EFFICIENCY OF HIGHER EDUCATION: BETWEEN THE FREEDOM AND REQUIREMENTS

Abstract

In the article the author attempts to highlight the reason for extremely low efficiency of higher education in modern Russia which and why a great number and long-lasting reforms designed for improving the situation in national higher education have turned out to be useless. Considering the system of higher education, the author outlines three main levels. The first level assumes educational process; the second level is regarded as educational institutions; and the third level is the level of regulation and supervision of higher education by the Ministry of Education. The priority of educational process, the professors and students belong to, is visible because its quality defines the assessment of each component of the system as well as the whole system. The efficiency of educational process is adequately defined by the quality of students’ education; the efficiency of higher institutions is defined by the efficiency of professors and students; the results of efforts made by the Ministry of Education should be closely connected with the results of subordinated educational institutions. The author analyses the structure of the SHE (the System of Higher Education - the SHE in short) and shows the relations of the components in the current situation in Russia: the reform of national higher education is efficient enough. Moreover, the reform is impossible because the interest conflicts among the components of the SHE have turned it into the service system.