ECONOMIC RESEARCH

Problems of Higher School: Inside and Outside the Education System

Ol'ga A. Aleksandrova

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RAR (Research Article Report)

DOI: https://doi.org/10.52180/1999-9836_2023_19_2_1_157_168

EDN: CWEOYO 

AUTHOR

Ol'ga A. Aleksandrova

Institute of Socio-Economic Studies of Population, Federal Center of Theoretical and Applied Sociology, Russian Academy of Sciences, Moscow, Russia

Financial University under the Government of the Russian Federation, Moscow, Russia

e-mail: This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it.  

ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0002-9243-9242

РИНЦ AuthorID: 257224

WoS ReseacherID: В-1306-2017

FOR CITATION

Aleksandrova O.А. Problems of higher school: inside and outside the education system. Living Standards of the Population in the Regions of Russia. 2023. Vol. 19. No 2. P. 157–168. https://doi.org/10.52180/1999-9836_2023_19_2_1_157_168

ABSTRACT

The quality of higher education, its ability to fulfill its function of providing the economy with the necessary personnel, has long been criticized. An additional impetus to the search for the causes of this trouble was given by the situation that developed after February 2022. At the same time, at the official level and in the media, the transition of Russian universities to the two-stage model prescribed by the Bologna system was cited as a key reason. The article is based on the author's long-term observation of the work of higher education, as well as the results of numerous empirical studies conducted in the 2000s – 2010s on the process and consequences of reforming all levels of the education system from preschool to graduate school and in general budgetary organizations of the social sphere, as well as the labor mobility of university graduates; staffing of priority industries and science, it is shown that the set of reasons leading to a decrease in the quality of higher education is much wider, and many of them are outside the education system itself. The analysis of the orientation of the educational legislation, the persistence in carrying out relevant reforms, the scarcity of education funding suggests that this was a conscious process implemented in accordance with neoliberal dogmas about minimizing social expenditures of the state and commercialization of the social sphere. There was practically no active industrial policy, as a result of which the structure of the economy degraded, and high-tech industries, due to the low level of profitability and a short planning horizon, became unable to play the role of a key link in the “production-science-education” triangle. Accordingly, improving the quality of higher education requires, firstly, the rejection of neoliberal approaches to financing and organizing the work of all levels of the education system (since it has an “accumulative effect”), and, secondly, the creation of conditions for development of industry and science into an attractive for the youth of the employer, closely cooperating with the higher school. employer, closely cooperating with the higher school.

KEYWORDS

education system, quality of education, higher education, personnel training, university, education policy, Bologna system, industry, science

AUTHOR BIOGRAPHY

Olga A. Aleksandrova

Doctor of Economics, Deputy Director for Research, Institute of Socio-Economic Studies of Population of the Federal Scientific Sociological Center of the Russian Academy of Science, Russia, Moscow; Professor of the Department of Sociology, Financial University under the Government of the Russian Federation, Moscow, Russia

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The article was submitted 05.05.2023; approved after reviewing 08.05.2023; accepted for publication 16.05.2023.