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NON-STATE HIGHER EDUCATION INSTITUTIONS IN MODERN RUSSIA:
TOPICAL PROBLEMS AND WAYS TO SOLVE THEM
O. I. Kosenko
The first non-state higher education institutions began to appear in Russia in the wake of democratic transformations of the early 1990s, when high-ranking policy makers came to the conclusion that alternative trends should be reflected in higher education. Currently, non-state higher education institutions account for about 50 percent of the total number of higher education institutions in Russia. Practice shows that some Russian non-state higher education institutions are well-established and reputable organizations. As a rule, they are founded by government entities or public organizations. With high intellectual capacity and adequate material resources, such institutions are on par with the best state higher education institutions or even superior to them in some aspects of educational activities. The best non-state higher education institutions respond to market conditions more quickly than state ones, boldly exploring new areas and specialties required by modern Russian society. They are less committed to outdated traditions, widely deploying individually-designed courses, problem-based lectures, tutor workshops, new forms of written work (very different from term papers and reviews), and new forms of student assessment (tests, etc.) in their educational and methodical work. Non-state higher education institutions rigorously compete for enrollees by offering individual work plans that reduce the duration of study to attract distance learning students, widely accepted pre-university training courses for school-leavers, and other effective forms.
However, the expert community believes that in today's Russia, there are many non-state education institutions that do not provide the required quality of training for the following reasons: (a) their material resources do not meet the requirements of the today’s age (usually they lack well-equipped classrooms, modern computers, laboratory equipment and scientific literature); (b) the teaching staff is limited (the basic teaching load falls on the "hourly teachers", and there is a shortage of highly skilled teachers in many specialty disciplines); (c) methodological support of the educational process is weak (unique authorings are few and their implementation is not promoted financially); (d) there is no rigorous selection of applicants at the enrolment stage (non-state education institutions admit virtually all "customers" capable of paying); (e) the widely advertised individual approach to teaching in practice means that these institutions are not very demanding of students ("dropping out" based on assessment exists, but the drop out rates are low); (f) there is no serious research work done by teachers and students; and (g) the overwhelming majority of non-state education institutions have no internal system for monitoring the quality of education (student groups have no real opportunity to influence the quality of the educational process). For this situation to change, the current procedure for licensing of higher education institutions should be modified. The respective requirements must include an
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absolutely clear commitment of the institution to ensure the required quality of the educational process. Every higher education institution should have a clear picture of what is understood by high quality teaching of students, and must guarantee that from the very beginning of its activity, and not for the future. At the same time, in our opinion, there should be a new procedure for control of compliance with licensing requirements at the stage of state evaluation - necessary information should be collected on a regular basis (for example, annually) and, most importantly, from a variety of sources. In addition to relevant committees of the Russian Ministry of Education and Science, the assessment of the quality of training should involve other stakeholders, first of all, businesses and student organizations. Data from different sources should be periodically summarized by the Information Center of the Ministry of Education and Science. This monitoring will allow for better (than is presently the case) assessment of the quality of training of students in each higher education institution.
Commercialization of higher education institutions is typical of market economies, but this process should be controlled by society. Apparently, government authorities in cooperation with public organizations interested in quality education should ensure systematic financial control over budget and non-budget expenditures for education to prevent misuse of funds. In addition, the state should offer high education institutions that produce high-quality professionals preferential conditions of funding (such as soft loans, budget subsidies and government contracts for training professionals in a particular field). Finally, the state should help universities in raising funds from businesses, which appears likely if the latter have some financial interest in this (for example, in the form of tax benefits). It is well known that quality education is impossible without adequate funding of the higher education institution. This means that the Russian Ministry of Education and Science should establish specific requirements for the level of funding of higher education institutions (taking into account applicable taxes). This should also take into account funds necessary for the purchase, maintenance and upgrade of training facilities, staff payroll, expenses for methodical work and scientific research, etc. Apparently, the minimum level of funding should be determined for higher education institutions of different types and number of students. At the stage of licensing of a new higher education institution, its financial position should be checked (the settlement account of the future institution should have sufficient funds to ensure smooth operation of all functions and maintain the existing training facilities (purchased or rented premises used for educational purposes, necessary laboratories, computer classes, etc.)). The existing higher education institutions should also be subject to financial control, with audits to be conducted by competent financial authorities. If an audit shows that financial position of a higher education institution does not ensure high quality training of students, then, in our opinion, this institution should be declared bankrupt. Such institutions could be subject to temporary public administration (by a representative of the Ministry of Education and Science), followed by change in founders on a competitive basis.
For an academic council of a non-state higher education institution not to be purely an advisory body to the rector, we find it necessary to issue regulations to confer to the academic council of any higher education institution, regardless of the sources of funding, the right to solve fundamental questions of the strategy and
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tactics of educational activity, and also the right to serve as the main supervisory body over the administration of the higher education institution. Based on this, the chairman of the academic council of the higher education institution should be neither the president nor the rector, as they actually head the administration of the higher education institution. To prevent the wrong people from taking managerial positions in a higher education institution, regulations should set forth the main requirements for candidates to these positions (from the president and rector to deans and heads of departments), define their powers, levels of responsibility and election or appointment procedures.
The experience of developed countries shows that non-state higher education institutions are not only designed to provide high quality training of students, they are also innovative entities in the field of higher education. This is why graduates from private universities abroad usually quickly build a career, taking prestigious positions in business, government and other important areas of social life. We think that the non-public sector of higher education in Russia should develop in this direction in the future.
Therefore it seems appropriate to actively develop partnerships between the Russian Ministry of Education and Science and national associations of employers: (a) to build a national system of professional standards as a basis for state educational standards of professional education, as well as a system of independent quality assessment and certification of qualifications; and (b) to create databases for an objective assessment of labor market needs and forecasting future demand for workers and specialists. It is also necessary to amend tax laws to allow companies to allocate to education expenses not only direct costs of training, but also related costs, including investments in physical infrastructure of education institutions, retraining of teachers, etc.
The translation is executed by the Central Translation Bureau “Znaniye”, Saint-Petersburg, 3, Antonenko alley
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