Non-Governmental Universities: Constructive and Innovative Tuning

Last week the monitoring results of non-governmental universities freshman admission quality were announced by the National Research University “Higher School of Economics” and RIA “Novosti”. This research was held on the Russian Federation Public Chamber’s initiative within the framework of the project “Public Monitoring of Freshman Admission at the RF Universities as a Necessary Condition to Support the Equal Access to Education”.

There was arranged a round-table discussion of relevant problems. On the eve of this event a member of RF Public Chamber Galina Okorokova, rector of the Kursk University of Management, Economics and Business was interviewed by our reporter.

Q. - Galina Pavlovna, there is a discussion concerning state financial support of the Russian non-governmental higher education institutions. According to this state project non-governmental universities would be able to admit entrants to state- subsidized places. However, most of the state universities oppose this initiative. Are they afraid to enter a competition?

An. - It is a challenging time for both non-governmental and many state universities. Every year a lot of state universities have to reduce their teaching staff because of the decrease in the number of entrants. As a result state financing of these universities is shrinking relentlessly. That is why their stance is well understandable:”Why allow somebody else to come near the so-called "budget cake"?

At the same time, state universities started slowly but steadily to interfere with the niche that was once occupied preliminarily by non-governmental universities. Some of them got carried away so far that there would be no educational institution if non-core specialties were not included into the curriculum because there would be not much left of such a university itself. Why then non-governmental universities are not entitled to have state-subsidized places? Especially, if we take into account the fact that many state educational institutions use outdated methods in mastering that niche, while non-governmental universities are searching for new ways and innovative ideas to withstand the competition.

Q. - Could you give an example?

An. - I will explain relying on my University’s experience. Our University is a relatively small one: we have about 3,500 students. That is why we are trying to establish good relationship with each of them and be very attentive to their needs. We know each student not only by name but also by sight and we are well aware of his or her problems. It is no use denying the fact that school training in Russia leaves much to be desired. When leaving school boys and girls have many gaps in their education and practically no habits of unsupervised work. In a small university where every student is in the public eye, we have more chances to take individual approach to each student and fill the gaps. What is more, to be able to stand the competition with state universities that have time-proven experience in stock, non-governmental universities have to be more dynamic mastering new educational methods and picking out the best from Russian and foreign education practices. This is the reason why so many non-governmental universities managed to achieve such outstanding results and to make great progress for the past twenty years. None are that blind as those who won't see it. Despite obvious success non-governmental universities are often exposed to sweeping criticism.

Q. - It is a well-known fact indeed that not all non-governmental universities provide high-quality education, isn't it?

An. - There are certain problems: there are weak universities, inefficient brunches, located in some regional centers or villages, where there is a shortfall in teaching staff and where the only way to be educated is by means of distance education. In addition there are some non-governmental universities that stand unfair competition with similar education institutions within the niche.

We are aware of these problems and we do not keep them a secret. It is true that not every non-governmental university will be given access to state financing, but only top-forty ones. But representatives of state universities oppose even this decision.

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