The Russian University Excellence Initiative: Is It Really Excellence that Is Promoted?

Abstract

We estimate the effect of the Russian University excellence program (Project 5-100) initiated by the Government in 2013 on research performance of top Russian universities which received, on a competitive basis, substantial financial support within this program. To do so we use an econometric analysis of longitudinal data applying a linear growth model with mixed effects, with different characteristics of research output as dependent variables. We demonstrate that there is a significant positive effect of Project 5-100 which appeared from the very first years of its implementationthat is, the universities receiving financial support demonstrate a substantial, steady increase in publications both measured in total numbers and per capita when compared to universities from the control group. An analysis of the structure of publication output allows us to demonstrate that not only quantitative but also qualitative growth has taken place, although the impact of Project 5-100 on quality is heterogeneous across universities and disciplines. Finally, we examine to what extent the change in the structure of research output may be attributed to changes in research collaboration patterns.

Does government support of a few leading universities have a broader impact on the higher education system? Evaluation of the Russian University Excellence Initiative

“…This impact enriches the academic environment, involving academics from neighboring universities in joint research. The results of this study, taken together with those of previous studies that evaluated the direct effect of the RUEI on participating universities (Matveeva et al, 2019;Poldin et al, 2017;Turko et al, 2016, Matveeva andFerligoj, 2020), provide grounds for evaluating this initiative mostly as positive in its results, at least in the short run.…”

“…We used the Differences-in-Differences (DID) approach to test the effect of the RUEI on institutions that are not part of the initiative. This method was used to assess the direct effects in the university sector in different countries (Fu et al, 2018;Matveeva et al, 2019;Zong and Zhang, 2019). For the treatment group, we considered institutions outside the RUEI from a city that has at least one institution included in the initiative.…”

“…Many scholars ask about the effect of such programs on the national system. Usually direct effects only are assessed (Matveeva and Ferligoj, 2020;Zong and Zhang, 2019;Matveeva et al, 2019;Menter et. al., 2018;Hou et al, 2012;Möller et al, 2016;Cuntz, 2016).…”

“…For example, one may study whether national universities have progressed in international rankings or have become more visible on the global academic market (Benito et al, 2019;Salmi, 2016;Möller et al, 2016). In Russian case, such an effect really exists (Matveeva et al, 2019;Poldin et al, 2017;Turko et al, 2016). However, it is impossible to discard the questions of the academic community about what is happening to those higher education institutions outside of the RUEI.…”

“…The Russian University Excellence Initiative (also known as the 5-100 Project) was launched in 2013 and assumed a targeted support of selected universities in the period 2013-2020. Recent research show that since its start, there has been a significant growth in research output of participating institutions, both in quantitative and qualitative terms (Turko et al, 2016;Poldin et al, 2017, Guskov et al, 2018Matveeva et al, 2019), and a significant improvement in the positions of Russian universities in international university rankings at both institutional and subject levels (QS World University Rankings 2019: Russia, 2020). In broader context, these years changed the role and place of research in higher education sector at the country level: general university research performance (both measured in the number of publications in international peerreviewed journals and in number of authors from higher education institutions) began to grow sharply (Kosyakov and Guskov, 2019;Guskov et al, 2017); collaboration between universities and institutes of Russian Academy of Sciences has intensified, the proportion of publications in Scopus affiliated with higher education institutions increased from 32% to 58% during 1998-2017 (Kosyakov and Guskov, 2019).…”