Higher Education Mergers in Russia: A case study of national merger policies Anna Nikolaeva Master of Philosophy in Higher Education UNIVERSITETET I OSLO June 2020 Abstract Mergers of higher education institutions have become an essential part of higher education policies of the last 15 years in a lot of countries around the globe. They have also provoked a lot of debates among policy-makers, higher education stakeholders and public due to their nature, rationale, adoption procedures and possible outcomes. The research literature on mergers in higher education is rich in case studies of mergers in the USA, Europe and Asia. Sometimes this research is of a comparative character and discusses similarities and difficulties of approaches to mergers, their introduction and outcomes. Yet there is very little research on mergers in Russia which has experienced a great number of mergers in the last 10 years. The current study examines mergers in Russian higher education from the point of view of national higher education reforms. It is aimed at identifying merger rationale with the help of national policies and finding out if merger motivations in Russian higher education are different from those of other countries. In order to get the better understanding of approaches to mergers, this study uses the theory of Christensen et al. of instrumental and institutional perspectives. Results of the data analysis show that Russia has taken a unique path in rationalizing the introduction of mergers. The two waves of mergers in Russian higher education differ drastically in scope and can be characterized by different motivations: if the first wave of mergers was induced by the state and was aimed at reducing the number of ineffective institutions and then improving quality teaching and research; the second wave of mergers was voluntary and was aimed at creating strong universities in Russian regions which would provide the regions with all kinds of social and economic benefits. 2 Acknowledgements Being an ordinary English instructor at university, never have I imagined studying higher education policies at a national level. Never before I started my studies at University of Oslo, have I taken interest in organizational studies. Thank you to all the professors who shared their knowledge in this area and inspired me to explore this topic. First and foremost, I would like to thank my supervisor, Bjørn Stensaker for guiding me throughout my whole work on this thesis. It is for your supervision, your valuable advice, recommendations and comments that I was able to complete this thesis. Thank you for your support and for not giving up on me. I would also like to thank Russian government funding program Global Education Program for making this opportunity come true and for being my financial support. Thank you to Marina Gvozdeva, Vice-Rector for International Affairs of Petrozavodsk State University and my former English instructor for giving me the idea of studying abroad and helping me navigate in Russian higher education reforms. Last but certainly not least I would like to thank my mother, Nina Nikolaeva. Thank you for showing by your own example how to overcome challenges of life. I owe it all to you. 3 Table of contents Abstract ...................................................................................................................................... 2 Acknowledgements ..................................................................................................................... 3 1 Introduction ............................................................................................................................. 5 1.1 Introduction and background ............................................................................................. 5 1.2 Research questions ............................................................................................................ 8 2 Theoretical considerations ........................................................................................................ 8 2.1 Merger rationale in research literature ................................................................................ 8 2.2 Empirical context of mergers in Russia ............................................................................ 11 2.3 Analytical framework ...................................................................................................... 13 2.3.1 Policy problems ........................................................................................................ 13 2.3.2 Policy instruments ..................................................................................................... 22 2.4 Approaches to understanding merger rationale ................................................................. 28 2.4.1 Instrumental perspective ............................................................................................ 29 2.4.2 Cultural version of institutional perspective ............................................................... 30 2.4.3 Myth version of institutional perspective ................................................................... 31 3 Empirical context, data and method ........................................................................................ 32 3.1 Russia as a country case ................................................................................................... 32 3.2 Methodology ................................................................................................................... 33 4 Findings ................................................................................................................................. 35 5 Analysis of results .................................................................................................................. 41 6 Conclusion ............................................................................................................................. 44 References ................................................................................................................................ 46 4 1 Introduction 1.1 Introduction and background Higher education as an institute has different history in different countries. Such a variety can be explained through a great number of factors: different courses of national history; different economical and cultural development of countries; different traditions of state governance; different political ideology and its shifts in time – to name a few of them. Different political, economical and cultural events in different countries played significant role in the history of higher education development and provoked educational systems of many countries to reorganize themselves time and again. One of most significant reorganizations of the latest history of higher education came after the Bologna Declaration of 1999 which among many other key-decisions stated the need for the majority of the European countries to develop compatible educational programs and degrees. It is obvious to suggest that the implementation of the Declaration has had controversial consequences, and it would be fair to say that after almost 20 years after the Declaration has been signed, higher education systems of many European countries are still not fully compatible. The differences in higher education systems were not easy to narrow down due to various factors, one of them being the bottom-heavy nature of universities which makes it a challenging task to impose the external change. Besides that, it goes without saying that any kind of organizational change entails additional financial and human resources. On the top of that, system of higher education is not fully independent but interrelated with both economics and politics, thus in most cases the reforms of higher education are tied to the overall reforms of public sector. Nevertheless while analyzing reforms of higher education systems in different countries it is possible to identify common trends and directions that these reforms take. First of all, higher education systems in most countries faced rapidly growing student numbers. More and more students with various backgrounds nowadays gain access to higher education which entails expansion and development of the system. Furthermore, there is an emphasis on cooperation between higher education and industry since graduates are often challenged by the fact that their professional skills don’t coincide with employers’ demands. At the same time, there is a focus on the importance of educational technology. As technology continues to change our lives and the world we live in, higher education is called upon to integrate technology into education in order to improve education in national contexts as well as to facilitate international higher education. International cooperation of a given university serves as an important criterion for students when they are choosing their prospective study place. Internationalization is important not only in the 5 context of a given university, but also in the broad international education context. National governments of different countries are developing strategies for internationalization of their higher education systems to help improve its position in the global educational market and make universities more attractive for international students. The students’ educational choices are not only driven by recognition of higher education system on the international level but also by a given university’s reputation.