Science at Universities – the Development Driver or Privilege of the Selected Ones

The research article considers an influence of university research funding on the development of different kind of universities. During last 10–15 years a lot of strategic documents regarding development of science and higher education mention an importance of intensive grow on research in universities. They should transform to research centers instead of just education facilities, lead a scientific field in Russia. Presumably such additions in science management practices as new evaluation, stimulation and efficiency improvement instruments and mechanisms will increase an influence of R&D departments on whole university development.The main purpose of current article is to analyze trends in shifts of research funding indicators for universities of different profiles and for higher education sector in general; to compare research funding volume with public indicators of university development; to evaluate the impact of research in higher education to higher institution development indicators. During the study our group has analyzed connections between research funding indicators and individual R&D efficiency indicators at universities. The analysis is based on statistics from Federal State Statistics Service, and annual monitoring of university activities for the period 2014–2020, from Ministry of Education and Science of Russia. The result of the study shows an insignificant effect of university research funding volume to university development indicators; high government participance in higher institutions research development; significant irregularity and historical inertia in reorganization of universities to large scientific and education centers.