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Supervisory boards in Russian universities: a development instrument or another tool of state control?

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Abstract

Improving the governance is one of the priorities of the reforms in the area of higher education in Russia. Radical reforms and massive democratisation of the sector in the last 25 years resulted in accumulation of many development issues: the quality of public services, the efficiency of public spending and the modes of interaction between state, society and institutions. Supervisory boards are the latest addition to the landscape of the university governance. The paper discusses the legal framework of the supervisory boards in Russia, analyses how it relates to the best world practices in the sector and how it reflects in the actual composition of the boards and affects the roles they accomplish at the universities. The paper concludes with the discussion of the areas of concern in the current boards’ practices and suggests how they can be improved.

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Notes

  1. Pre-Soviet practices were much more inclusive and accountable to the public, but they were discontinued for a long period of time and cannot be taken into consideration in this discussion.

  2. In global university rankings, Russian universities hold relatively weak positions. Only Moscow State University consistently makes it into top 100 or top 200 of various rankings.

  3. In many countries, faculty participation in such boards is restricted. Faculty voices are usually channelled through faculty senates or their equivalents.

  4. http://kpfu.ru/nabsovet/dokumenty

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Moscow State University Business School, 1-52, Leninskie Gory, Moscow, Russia, 119991

    Anna Gryaznova

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  1. Anna Gryaznova
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Correspondence to Anna Gryaznova.

Appendix 1. List of 14 Russian universities, participating in “5 in 100” program as of October 2015.

Appendix 1. List of 14 Russian universities, participating in “5 in 100” program as of October 2015.

  1. 1.

    Far Eastern Federal University (FEFU)—www.dvfu.ru/en/

  2. 2.

    National Research University—Higher School of Economics (HSE)—www.hse.ru/en/

  3. 3.

    ITMO University—en.ifmo.ru/

  4. 4.

    Saint Petersburg Electrotechnical University (LETI)—www.eltech.ru/en/university

  5. 5.

    Kazan Federal University (KFU)—kpfu.ru/eng

  6. 6.

    National University of Science and Technology MISIS (NUST MISIS)—en.misis.ru/

  7. 7.

    National Research Nuclear University «MEPhI» (MEPhI)—mephi.ru/eng/

  8. 8.

    Moscow Institute of Physics and Technology (State University) (MIPT)—mipt.ru/en/

  9. 9.

    Novosibirsk State University (National Research University) (NSU)—www.nsu.ru/?lang=en

  10. 10.

    Lobachevsky University (UNN)—www.unn.ru/eng/

  11. 11.

    Samara National Research University—www.ssau.ru/english/

  12. 12.

    Peter the Great Saint Petersburg Polytechnic University (SPbPU)—eng.spbstu.ru/

  13. 13.

    National Research Tomsk State University (TSU)—tsu.ru/english/

  14. 14.

    National Research Tomsk Polytechnic University (TPU)—tpu.ru/en/

  15. 15.

    Ural Federal University Named After the First President of Russia B.N.Yeltsin (UrFU)—http://urfu.ru/en/

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Gryaznova, A. Supervisory boards in Russian universities: a development instrument or another tool of state control?. High Educ 76, 35–50 (2018). https://doi.org/10.1007/s10734-017-0192-3

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