FEDERAL AND REGIONAL CONTEXT OF THE HIGHER EDUCATION IN RUSSIA

Abstract

In the face of increasing cross-country competition, the strategic role of higher education and science is steadily increasing. Russia largely copies Western standards in the field of science and education, having nothing to do with the development of these standards. As a result, the Russian Federation is on the periphery of the world intellectual development. The situation is exacerbated by changes in Russian higher education. In the 21st century, the higher education of Russia is characterized by the division of universities into federal and regional, which affects funding, the level of autonomy in the conduct of educational and scientific activities and other characteristics. The “nomenclature” approach to highereducation institutions of the Russian Federation turns many regional universities into noncompetitive. Probably, the lack of conditions for equal inter-university competition dramatically reduces the interest for private business investment in both federal and regional universities. The article analyzes, in application to the Russian Federation, three models of the development of modern higher education, common in the world. It is concluded that the numerous deformations of modern Russian society are transferred to higher education. Therefore, education reforms are impossible without major changes in society and without taking into account the fact that modern Russian universities reproduce the diversity of socio-economic relations.