Reforming the existing universities or building new ones

Overview of the presentation Efforts to reform Russian universities Higher School of Economics – success story

Reform efforts (1) Late 80-th – early 90 th –More autonomy, less ideology –Dual degree system –Private sector –Deterioration of culture –Break up with the Academy of Science and industry –Impact: no real changes

Reform efforts (2) 1992 – the establishment of new universities (Higher School of Economics, Russian State Humanitarian University) Entrepreneurial universities (1993) World Bank Education Innovation Loan (1995) Creation of islands of innovations

Modernization ( ) Bologna process National university entrance exam Support to institutional innovations Superficial adaptation of dual system Further decline of HE research sector

New reform ( ) Generous support for HEIs innovation programs ($2 bln) Establishment of Federal universities by merging existing universities Flexible educational standards Push for quality control

Low impact (1)

Low impact (2)

Reasons for low impact Concentration on infrastructure improvement Lack of systemic international cooperation Persistent institutional gap between education and research Lack of prioritization Insufficient autonomy and flexibility

Higher School of Economics – child of perestroika Established by the last decree of Gaidar’s government in 1992 Average age of the leadership team in 1992 – 33 Started with 200 students

11 Overall enrollment, 2007/2008 academic year– 16732, incl. Moscow – 9227 Nizhny Novgorod branch – 3066 Perm branch – 2243 Saint Petersburg branch – 2196 Admission to regular undergraduate programmes for 2007/2008 academic year – 2088 (9,8% increase as compared with 2006/2007 admission) HSE today

12 Academic programs: enrollment dynamics, student numbers per year

HSE as an all-Russia university 13 Admission: geographical expansion (2007)

Special challenges in the beginning Building a team sharing a common vision Inadequate infrastructure Too many developments at a time Lack of local expertise Weak brand nationally and internationally

Responses - governance Diverse governance structure to give voices to those with the vision (international academic council, senate, board, president, rector, academic advisor, different funds) Transparency and anti-corruption measures Internal competitive funds

Responses – capacity building and staff policy Joint program development with premier Western universities (LSE, Sorbonne, Erasmus) Teacher training abroad Buying specialists in the international market International academic supervision Incentives for academic performance

Responses – students and pedagogy Transparent entrance exams High expectations Regular control of learning achievements Feedback system Open learning resources

Responses - internationalization Main avenue – learning Importing programs (joint program with LSE – part of the external program of UOL) Localization of programs by joint teams Networking (conferences, seminars)

HSE – new challenges Today the HSE is the best Russian university in the area of social and economic sciences Tomorrow – it is to become globally competitive New strategy: –Prioritization - centers of excellence –Addressing global agenda –Addressing national development agenda –Increasing a share of graduate studies –Importing lacking competencies