforms the case of Russia(Presentation
content)

• I Challenges facing Tertiary Education System in
  Russia
• II Opportunities
• Development scenarios (inertia-based and reform
  based) for Russian education up to 2010
• III Institutional level example the SU-HSEs
  Quality Strategy

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Main Challenges facing Tertiary Education in
Russia

• Systemic distortion
• Inadequate Financing
• Distorted demand motivations
• Inequality of opportunities in education
• Declining research activities of universities

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Systemic distortion

• The system is closed to external influences
  maintaining the Soviet tradition of training
  specialists of narrow qualifications in higher
  education.
• The tradition existed in a situation of
  100-percent government contract for specialists
  education, with a majority of graduates being
  committed to work for a three years period in a
  job specified by the government.
• In the modern market environment when graduates
  have to look for a job which is no longer there
  for them, it will be often impossible to find an
  employment matching specific and sometimes
  outdated qualifications.

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Inadequate Financing Expenditures on education
per one pupil (student) (in thousands of US
dollars on the parity purchasing power of the
national currencies).
Canada
USA
France
UK
Russia
Including family expenses
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Distorted demand motivations Why do Russians
choose higher education?

• Alternative costs of continuing education are
  relatively low.
• Ineffectiveness of alternative paths such as
  vocational school employment technical college
  university employment, etc.
• Military conscription.
• Higher education becoming the necessary element
  of social success for the majority of the
  population as a result of the above.

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Distorted demand motivations

• Aims of obtaining higher education.

To make more money To know more, to obtain
special knowledge To occupy a higher social
status To have an interesting job To develop
comprehensive intellectual potential To enjoy
peoples respect It is common To avoid army
service To spend youth enjoyably Do not think it
necessary to get higher education Have nothing to
say
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Distorted demand motivations Higher education
deformation of choice

• More than 60 of HEI students expect to get
  GENERAL HIGHER EDUCATION.
• More than 20 of HEI students agree to get just A
  TITLE (not knowledge and skills) of HEI graduate.

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Distorted demand motivations Correlation between
the number of graduates and demand for them
without account for specific qualifications

• Shares of graduates from different levels of
  education system
• 45 -- HEIs.
• 15 -- Technical Colleges.
• 30 -- Vocational Schools.
• 10 -- General and compulsory schools.

• Demands of the labor market
• 30 -- HEIs.
• 25 -- Technical Colleges
• 35 -- Vocational Schools
• 10 -- no qualification.

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Inequality of opportunities in education Family
expenses on education areas of ineffectiveness

• Funds reaching the education system (white
  flows)
• Official tuition fees
• Repairs, security, stationery, books, equipment,
  photocopying.
• Official extra-curricula classes
• Official fee for tutoring for entrance exams to
  the next education stage
• Mock tests
• Paid entrance exams, paid assistance with
  documentation and medical commission
• Sight-seeing tours, hiking tours, holiday events
• Donations to school and class funds
• Organized catering
• Hostel rent

• Funds not reaching education system (shadow
  flows)
• Remuneration to private tutors
• Bribes, gifts, unofficial payments for special
  preferences, scores, enrollment in a particular
  institution, etc.
• Payments to external people for writing course
  papers and diploma projects
• Private accommodation
• Other types of expenses

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Inequality of opportunities in education
Ineffective management of HEIs

• Federal budget financing of HEIs is not
  performance based
• Consumers of education are not informed about
  comparative quality of educational programs.
  These assessments are simply not carried out
• The HE entry system does not guarantee the
  selection of the most talented individuals
• Equity barriers as a result of restrictions
• Forced acquisition of money at the expense of
  acquisition of talent.
• Resistance to transparency and reforms of the
  entry system

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Declining research activities of universities

• Universities research is the basis of
  innovational potential for social and economic
  development

• 80 of higher education curricular is not based
  on researches conducted within given institution.
  
• Financing of institutions
• R D amounts to 10 a month per professor.
• Organizational structure gap between science and
  education.

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Basic conclusions

• Russian people are strongly oriented towards
  obtaining higher education and are ready to pay
  considerable sums of money for that purpose.
• The structure of education does not correspond to
  the requirements of the labor market. The
  phenomenon of the general higher education
  disguised as professional education becomes
  increasingly apparent.
• There is no more truly free of fees education in
  Russia. Only in primary professional education
  the share of family expenses can be regarded as
  not significant.
• Shadow (ineffectual) expenses make up to a half
  of family expenses.
• The majority of those employed in education have
  unreasonably low incomes even with account of
  additional and unofficial incomes. This creates
  favorable conditions for the spread of
  corruption.
• On the whole educational institutions display
  rather high level of market adaptability, quickly
  filling in any obvious market niche.
• Managers of education institutions are oriented
  towards a constant growth of solvent demand for
  education and are not interested in taking
  measures to reduce ineffectual education
  programs.

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Inertia-based and Reform-based Development
Scenarios for Russian education up to 2010
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Development scenarios In view of the above
problems, the education system in Russia should
be reformed to achieve the following objectives

• Focusing the education system on social and
  economic needs of society
• Rebuilding the innovation potential of
  universities
• Ensuring minimum financing required to reproduce
  and upgrade curricula
• Encouraging teachers to carry out research.

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Development scenarios Basic prerequisites for
the forecast

• High rate of economic growth (about 7).
• Maintaining of the consolidated budget
  expenditures on education remain at the level of
  3.8 of the GDP.
• Maintaining the structure of the education
  expenditures of the consolidated budget.
• Growth of family expenses on education per
  student at the same rate as the family income.
  Continuing tendency for forestalling growth of
  the family income in relation to the GDP.
• Maintaining the current studentship structure by
  the age group.

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Inertia-based development scenario Correlation
between the number of graduates and demand
without account of definite qualifications in
2010

• Graduation per education system
• 60 -- higher education.
• 13 -- technical colleges.
• 18 -- vocational schools.
• 9 -- no specific qualifications.

• Requirements of the labor market
• 35 -- higher education.
• 30 -- technical colleges.
• 27 -- vocational schools.
• 8 -- unqualified labor.

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Reform-based development scenario Correlation
between the number of graduates and demand in
2010

• Graduation per education system
• 6.5 -- Masters degree
• 6.5 -- MBA
• 21 -- Specialists with higher professional
  education
• 21 -- Bachelors in academic fields
• 13 -- Bachelors in engineering
• 23 -- executive qualifications
• 9 -- no specific qualifications

• Requirements of the labor market
• 4-6 -- Masters degrees (analysts, researchers)
• 5 -- MBA (business managers)
• 20 -- specialists-practitioners with high
  qualifications
• 20-30 -- open qualifications
• 20-30 -- managers and executives with high
  qualifications
• 20-30 -- executive qualifications
• 10 -- unqualified labor

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Development scenarios State budget and family
expenditures per student
Forecast for 2010
2010 inertial
2010 reformation
2003
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Development scenarios Financing system for
higher education

• A proposed one
• Federal budget financing on the basis of results
  of the Unified National Test and Olympiads.
• Competitive financing and co-financing within the
  framework of the target federal programs.
• Social and academic scholarships from the federal
  budget.
• Contract payments for education services
  (including education loans).
• Additional state investments for cost consuming
  education programs (engineering, natural
  sciences, medicine.)
• Subsidies and subventions to train specialists
  for the state and municipal institutions.
• Medium-term programs of developing educational
  institutions.

• An acting one
• Budget funding of educational institutions.
• Competitive financing within the framework of
  targeted federal programs.
• Social and academic scholarships from the federal
  budget.
• Contract payments for education services.

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Development scenarios Development programs for
educational institutions

• Medium-term development programs
• Research activity.
• Educational programs.
• Marketing and financing.
• Personnel.
• Material and technical infrastructure.
• Informational infrastructure.
• Grant approach to the distribution of resources,
  mutual liabilities and the responsibilities of
  the grant-givers and grant-receivers.
• This approach may be implemented after
  appropriate amendments to the Budget Code of the
  Russian Federation are made.

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Development scenarios The structure of the
higher and technical college education
years
Current model
New model
9
8
7
6
5
4
3
2
1
Technical college
Engineering Bachelor program
Specialists
Bachelors degree
Bachelors degree
Specialists
Masters degree
Masters degree
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Development scenarios Integration of science
and education

• Development of effective management of researches
• Research universities.
• Permanently-based university chairs at research
  institutes and permanently-based laboratories of
  research institutes at higher education
  institutions.
• Centers of excellence.
• Science and education centers.
• Increasing the effectiveness of budget spending
• Restructuring the science budget in favor of
  project and grant financing.
• Articulation of priorities
• Long-term financing of projects.
• Transition to large-scale complex projects.
• Introducing the assessment of the process and
  projects outcomes.

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Development scenarios Integration of science
and education

• Eliminating of administrative and legal barriers
• No state accreditation for academic institutions
• Legal recognition of state contracts on RD
  projects as income from commercial activities.
• Wages and social guarantees for academic staff of
  higher educational institutions.
• Attracting and retaining talented young people in
  science and education
• Enhancing prestige.
• Considerable 5-years grants for young scientists.
  
• Adequate research equipment.
• Supporting the commercialization of research and
  development projects
• Intellectual property rights transfer
  institutions.
• Support for small startup firms and centers for
  technology transfer.
• Assistance in the export of scientific research
  and education services.

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Development scenarios Governmental Individual
Financial Obligations (GIFO)

• are based on the principle funding depends on
  the students performance
• provide shared responsibility for education
• cover expenses of educational institutions for
  maintaining the educational process (up to 77 of
  the existing budget financing.)
• pursue the state policy of influencing the HR
  capacity building in higher education
  institutions.
• stimulate the higher education institutions to
  train students in socially significant and
  strategically required professions.
• are combined with additional state subsidies for
  cost consuming education programs (engineering
  and natural sciences coefficient 1.2 medicine
  coefficient 1.35.)
• are accompanied by additional state investments
  into the leading universities.

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Conclusions

• Reform-based scenario provides
• Transition to multilevel structure of higher
  education results in greater compliance of
  graduates structures to the labor marker needs
• Introduction of a flexible and diversified
  financing mechanisms ensures creation of a higher
  education system adequate to challenges of the
  new economy

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Institutional level example the SU-HSEs Quality
Strategy

• www.hse.ru

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HSE mission in the professional community

• Quality improvement and dissemination of
  international standards in education programs.

• Retraining teachers and professors and
  advancement of social and economic sciences.

Retraining programs
Excellence centers

• Training of professionals for state
  administration and business.

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Addressing Financing and Governance Problems in
the SU-HSEs Quality Strategy Concept of the
university development provides for a number of
measures aimed at achieving financial
sustainability

• -  attracting additional federal budget funds
  under the SU-HSE Development Programme
• -  interaction with the business community to
  finance specific academic and research projects
• - designing and introduction of a system of
  incentives for employees to seek funds

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Institutional level example the SU-HSEs Quality
Strategy Some other measures aimed at
achieving financial sustainability

• creation of a system of ongoing monitoring and
  long-term forecasting of the market for
  educational services maintaining a balance
  between increase in enrolment of
  students/postgraduates and price increase with
  account of the demand for high-quality education
• -   expanding enrolment of students to continuous
  professional education programmes
• -   introducing a costs monitoring system of
  continuous education programmes for timely
  decision-making on their viability, and enhancing
  control over administrative costs
• -  accumulating extrabudgetary and development
  funds to compensate for market-induced
  fluctuations in revenues.

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Institutional level example the SU-HSEs Quality
Strategy A new stage of development will also
require changes to the organisational structure
and managing system of the university, including

• -   attraction and retaining of professional
  managers in functional positions while
  maintaining the key (policy-making) managerial
  positions in the hands of the academic community
• -  enhancement of the role of academic councils,
  Collegium of Professors and student governments
• -   expanding of the autonomy of departments
  while assigning them a considerable number of
  financial, economic and organisational functions,
  and enhancing responsibility for decision-making.

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success of any programme depends on dedication
and engagement of all stakeholders, desire and
ability of everyone to lead changes in his or her
area of responsibility. We know our community
and we are confident of success .

• Thank you for your attention