Higher education in Russia

Abstract

‘Higher Education in Russia’ is the first English-language monograph on higher education in the largest country in the world, covering the period from the first universities established in the Russian Empire under the reign of Peter the Great up to 2021. The authors, Yaroslav Kuzminov and Maria Yudkevich, draw on huge empirical datasets, including their own research, as well as an enormous number of sources in Russian, English and other languages to create a comprehensive encyclopedia on higher education in Russia. In addition to their scholarly careers, both authors were until recently involved in the leadership of the Higher School of Economics, one of the leading universities in Russia: Yaroslav Kuzminov served as rector there for almost three decades (1992−2021), while Maria Yudkevich was a vice-rector for research (2011−2022). This combination of both the scholarly and the organisational leadership perspectives make this volume truly unique. The book is divided into nine chapters, each devoted to specific topic and/or set of stakeholders involved in higher education, such as students (chapter 5, ‘Through School to University’), faculty (chapter 6, ‘The Academic Profession’), research (chapter 7, ‘Research at Russian Universities: The Story of Separation and Reunion’), administration (chapter 8, ‘Organisational Logic: From Processes to Projects’) and international cooperation (chapter 9, ‘Internationalisation’), focusing not only on the present day (more explicitly chapter 3, ‘The Contemporary Landscape’, and chapter 4, ‘Governance and Resources’), but also on the past (chapter 1, ‘Historical Background’, and chapter 2, ‘The Soviet Era and the First Post-Soviet Decade’). As Philip G. Altbach highlights in his foreword, this volume ‘is the first comprehensive analysis of a country that has played a significant but hitherto largely unrecognised role’ in the Eastern bloc during the Cold War and in the so-called ‘Third World’ and as a model that was exported to China, Vietnam and other countries. The Russian case is also of interest to a broader readership, beyond the Russian context. The Russian higher education system, as probably no other academic system in the world, is facing all the current trends and challenges in the higher education sector, including heightened competition between educational institutions at various levels, private higher education, internationalisation, growing bureaucracy within academic institutions, restriction of academic freedom, inequalities in access and massification to the point of universalisation. It is very instructive to get to know if these topics are addressed by various involved stakeholders, how they are manageable and at what cost. The Russian case should also be useful for those scholars, educators, politicians and other decision makers who are